Runaround
Stone Age set up.
"Hey Jono, stop all development work on the new forecast system. We have some urgent work required in the Politico forum".
Give me convenience or give me death!
Let's lynch the landlord, man.
Better watch out Ben there's a posse of one heading towards Kingscliff as we speak.
Funny thing is there's a solution to Blowin's woes.
"In the context of the World Wide Web, a bookmark is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that is stored for later retrieval in any of various storage formats. All modern web browsers include bookmark features. Bookmarks are called favorites or Internet shortcuts in Internet Explorer, and by virtue of that browser's large market share, these terms have been synonymous with bookmark since the first browser war. Bookmarks are normally accessed through a menu in the user's web browser, and folders are commonly used for organization."
I don’t subscribe to Swellnet for the forecasts. Or the surfcams.
I subscribe to Swellnet because it’s the modern iteration of a surfing magazine , only you get to interact with the other surfers on the letters page.
Great editorial content . Good community. As a paying customer, forecast updates are way down on my list of priorities.
Maybe no one else who visits the site feels that way ? Makes no difference to me. I’m just letting you know how it affects my enjoyment of the site.
Sincerely, I appreciate the feedback. And your request is already on the to-do list. But that list has hundreds of items on it already, almost all of which are deemed more important to the bulk of Swellnet users (the Forums do a tiny percentage of our traffic; the Politico forum is a tiny percentage of that tiny percentage).
FWIW, one of the problems we have - and it's a good problem! - is that everyone values something different about Swellnet. You mainly like the editorial and community. Others only need the surfcams. Some people just require model forecasts. There's a bunch of surfers who like to cross reference our forecaster notes every so often. And so on.
Pleasing everyone is very hard. But we'll continue to try our best.
For sure Ben.
And I appreciate the response. To be honest , you’ve endured a lot of shit from my end and there’s no need for you to be anything but straight up as you were in your first response. I enjoy the straight talk far more than the corpo speak I’d get virtually anywhere else.
I’m aware that your small crew would be flat out running the site and I’m not hassling for immediate action. Just letting you know what’s up in typically blunt fashion. Considering that I’m one of the major reasons that the politico forum was shunted to the backblocks I’m not really entitled to whinge too hard.
But sometimes I can’t help myself.
If you are using an iPad, underneath the forum name is a link to the latest posts. So one click and you are there.
Does that take you to latest comment ?
The real question is...
why would you remove them from the front page adding to your already lengthy 'to do' list?
seems rather silly and desperate to me
not really looking for an answer, take that as a comment (as tony jones says.. )
Why? Because they were pissing us off (and it took us about four and a half minutes to do so).
The Swellnet homepage is kinda like our shop front window. It's where we like to feature new articles, and allow easy access to popular content; the WOTD is a Swellnet institution. It's the one part of the site that gets more traffic than any other single webpage.
Instead, there was - in our opinion - way too much attention being drawn to a conveyer belt of repetitive, non-surf related commentary, some of which often contained language we didn't feel comfortable being showcased in this manner.
Because the audience viewing and engaging with this particular content was disporportionally small (compared to the rest of our website), we decided to temporarily remove it from the homepage feed, until we worked out a better solution.
I've got no interest in censoring anyone's opinions, or stifling the debate. But, I do take pride in the way Swellnet looks, and this decision was made purely with that in mind.
I hope that's a reasonable enough explanation.
Hah! Warned ya!
"It'll be interesting how the engagement goes. The Politico 'What's What?' thread for example has over 9000 comments!
Political interest and engagement or just interest in engagement?
I'm guessing the second. Taking it off the front page will provide an answer.
Watch out for 'engagement' though, simply transposed to the surfing stuff. Already happened.
"Be alert, not alarmed!"
fair enough thermalben. I really didn't expect a response, but since you 'engaged'...
As sheepdog says...
"Its your choice, your baby. Your income. I get that. I disagree with your stance. As I said, the surfing community (Australian surfing community in particular), has ALWAYS been a hotbed for political expression. And for the years I have been here, your own editors have been at the forefront of promoting political debate, which imo is a great thing.
Were u one of the "silent tories"? Is this your way of stifling debate? Putting it on "page 32"? ;) :p"
Yes things may have been a little heated through this election, but I really didn't see anything much different to any other time.
Yes there was bursts of blasphamous back and forth on the front page but pretty much the same old banter
sypkan, the same old banter had become offensive and inappropriate months before it was removed. I had a conversation with Ben to that effect in January. The only surprises were that he waited so long and didn't remove them completely.
I doubt that it was the content as such, more just the fact that the hot forum topics that appear on the front page just become politics, politics, politics and all the surfing related ones get pushed out of sight, so other people visiting the site then dont see the other active topics so dont contribute on surfing related topics or even more lighthearted off topics, music etc
Some guys like politics, but many dont have any interest in talking politics and i guess its not a good vibe or inviting when we are arguing/debating/dribbling crap (including me)
Basically the political topics have been clogging things up, and it's the same people, saying the same things over and over, same thing just different day.
And 100% im guilty of that too.
I get why they hid them after all it is a surfing website.
I really didn't see anything that hasn't been ok for the last 5 years or whatever
Do you really think you don't give as good as you get blindboy?
Is Laurie Blindboy?
Hmmm i guess it makes sense...i guess i would change my profile name after being the big flag waver for Shorten and then him becoming Billary.
And so it goes on..............
Ha ha Indo I started using my real name to boost my retirement income. Someone is bound to libel me sooner or later.
Okay can't criticise a name change to real name then actually the opposite if anything.
Erroneously labeling someone as a homophobe is libellous.
Hmmm ....part owner of a south coast townhouse sounds nice.
I’m glad politics is now on Swellnet’s back pages.
My politics were formed from growing up working class in a family where money was very hard to come by during the time of the Vietnam War where the government and the Australian Federal Police were seen as the enemy. The conscription lottery which divided the nation like nothing ever has was only broken by the election of the great Gough Whitlam.
Gough’s sacking was a hard lesson for the young idealist in me and I went rogue for awhil in environmental activism. The Franklin-Gordon was eventually saved by Hawke so I saw sometimes a good government can come along .... but what we have had since makes me reflective in a brooding sort of way. Liberal and Labor governments alike served us poorly. And now, how can what makes FNQ tick hold the rest of the country to ransom and how did Labor get it so wrong, the LNP were always going to scratch and lie their way back to power because that’s all that matters, retaining power to entrench the status quo.
I find myself back where it all began for me; the government is the enemy, AFP raids on the press, pre election Ministerial Adani approvals just this week thrown out of court, playing high stake politics with the country to lock in tax cuts that will not take effect for another 6 years.
I once thought we could do better than this as a country but I reckon we can’t, re-electing a LNP government proves it, we are fucked and good luck.
Sure you want to banish the politico shitfight to the underworld. Your deal. But if you want to check the latest comment it involves about 6 clicks and scrolling through 2 long pages of comments.