Petition Against Crappy Strib Sports Website

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Governor Sibley

Governor Sibley

Section 109 Row 21
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The Strib online sports section is a piece of junk, and that's putting it kindly. The ads almost induce illiteracy. The ratio of text::graphic space is roughly 1::100. And to make matters worse, they now require you to click through three pages to read a column, making even the quickest read a headache. (Okay, in fairness, it's free....)

I figure the knuckleheads over there stop by Gopherhole. So please say something outrageously derogatory about their monstrously awful product in this thread.
 

It is clearly a product of a company who is trying to stave off extinction. They are trying to expand/change their product yet they have no resources to do this effectively because the business can't even pay its bills. Bad combination.

When they adopted the anything goes policy on the comments section in order to increase traffic they really cheapened themselves. Somehow the startribune is less moderated than even this loosely moderated site.

And yes, the page often loads poorly, you have to click on at least three pages to read a 350 word column, and the ads are very cumbersome. Overall a very poor website yet it still gets a ton of traffic.
 

Studwell55 said:
The Strib online sports section is a piece of junk, and that's putting it kindly. The ads almost induce illiteracy. The ratio of text::graphic space is roughly 1::100. And to make matters worse, they now require you to click through three pages to read a column, making even the quickest read a headache. (Okay, in fairness, it's free....)

I figure the knuckleheads over there stop by Gopherhole. So please say something outrageously derogatory about their monstrously awful product in this thread.
Click to expand...

Its terrible, I was on there this morning and its just not a pretty sight. Then for some reason I decide to watch the little video with Souhan and Ruesse (should have never done it) in it and I have to listen to Fat Pat declare that if Brewster doesn't win the next 3 games he should be fired; and the Fat A$$ sounded so pissed off and serious it made me cringe. What an unreasonable feat to put in front of a team like that. Can we win all 3, sure, but talking like it should be a no-brainer (especially when we'll be underdogs in 2 of them) just makes you lose your credibility as a sports writer. Theres something seriously wrong with that guy.
 

Do you actually want MORE text space to allow Wren to write his repetative drivel??

Agree that site is subpar. Especially now that they have changed the blog. 9 out of 10 times the comments section won't even load. Commenting has also dropped off the cliff as far as volume is concerned. (Wren on a word limit perhaps?)

Having to click thru page after page after page gets really annoying.
 

The whole strib site loads very slowly. I have had to take it off my home computer as my "home site" because it takes FOREVER to load. I only go there when I have to now. Having to click "next" a few times just to read an article is also a downer.
 


Having to click "next" 3 or 4 times for an average length article is extremely annoying. Do they only do that to increase hits for their website? Either way it sounds as if the free content newspaper websites are close to being a thing of the past, at least in part.
 

AD Revenue

Studwell55 said:
The ratio of text::graphic space is roughly 1::100. And to make matters worse, they now require you to click through three pages to read a column, making even the quickest read a headache.
Click to expand...

This is done to generate maximum revenue for page views (ad revenue) ... unfortunately at the cost of readability.

Edit: Yes gopher7, this is the only reason a site does this.... there is no other reason.
 

The NCAA coverage is better than the KFAN Jack Brewer and Corey Chavous bilge that is on right now. painful to listen to.
 

They force you to click through 3-4 times per article to give you multiple chances to reconsider and close the browser before your brain is damaged forever.
 



Welcome to the world of "no free lunch."

The web site's costs are, in part, defrayed by paying subscribers. How many here retain a subscription to the Strib? (Heck, given the demographics of this site, I suspect it's a minority that subscribe to any newspaper or news magazine.)

The web site's costs are also defrayed by advertising revenue. Advertisers pay for eyeballs looking at their ads and for clicks on their ads.

How much would folks here be willing to pay for a more streamlined, easily loaded and a higher ratio of content to ads? Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised but I suspect that most are looking for "the free lunch."

BTW, GopherHole is a "free site" that exists on donations and ad revenue. How many here have actually made a donation?
 

It's the content that I care about and as far as I'm concerned, the strib does a fine job. Their Gopher coverage might not be as in depth as their Twins coverage, but they have done a fine job reporting Gopher news this year.

Youngblood may lack "blog knowledge" (not ever sure what that is myself), but he follows the team and reports. Since very few of us (general pubic/gopherholers) have the access Kent does, we have to trust what he sees and hears.

Maybe I have a strib bias because it's what I've known since I was a child, but I will continue to use them as my means for following Minnesota sports.

Some advice to those of you who plan on reading strib online: Adapt as they adapt. Their website may suck, so find a way around it's bulkiness. Every morning I look at the headlines that I'm interested in reading, click on the article, and click on "email article." Then I email a bunch of articles to myself and I have a nice, centralized news source sandwiched into my inbox.

Take adavntage of local papers while you can. Pretty soon you'll be going to www.espnminneapolis.com and reading generic articles by Rittenberg. Not that Rittenberg is bad (I really like what he brings to the table), but he covers 10 other teams too.
 

I have appreciated youngbloods' personal interest things on the players. He's done a nice job with that and by extension the strib.

it's just a little slower than it needs to be, and the blogs are mucked up, I don't even go to them unless I get a direct link on the sports page.

I do still sit on the main page for about five minutes and pick through the headlines. It's a daily stop and although the bulkiness keeps me from making more use of the total site, I do find the overall process better than a hard copy for a quick read.
 

A new Nielsen report came out and readers spend more time on the STrib per month than any other newspaper site in the country, including the WSJ and NY Times.

The STrib is light years ahead of the Pioneer Press as far as an online prescence is concerned.

If you want to see an antiquated online home, check out USAToday.com - that site hasn't been updated in about a decade.

Go Gophers!!
 



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