New-look RiotACT rolls out

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I miss Johnboy’s podcasts …

Now that this topic is more than one page – ( it happened after comment 30), I can’t figure out how to go from page one to page two. For example after posting my last comment I went to page two, wanted to quote something from a previous post, but there is no button/tab to go back a page. So once again I refreshed it, took me back to page 1…but there is no button/tab to get forward to page 2?

Of course, this could just be because I am an idiot!

When logging in I am taken straight to the http://the-riotact.com/wp-admin/edit.php page. Is that normal?

I then have to go to the homepage, then to the topic I am interested in…then refresh that topic before it recognises that I am logged in.

I moved to Canberra about 6 weeks ago. Everyone at my work raved about the RiotACT. I had a look but didn’t like the fact I couldn’t read the site on mobile, so didn’t visit the site regularly.

I’m so glad it is now mobile friendly. I like the bright new look. The yellow and black was so dated!

Change for change’s sake. Now way too spread out. Fonts are awful.

And why are the images on the front page stretched horizontally?

Only strong feeling I have is the lower-contrast rendering of the comments, making them difficult to read for people with poorer eyesight. See https://www.nngroup.com/articles/low-contrast/ and http://contrastrebellion.com/

I find the new layout too spread out. I usually look first at the Trending Now column on the right of the screen. The top 6 or so topics used to be visible without scrolling – now with so many comments shown for each topic, only the first topic can be seen. The homepage as a whole looks cluttered and random.

I’d also like to mention that the comments have always been a big part of Riot Act, but since the change in ownership several years ago, the approval time for new comments has greatly increased. I visit the site much less frequently than I used to because it takes so long for something new to appear.

It seems to me that there will now be many fewer articles per page, meaning more scrolling. Does each and every story need its little photo included? They seem to be the main culprit in taking up the extra space. How about limiting the photos to just the first line or two under the big picture?

Ok this is a much better format for the mobile.
Also I updated my email. I thought I would send pitch an idea for a series of articles but then I got busy with uni. And I’m not a writer so my posts wouldn’t be that great.
I’ll see how I’m travelling in October and maybe pitch an idea then.

(All in good time) can the calendar be adjusted so that you find out what’s on any day by hovering over it? Saves clicking through to the actual month or day.

pink little birdie said :

There is less humour in the website .

Masquara said :

!Need that irreverent wit and humour back.

Can I add my support to these two comments. The problem is not with the initial contributors but more with the editors/approvers. It is unlikely that anything slightly irreverent gets through, probably through fear that someone may take offence. Also, if your editors don’t understand the pop-culture reference then they block it as well.

I’ll hold off on comments on the new look/format for the time being as obviously it is still being worked on. I’ll wait till you finish getting it up and running properly before I add my two cents.

I like the new site. It is now so much easier to use on a mobile.

The section I use the most is trending now. This is a good summary of what people are talking about. One thing that does annoy me though is if I see a comment I want to read more of why can’t I click that comment to then view the comment in full (at the moment you have to either click the article then find the comment, or click the comment bubble that takes you to the comment section, but then you have to find the comment).

Can you please also regularly refresh the poll. I think this does get lost a little where it is currently placed.

I agree with bikhet – a compact view would be good (especially when viewing on a desktop). I like the ‘freshness’ of the new design. It did take me a while to understand what each of the icons in the top right hand corner meant when I logged in for the first time.

I’m just happy we can now view the site easily on mobile.

I give the new site a thumbs up. I just hope you now continue to add new features.

I quite like the new format, it was certainly time for an update.

Pros;
‘Friendlier’ looking – more open space on the screen, more colour, the fronts seems less harsh
I like the menu at the bottom of the page
Easier to read on my phone (Safari)

Cons
As someone pointed out, the pun in RiotACT is lost
Quotes don’t have parentheses
Sadly, still no “ignore posts by this user” function!

I quite like the way the site is going editorially too – the regular OP writers are a varied bunch, although a couple could do with some editing for length.
The moderation appears to me to be generally good, if a little uneven occasionally. Compared to earlier times much of the heat in the comments section has been lost, but then so has most of the nastiness. Riotact is one of the few news sites where reading the comments section doesn’t make me despair for mankind.

So, all good, and continue to change and improve the site.

pink little birdie said :

Charlotte Harper said :

pink little birdie said :

I dislike this format. It’s too large and flashy.
But I guess you guys have been slowly turning into a poor imitation of Cleo for a while now so this just progresses it even further.
Even less reason to visit.

Firstly, I’m sorry you’ve felt there to be less reason to visit lately. We’ve been trying to focus our content on serious news issues that matter to Canberrans like crime, events, local politics etc. See for example four local politics yarns yesterday. I’m not sure how that’s making us like a poor imitation of Cleo … what would you like to see more of? Less of?

There is less humour in the website and it seems that there has been a shift away from progressive articles/ views (I admit that it was a very left view before but it seems that there is less even listening to other views) Canberra is quite progressive anyway and here it seems more against change that Canberra generally is. I never see that political opinions or the particular issues that my Canberra friends on facebook are talking about (25-35 m & f, Mainly with degrees but some not not). I don’t want to have to read long screeds on every political issue as the Original post to discuss it and generally they come off as a long winded whine (I get the irony).
With the local news and issues it’s much slower to run the story and with updates when something big like a major building fire happens. Here used to be go for major local events – I still check when I want why something local is happening – major road accidents, billowing smoke but I have never found it – I usually check then and an hour later and still nothing.
In the federal elections you didn’t run a profile of all candidates or discussions of each local policy positions – please do it for the local ones – more than the tram as well – health, education, employment, community facilities, housing affordability, business regulations.
I dislike the cooking articles (too many and often for elaborate/expensive foods), and the articles like the one complaining about how weddings were too expensive for the guest and it was new outfit and professional hair and makeup done each week. And then the one about the mortgage being too expensive (last few months) – This site comes off that it’s target audience is to the upper socio-economic ends of Canberra. Not the students, not the just middle class who just moved her for jobs and the working lower middle class or those with families.
The vibe has changed to be more antagonistic but that might be in the relation to the lack of humour.

Lots of specific feedback, thank you. Taking it all on board.

Definitely not the case that we’re trying to target any particular demographic, but if that’s the perception, then it is something we need to consider.

I’m really keen to hear about these issues you’re talking about that we’re missing. Would you consider writing about them for us? Or sending us suggestions? I hope so. I tried to email you but the address is out of date. Perhaps you can update it so I can contact you?

We brought on one conservative columnist, Greg Cornwell, to balance out the fact that we had a few from the progressive side. Greg only writes once a week, but has become one of the most-read contributors.

We’ll keep working on being faster to publish news, being more comprehensive in our coverage, and tracking down new contributors who have the ability to make our readers laugh.

I miss Johnboy’s parking fail Monday posts, among others! Need that irreverent wit and humour back.

Charlotte Harper said :

pink little birdie said :

I dislike this format. It’s too large and flashy.
But I guess you guys have been slowly turning into a poor imitation of Cleo for a while now so this just progresses it even further.
Even less reason to visit.

Firstly, I’m sorry you’ve felt there to be less reason to visit lately. We’ve been trying to focus our content on serious news issues that matter to Canberrans like crime, events, local politics etc. See for example four local politics yarns yesterday. I’m not sure how that’s making us like a poor imitation of Cleo … what would you like to see more of? Less of?

There is less humour in the website and it seems that there has been a shift away from progressive articles/ views (I admit that it was a very left view before but it seems that there is less even listening to other views) Canberra is quite progressive anyway and here it seems more against change that Canberra generally is. I never see that political opinions or the particular issues that my Canberra friends on facebook are talking about (25-35 m & f, Mainly with degrees but some not not). I don’t want to have to read long screeds on every political issue as the Original post to discuss it and generally they come off as a long winded whine (I get the irony).
With the local news and issues it’s much slower to run the story and with updates when something big like a major building fire happens. Here used to be go for major local events – I still check when I want why something local is happening – major road accidents, billowing smoke but I have never found it – I usually check then and an hour later and still nothing.
In the federal elections you didn’t run a profile of all candidates or discussions of each local policy positions – please do it for the local ones – more than the tram as well – health, education, employment, community facilities, housing affordability, business regulations.
I dislike the cooking articles (too many and often for elaborate/expensive foods), and the articles like the one complaining about how weddings were too expensive for the guest and it was new outfit and professional hair and makeup done each week. And then the one about the mortgage being too expensive (last few months) – This site comes off that it’s target audience is to the upper socio-economic ends of Canberra. Not the students, not the just middle class who just moved her for jobs and the working lower middle class or those with families.
The vibe has changed to be more antagonistic but that might be in the relation to the lack of humour.

Well done with new design! I like it. It’s vibrant and interesting, but without changing the basic layout so much that it makes navigation difficult. It will take a little while to adjust to the new look, but that’s always the case with change.

I think you did a good job.

Sorry to be negative, but I think you’ve squandered your branding. That yellow you used is the “Canberra colour” – the ACT Government took the colour from the Riotact for its centenary year, and they had developed it as branding, basically paying for it for you!
I don’t understand why you’ve added an exclamation mark to the name – Riotact isn’t really “of the minute” or a punchy opinion site. It’s both redundant and annoying. If journalism 1.01 teaches “don’t use exclamation marks”, graphic design 1.01 teaches “If it’s too hyper for your text, don’t inflict it on your visuals”. Riotact is quite quite slow and considered (partly due to not having the resources to post news straight away) so your graphic doesn’t match your method or culture. I would associate that exclamation mark with a more twitterverse dynamic. Speaking of which – that thought bubble graphic is very twitter, including the colour. I find the hot pink text for just people’s names who have posted disconcerting. Hot pink is a “get attention” thing – why does just a commenter’s name warrant flagging in a bright reddish colour? The reader knows exactly what that name denotes, without that extra fuss. It’s a distraction and it doesn’t leave you any text-colour options for when you really want to draw attention via text colour. I agree with the commenters saying that you’ve dropped back to a rather generic, “could be anything, anywhere” aesthetic. I’ll get used to it, but it’s very sad about losing the Canberra yellow!

pink little birdie said :

I dislike this format. It’s too large and flashy.
But I guess you guys have been slowly turning into a poor imitation of Cleo for a while now so this just progresses it even further.
Even less reason to visit.

Firstly, I’m sorry you’ve felt there to be less reason to visit lately. We’ve been trying to focus our content on serious news issues that matter to Canberrans like crime, events, local politics etc. See for example four local politics yarns yesterday. I’m not sure how that’s making us like a poor imitation of Cleo … what would you like to see more of? Less of?

It appears the website has not been tweaked for OSX Safari users. If a smaller font size is chosen the page format goes a bit haywire.

It is now too spread out and requires too much scrolling to find articles. How about reducing the size of the photos in each article and introducing a list view option for articles.

Not sure my eyes can get thought it all without getting distracted. It feels like reading a women’s day or similar.

I dare say its test will come when John H writes a new post it’ll seem like a novel.

Writing this in medium grey is fairly odd. Feels more like I’m entering in some bio in a game or something.

I think if it was halfway between this and the old site would be good. Add some Ajax to make the site more reactive. Let us like posts or thumbs down.

Its better than a Tram at least

bloomin’ hard to find anything easily now though.

John Moulis said :

New site is looking good, very much like Mumbrella. A bit worried this morning at the gym when I checked on my iPhone and there were no picture avatars next to correspondents’ names. I took out a sub so I could have my picture in front of everybody in Canberra, so if the avatars disappear I will be very angry! I couldn’t log in on Firefox, Microsoft Edge is able to log in but you have to use the login button on top right of the home page, the login button to reply button on this story did not work. I’m sure you are still tweaking it at this stage so I’ll hold my final judgement until everything is finally in place.

John perhaps a new photo of you in a shirt . I mean it is winter mate.
I did wonder if your style of photo would take off with other correspondents, perhaps crossing from the X chromo thingy writers, to the Y ones, but nuthin.

Will be emailing you a list of minor bugs I have found so far, have about 10 currently but they’re all mostly minor stuff.

Not sure how I feel yet about the subs going, I think you should allow all users to have an Avatar show now if you aren’t allowing this via subs anymore.

I dislike this format. It’s too large and flashy.
But I guess you guys have been slowly turning into a poor imitation of Cleo for a while now so this just progresses it even further.
Even less reason to visit.

I would prefer a compact format – I find this spread out format hard to read and too much scrolling is required. If you jump to the comments for an article (from the main comments page, not the post itself), then the link at the top of the page *still* takes you to the posts list, not the post itself.

New site is looking good, very much like Mumbrella. A bit worried this morning at the gym when I checked on my iPhone and there were no picture avatars next to correspondents’ names. I took out a sub so I could have my picture in front of everybody in Canberra, so if the avatars disappear I will be very angry! I couldn’t log in on Firefox, Microsoft Edge is able to log in but you have to use the login button on top right of the home page, the login button to reply button on this story did not work. I’m sure you are still tweaking it at this stage so I’ll hold my final judgement until everything is finally in place.

Don’t like it. Too much flashy stuff, not enough information. The old format allowed me to find tings that might be of interest much more quickly.

The option of a compact format might improve things.

Charlotte Harper said :

gooterz said :

Where is all the yellow……….

Will you miss it?

The new blue logo is a bit generic, and the pun in the title is lost. I like the mobile-friendly design, though, and it’s working perfectly for me so far – great job!

gooterz said :

Where is all the yellow……….

Will you miss it?

Where is all the yellow……….