Star-Bulletin on the Web

[pzarquon]

The Star-Bulletin website was an early innovator. It won heaps of awards. But for years now, I thought it was looking a bit long in the tooth, specifically because of its use of frames. Honestly, framed sites are about as 'cutting edge' as animated smiley GIF images and Javascript "marquee" effects.

A little while back they gave the site a makeover, updating graphics -- well, adding nifty bevels and "star" accents and backgrounds -- but those frames remained.

Well, I don't know when they tweaked it, but I noticed today that, finally, at least the frame dividers were gone. No more grey bars dividing the page up. What a difference a "FRAMESPACING" tag makes!

They just might give up entirely on frames before 2010...

[pzarquon]

Ah, I see what they did. The eliminated the left-column frame. Now the index of stories for the section appears on every individual story's page. So now instead of three frames, there's just two... the blue nav bar at the bottom.

You know, since every story page already includes the set of section links ("Text Site Directory")... removing that last frame might not be so far off, after all.

Ya know... maintaining the site can't be easy. It's effectively done by hand with individually-built static HTML pages. A transition to a content management system might take time and eliminate some design flexibility, but for the webmasters' sanity, I hope they're considering it.

[mel]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

The Star-Bulletin site has never been the same since Blaine Fergestrom left as their lead web guy. He understood the web and ran the place on a Mac too. After he was gone, the evil pop up ads started showing up there. Yuck. It is a good thing I have Safari with its built in pop up ad blocking. I think Windows users can use the Google Tool Bar or Firefox which I believe has built in pop up blocking too.

Moving away from a framed interface is a good idea. I hate frames.

I also like manual htmling vs. the content management system from an end users viewpoint. Why? Because straight html seem to give you shorter URLs which are easier to remember, link and post to other sites. The content managed pages have those horribly long URLs that almost require to use that tinyURL site to shrink them down in size for other uses. Who knows how long tinyURLs continue to correctly point to the long URL they are replacing?

[pzarquon]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

The Star-Bulletin site has never been the same since Blaine Fergestrom left as their lead web guy.

I agree, Blaine was the heart and soul of that operation from the very beginning. I imagine old-time web folks like us all share an innate disdain for the trappings of the modern web, from advertising to "search engine optimization" to other tricks that make eyeballs and dollars more important than the basic information being conveyed.

He did create the frame layout, though, and while it was pretty cool in 1997, I don't think you could find a major news site with frames a few years after that. Norms and conventions in web design, just like in print design, change pretty quickly. Of course I imagine that the processes and infrastructure behind the framed setup (i.e. separate frameset files for each individual story page) were almost too entrenched to consider changing.

Why? Because straight html seem to give you shorter URLs which are easier to remember, link and post to other sites. The content managed pages have those horribly long URLs that almost require to use that tinyURL site to shrink them down in size for other uses.

Sometimes. Certainly in the case of bizzare database-driven sites, you'll get URLs that look like:

http://www.news.com/script.asp?story=14ji3jrj3834yx86235

But most good CMS know how to build both dynamic pages as well as "friendly URL" archive systems. So even off the top of your head, you could figure out:

http://www.news.com/2004/12/03/features/headline

And a CMS would easily save 80 percent of the time needed to maintain a macro/cut-and-paste FTP operation. I mean, there's a down-home appeal to a hand-built site, but when you're also a business, these things are major considerations.

[Erika Engle]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

We do miss Blaine around here, not just for his tech-savvy but for the maniacal, infectious laugh that accompanied his over-the-top sense of humor.

His old partner in crime, Ken Andrade, is the senior Web guy. Our very small and devoted Web department turned their lives completely upside down for the online product. They come in very late in order to get the site online very early. The other guys have got like, a dozen people in their Web dept. and I much prefer the ease of using the S-B Web site. Not only that, but our pages are searchable for years -- not just the past two months, like the other guys' who will charge you for archived stuff.

The ads came in, not because of our Web dept. but because of the business office. I don't know a single person who likes pop-ups (or pop-unders, in our case), but sales departments collecting billings are thrilled with the additional revenue, I'm sure.

I agree, Blaine was the heart and soul of that operation from the very beginning. I imagine old-time web folks like us all share an innate disdain for the trappings of the modern web, from advertising to "search engine optimization" to other tricks that make eyeballs and dollars more important than the basic information being conveyed.

He did create the frame layout, though, and while it was pretty cool in 1997, I don't think you could find a major news site with frames a few years after that. Norms and conventions in web design, just like in print design, change pretty quickly. Of course I imagine that the processes and infrastructure behind the framed setup (i.e. separate frameset files for each individual story page) were almost too entrenched to consider changing.

Sometimes. Certainly in the case of bizzare database-driven sites, you'll get URLs that look like:

http://www.news.com/script.asp?story=14ji3jrj3834yx86235

But most good CMS know how to build both dynamic pages as well as "friendly URL" archive systems. So even off the top of your head, you could figure out:

http://www.news.com/2004/12/03/features/headline

And a CMS would easily save 80 percent of the time needed to maintain a macro/cut-and-paste FTP operation. I mean, there's a down-home appeal to a hand-built site, but when you're also a business, these things are major considerations.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

One objection I have with the Star Bulletin's home page is the main picture that takes forever to load when you're on dial up (like me), unless it's a picture of Erika...I'll wait patiently for that picture.

[LikaNui]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

unless it's a picture of Erika...I'll wait patiently for that picture.

Easy solution: right-click her photo and save it as your desktop image!

[zztype]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

Eh, tanks, eh? You guys. Make me blush!

Hahahaha! Hi Erika!

A hui hou,

Blaine

"Still making trouble after all these years!"

[pzarquon]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

Hmm. The Star-Bulletin site's been unreachable for about half an hour now. The first time in a while I can remember any availability issues. Give that overworked Mac server a gentle kick, will ya?

[kimo55]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

Hmm. The Star-Bulletin site's been unreachable for about half an hour now. The first time in a while I can remember any availability issues. Give that overworked Mac server a gentle kick, will ya?

still down at this time too...

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

It's up for me.

[LikaNui]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

It's up for me.

Same here. I tried a few times between 7:30 and 8:30am and it tried to load, but verrrrrry slowly, then it finally worked around 9am.
Whew. My day doesn't really start until I can read "The Buzz"!

[zztype]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

Early this morning I emailed Star-Bulletin webmaster Ken Andrade, complaining about the slow site response. He checked with NetEnterprise, who host Starbulletin.com. Seems that the Star-Bulletin story on the Eddie Aikau got some national attention this morning, including the Drudge Report. According to NetEnt folks, that one story was pulling so much traffic as to drag the whole site to its knees.

In webmaster parlance, "we won!"

That used to be the running joke at the Bulletin. If Ken and I produced some web feature or article that got so many hits that it took the network down, "we won!"

So kudos to Ken, Steven Park and the S-B staff! Today, "you won!"

Blaine

[Linkmeister]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

Early this morning I emailed Star-Bulletin webmaster Ken Andrade, complaining about the slow site response. He checked with NetEnterprise, who host Starbulletin.com. Seems that the Star-Bulletin story on the Eddie Aikau got some national attention this morning, including the Drudge Report. According to NetEnt folks, that one story was pulling so much traffic as to drag the whole site to its knees.


Blaine

Er, not just national.

[kimo55]

Re: Star-Bulletin on the Web

Newsflash!
Star Bulletin aspires to Honolulu Weekly spelling standards!


John Berger is really taking liberties here. Or maybe it's a new policy of the Bulletin: follow the lead of the masses and fabricate new words haphazardly and hope no one notices....
(Is this an indication of the level of intelligence the Star Bull assumes is possessed by their readership?)

In today's Bull, (on the scene) Mr. Berger coins the word:
"definative"





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...and this before morning coffee!
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