[Imc-nh-tech] Re: [Imc-nh-editorial] Makin' Waves on the Newswire

[Nick Copanas]

Steve,

I posted an article with links to both media files on the gallery.  (I 
rated the article down so visitors won't see it.)  You can access the 
article at <http://nhindymedia.org/newswire/display_any/2029>
Is there something wrong with this format?

Secondly, I don't think my perception is misplaced.  NH Indymedia news 
content is determined by volunteers.  I don't think we should expect (nor 
have we ever had) a completely new content every couple weeks.  We get a 
couple articles a week on the local section during times of high traffic, 
and a couple articles every few weeks during times of less traffic.

Ideally, I would like to see the site put to more use.  At present, 
however, with exception to the editors, I doubt our readers check the site 
daily or weekly.  For these people, the content we think stale is new.

Evidence that some of our readers only visit once in a while comes from 
the presence of new posts on old articles, or new results on old polls. 
For example, while I am by now sick of the election poll (and please, 
someone change it if you feel inspired,) I have noticed that in the past 
month, the results have steadily climbed.  Three weeks ago, our scientific 
polling revealed that NH Indymedia users wanted to celebrate democracy or 
work for justice.  As of now, the 'data' indicates secession, a party of 
opposition, and moving to Canada as viable alternatives to living under 
the second administration of Bush the Lesser.

My concern that the "Making Waves" posts are not different in kind is a 
concern for the local site content becoming homogeneous.  This could 
discourage the once or twice monthly readers (who probably constitute the 
majority of our readership.)

Nick



On Thu, 25 Nov 2004, Thorn wrote:

>
> Dear Nick, editors, and tech folks....
>   Nick raises some interesting points that have relevant technical aspects,
> so Rob and Art, please clarify accordingly.
>
>> While posting to the newswires has slowed down in the last couple weeks
>> post-election, I think the Making Waves posts are beginning to take up too
>> much room on the local newswire.  Making Waves is now a third of our
>> recent local news postings.  Because none of these posts are different in
>> kind, but instead are two-part weekly posts of the same radio show, I
>> don't see the need to continuously repost them to the newswire except to
>> draw attention to the show.
>
> The reasons are technical and practical, but before I get to them, I think
> your perception of the problem is mis-placed... the high percentage of Making
> Waves newswire articles could best be corrected with more local news
> reporting.  Due to working on Making Waves, I don't have time to do this
> myself, although we do some local news coverage as part of the Making Waves
> show.
>
>> Also, is there a reason you post to the newswire the broadcast in two
>> parts?  Could you just post both files to the media gallery, and put two
>> links in one newswire post, or am I missing something?
>
> Yes, there is a reason.  Currently, a given newswire article can only have 20
> megs of data attached to it.  That setting could be changed easily enough,
> but would require discussion.  I currently use www.freewebs.com/sprav/
> audio.htm to manually index the Making Waves show for easy browsing.  I
> believe the settings on NH IMC against "hot-linking" (to prevent site abuse)
> would also bar me from linking to just a file in the media gallery from
> off-site.  So, I link to an article that links to the file(s).
>
>> I suggest that either a.) Making Waves folks limit posting to the media
>> gallery with one post per new episode to point people to both files in the
>> media gallery or b.) Making Waves gets a module like 'Free the Media'
>> Press.
>
> Option A:  Where possible, depending on the content of the show and the exact
> length, I have been posting the entire show into one article.  If one of the
> two hours of the show has no music, only voice, I can encode it to a lower
> bit rate, and it sometimes fits with the other half in less than 20 megs.
> Increasing the limit to just 25 megs would make this possible more often, 32
> megs would work for every show so far.
>
> Option B:  I want to limit how many things Rob or Art have to update every
> week.  Also, it's important that the links are current within about 24 hours
> of the show going on the air, preferably right away, because that's the
> highest fidelity way for people to hear the show if they're not in the
> broadcast range.  Unless I'd somehow have access to update that module myself
> or the tech folks could be sure they'd always be right on it, I don't think
> that would be adequate.
>  - Steve
>
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