Online News. My biggest pet peeve

[Thunder Dan]

Why is it that just about every good story you want to read is featured in a video that you have to sit and wait to load, then wait for the 30 second ad to go. It's so annoying. Also, they tease you with somthing like "The best places to live if you 25 and your name is Dan" then you click on it expecting a simple list and you either get a 4 pages article, or one of those slideshows with pictures. It's bullshit. If I click on that, I just want a simple list, nothing else. I don't need a breakdown as to why it is #1 because I will just forget the info the second after I read it.

[Blake]

because "The best places to live if you 25 and your name is Dan" isn't really news.

you get what you pay for

[Thunder Dan]

because "The best places to live if you 25 and your name is Dan" isn't really news.

you get what you pay for

I just used a stupid example. They have a different list everyday to tempt you into clicking, and you always get suckered into the vortez of having to get redirected to Forbes.com or something


for example MSN.com today has the top 5 college towns and they do it right. Just a list. At SI you get 10 different pictures in a stupid slide show
http://www.msn.com/

[Blake]

you get what you pay for

[mrsmaalox]

I've just stopped clicking on anything under the "video" headline or that has the camera icon next to it. Same thing here--if someone posts a link or an obvious video, I'll just wait to see what comments are made before I click. I just don't have the patience for it!

[Darrin]

because "The best places to live if you 25 and your name is Dan" isn't really news.

you get what you pay for

My internet service cost 30-70 dollars a month and my newspaper (Free press, Detroit News) is on life support. Don't pull that crap.

[balli]

My pet peeve is that BBC is one of the main sites on the firefox latest headlines feed. And I'll always see stories that have a last name in them I recognize, but they end up being about some lame ass soccer star who just happens to share the last name of a relevant American. Surprisingly, it happens all the time.

[Blake]

My internet service cost 30-70 dollars a month and my newspaper (Free press, Detroit News) is on life support. Don't pull that crap.

internet service is not online news.

how much do you directly pay to your online newspaper (Free press, Detroit News)?

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

The reason you get the 4-page articles or individual slideshows are for the metrics (primarily page views per visit and time spent on the site). I'm not gonna say sites are completely trying to keep readers there, because a lot of times, we get people who say they want to see things that way.

It's definitely a balancing act, though.

As far as video goes (and I'll readily admit to doing it here), it's an easier way to get the story out there. I write 7-9 stories per day and still don't get to everything. Plus (especially on a TV station's Web site), you'd be surprised at how many people still want to see the video, so it's on us to try and get every video story to be anchored by a text version.

[Bukefal]

Why is it that just about every good story you want to read is featured in a video that you have to sit and wait to load, then wait for the 30 second ad to go. It's so annoying. Also, they tease you with somthing like "The best places to live if you 25 and your name is Dan" then you click on it expecting a simple list and you either get a 4 pages article, or one of those slideshows with pictures. It's bullshit. If I click on that, I just want a simple list, nothing else. I don't need a breakdown as to why it is #1 because I will just forget the info the second after I read it.

Lol yeah, i hate it too, really annoying.

[mrcoon29]

I've just stopped clicking on anything under the "video" headline or that has the camera icon next to it. Same thing here--if someone posts a link or an obvious video, I'll just wait to see what comments are made before I click. I just don't have the patience for it!

Totally agree with you! They need to give us the option of the written word or the damn video but 9 out of 10 stories I want to read about are in video format. :(