Welcome to Oscailt 3: A new generation of Indymedia Software

by Michael Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:21

Three cheers for the Indy development team!

Trouble is that now all the old links to articles and comments seem to be broken. Could you setup a script to redirect (302) requests for the old newswire.php?id=123 type articles to their new locations please.

by Dave - swp Sun Jan 29, 2006 12:42

Excellent additions to what is already without question a brilliant and continously improving site. Fair play to everyone involved. Really glad about the improvements to uploading photos as I've never been able to figure out how to resize before uploading.

by gay geori Sun Jan 29, 2006 14:11

Yes, great job. Much better usuability and UI, plus a more consistent "look'n'feel" with other indymedia sites.

by gay geori Sun Jan 29, 2006 14:19

yeah, can you put in symbolic links to the old articles?

Also, It seems you have to wait about 5 mins before being allowed post a second time...

Can't Post / Won't Post

by Starstruck - Grassroots Dissent Sun Jan 29, 2006 14:50

Top-notch work as always-well done lads and lasses..
The revolution will not be televised ,unless of course ndyM has a channel at that stage,next project perhaps...!
Hurrah!

by chekov - 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group Sun Jan 29, 2006 15:41 chekov at indymedia dot ie

I forgot to check that the URL redirection was working properly - all old links should be working again.

By the way, we will be collecting together all suggestions for changes over the next few weeks and considering them together - so don't expect things to change much before then.

by Ed Lee Sun Jan 29, 2006 15:58

Well done on the new design, looking forward on using all the new stuff.
Cheers

by HIn Sun Jan 29, 2006 16:10

personaly i think its a poor job the site now looks really bland!
put it back to the way it was!

sack the "development team" .......who are they working for?

by kino Sun Jan 29, 2006 20:08

It's excellent work!, having also had a look around the back end, I can say that this was well worth the wait, and that there's a lot more to this than meets the eye.

Maybe in the future, users could be able to select from a variety of look and feel options, and submit their own style sheet, so that even people like Hln can be happy instead of rude.

(I'm not too fond of the colour on the left bar either)

by G Sun Jan 29, 2006 20:37

Since the website was upgraded last night, I think that it is a little unhelpful because there no longer is a 'Search' icon that we could search for news articles.

by Seán Ryan Sun Jan 29, 2006 21:00

An excellent job folks, tis nice to see the 'paddies' set the pace in such an important area of technology and mass-communication.

I've only one suggestion. It might be a little on the commercial thinking side of things, but I think it might encourage more writers to write.

How about a hit-counter on each story? Indy is very popular and getting more so, hit-counters on each story would show each writer how many people they were reaching.

Thanks folks.
Seán

by Noise Hacker Sun Jan 29, 2006 23:21

Keep up the good work.

Love the new Indymedia web site!

by hs Sun Jan 29, 2006 23:39

I like especially the new printer friendly button, great idea, make it alot easier to read those long articles, good work everyone. note to self, must wrtite some articles! cheers

by R. Isible Sun Jan 29, 2006 23:59

Look in the top right of the page. Apparently the layout as it stands is pretty optimised with the logo in the top left and the search in the top right.

by M Cotton Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:27

For what it's worth, I think the colour scheme and layout are great - easy on the eye and easier to use.

by chekov - 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:47 chekov at indymedia dot ie

Our iTunes Podcasting Link has just gone live - check it out in the left column. Follow Indymedia Ireland Web Radio!

All linked audio content is included, so to have your audio offering included in our podcast, just put a link to it into a comment. Although Indymedia Ireland does not have the space to allow audio or video uploads, you can use http://video.indymedia.org or http://radio.indymedia.org and link to the files from here.

by gay geori Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:02

I don't think the search feature is working (magnifying glass icon - upper r-h side of page) - I clicked on it, and expected a search dialog to open where I could enter search criteria, but it didn't - i just got a message that no articles with my search details were founmd. I tested it on IE and Firefox... same result

am i using it correctly, or is it a bug?

by Chekov Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:10

It is an instant search box - type in the text to search for into the text box and then hit the icon to launch the search. If others are finding it similarly confusing, we may need to redesign it.

The full search page is linked from the site navigation list in the left hand menu - it's at: http://www.indymedia.ie/search

by iosaf Mon Jan 30, 2006 13:20 barcelona

I've been wandering around the site and really like the improvements, the colour scheme reminds me of the National Concert Hall of my youth, a sort of snobby Irish green. ;-) and the panic I felt when the old links didn't appear to work has now subsided. I've tried coming into imc ireland from a load of other sites (and it is impressive how many referring links there are over 4 years). I hope readers and contributors will look back there in the archives, now they are a bit more user friendly to access. This site is a "national archive" of news, opinions, protests, actions, campaigns at the most basic level of democratic involvement. Its wonderful to look back at the extent of solidarity not just on obvious international issues such as the war on Iraq, or European development, Precarity or Migrants, but also on local "little people" issues. A web of links from Norway and beyond for the Rossport 5, as too a web of links from the European campaigns fighting pylons in Italy, France, Spain to Donegal and Roscommon.

We have created through unprecedented voluntary co-operation (often between individuals who have never met in the real world) an archive which is unrivalled for accesibility not only at local national level (Ireland) but globally. And no-one can underestimate the Irish contribution. This site not only "looks & feels well" it is one of the most visited (and used) of such sites on the global network.
Our "horizontal media punch" is much heavier than our "geographical weight", perhaps due to our nature which is "non-anglo-saxon/yankee"
we have become a portal between worlds. The world of english as spoken throughout the Irish diasporia and the worlds of our European fellow citizens and the 3rd world. That is an extent of readership and contribution and influence which commercial media such as the O'Reilly empire or the Irish Times or even state entities such as RTE may dream of.
Not one word which passed our guidelines and got published has disappeared. Someday this resource will be used by historians and sociologists alike when the question "how did those indymedia people change the world?" comes to be answered.

by Advice wanted Mon Jan 30, 2006 17:51

Is anyone else having trouble with the new Indymedia format. I can't read some text it seems to be too light and is obscured by the dark green background colour . Also in the latest comments section I can't see the titles of the threads that people are commenting on. In different sections it is difficult to read what is on the site. The old colour scheme was better, this new one is not working.

by Duine Mon Jan 30, 2006 19:33

Comhghairdeas as an leagan amach.

Rud beag amháin. Má bhrúim ar Ga anseo "Language - en | ga" , níl aon malairt teanga ann!!

by Niall Harnett Mon Jan 30, 2006 23:49

I love Indymedia, it's powerful. Thanks to all who work behind the scenes maintaining and improving it.

In general I prefer the brightness, simplicity and clarity of the old look of the site. My first reaction to the new look is that it is fussy and less attractive to the eye.

Although the green shades of the left and right columns are nice in themselves and have a contemporary feel, they don't work for me cos they're too light and opaque. The dark green text on light green of the right column is less clear than the old and less attractive to the eye. The white text on light green of the left column I actually find a strain to read. Maybe it's cos I wear reading glasses, as do many, but I find myself reacting away from the left column, which isn't good. You've also lost the nice colour definition between dates and text of left column events. Maybe the new dark green text colour could be used with black over the old light grey background of both columns to maintain the brightness and attractiveness, which is vital, and still be more contemporary than the old bright green text (which is still good, in my opinion). Reds should be as dark as possible I think.

You have changed the 'Indymedia Ireland' header already and that's good, yesterday's one was cramped and dark and lacked 'white'. I like the bold black font of the new one beside the spacious white on the right. I think the 6 ' features, newswire etc ' tabs should stay stretched across the top for prominence and the 'search' bar put back where it was where it's more noticable. I think the 'search' bar is too far right, obscure and a bit lost where it is.

The new Grey headlines on the features page are a backward step, in my opinion. They're just not as strong as black which has got to be the clearest. Headlines should look like headlines and black is your man. The headline font size has been decreased also and should be restored to original size ... in black, for full effect. New look has sense of features blurring into one aspect creating less definition and less attraction to the eye of the reader. I don’t like line between articles which are fussy and unnecessary for definition. 'Full story and comments’ should be underlined (on left like old for space) and all that’s needed to distinguish between articles, provides subtle break, needs a bit of space too before next one.

I don't like the break up of the right column into different 'types of story'. When yesterday's newspapers are old news, what's nice about Indymedia is the comfort of stuff in the right column being news for a while and you don't feel rushed into keeping yourself informed. Stuff will dissappear of front page quicker now with the new way and that makes me nervous! Therefore 'Breaking news’ is unnecessary and slightly frantic and 'Sky newsish', 'Newswire' is reassuring! Suggest complete return to old way, with restored nice attractive red underlined 'Publish your news'. I don't think it's necessary to distinguish between types when its the content that matters.

Perhaps 'Other Press' could be moved to right column to give more prominence and 'press releases' be moved to under 'events'.

On the subject of 'Events', forgive me please but the new ' Events' page is brutal. The old way was so clear attractive and user friendly. It certainly wasn't broken and fixing it has fucked it, in my opinion.

The new light grey links and URL's should be changed to the new dark green ... it's highlighting they need not lowlighting.

I like it when you go to someones article there are 'recent articles by...' . Suggest there should be general link there also to 'other articles by ' or 'all articles by'.

In general, I think the 'less is more' and 'keep it simple stupid' rules should apply to Indymedia appearance. Appearance is all, and simplicity, clarity and brightness are what you need to instantly draw the eye of a reader, just like opening the curtains on a cold crisp sunny day. Radical changes of appearance are dangerous, discreet changes are better, IF improvements are needed. The novelty of change will wear off but negative effects on readership and disimprovements in userfriendliness won't. So we've got to be very careful we don't turn the beacon of newspapers into another fussy website.

Niall.

by AN FEAR SIUIL - THE ICA Tue Jan 31, 2006 02:28

NICE WORK ON THE SITE.

ONE THING: please give the IMC NETWORK/GLOBAL element more space. It was better when all the countries were listed. God knows the mainstream media is parochial enough in this country, let's not go down that road...

by FredHead - Censorship Tue Jan 31, 2006 15:22

where should one go to find out about the levels of censorship?

by Rearranged Tue Jan 31, 2006 16:48

Max filesize for uploading images is now 1000KB, will images of this size be automatically reduced to the old limit of 60KB when published?

by chekov - 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group Tue Jan 31, 2006 16:57 chekov at indymedia dot ie

Images Images are now resized by default to 30K when you view them with an article (the difference is fairly minor at screen resolution) but if you click on the image, you get taken to a full-sized version. See http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74005 for an example.

"censorship" Content that is not compatible with the editorial guidelines at http://www.indymedia.ie/editorial is removed. All editorial actions are discussed on the editorial list and archived on the newswire list. The lists are at http://www.indymedia.ie/getting_involved

by Greengrass Tue Jan 31, 2006 17:34

The featured photos at the top of the front page should be about 33% bigger.
But more importantly, give us back our real green.

by catch - libcom.org/news Wed Feb 01, 2006 02:23 http://www.libcom.org

One of my main criticisms of indymedia, is that news, opinion, press releases, action call-outs are all lumped together without any attempt to seperate them.

It's really good that you've split things into different sections - BUT - the first thing I clicked on once I'd scanned the front page was the 'newswire' link - and there's everything lumped together again. Had I not been checking out the new look, I might well have stopped looking there until I realised there were filtering options - which allow for selecting just 'news' or just 'opinion'. Since it's called 'newswire' why not simply default to news filtering on that page? Which would almost entirely filter out the indymediaisms and fit better with the look and layout of the front page.

by Max The IT pro - independent Wed Feb 01, 2006 11:14 MaxTheITpro.BlogSpot.com

Greetings from Nairobi (Kenya) via Canada and Barbados.
As is the nature of the web, I stumbled across an insightful article (see: http://cvilleindymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=918 ) on your network, and noticed the "powered by Oscalit" logo at the bottom. Being curious about technology, I decided to take a peek.
Wow!!! Awesome CMS (content management system) and I hope to take it for a spin some day.

Most importantly, I looooove the spirit of your community - based on the articles on all of your affiliate sites. Maybe I'll start one here in East Africa. :-)

Take care and good luck.
I'll be sure to mention this on my Tech blog when I write on open source CMSs.

Maxwell
email: MaxTheITpro AT GMail.com
blog: http://MaxTheITpro.BlogSpot.com
========

by a women Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:52

Myself and others that i have talked to about this comment have found it offensive. Why is this comment gendered? Could it be changed back to how it was before: "play the ball and not the player?"

by pat c Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:59

obviously the intent in using the phrase play the ball and not woman wasnt sexist. i'd imagine it was the opposite, play the ball and not the man is how its usually put.

it has however upset people. emails are flying around at present. maybe it would be best to change woman to player or some gender neutral word.

by Chekov Wed Feb 01, 2006 13:28

Can somebody please explain to me how this is sexist?

The phrase was always 'play the ball and not the man' - a common phrase in sport. Is that sexist? Is it offensive? Somebody complained about the gendering of this once a long time ago and when I was entering the text in this page configuration I changed it to woman.

Anyway, consider it changed. But still let me know how it is sexist or offensive.

by pat c Wed Feb 01, 2006 13:56

its the perception that counts. as i stated here and on the seomra spraoi thread i didnt think there was any sexist intent. and i didnt think it was sexist.

but there are emails flying around and are now starting to turn up on lists. apparently someone complained about the wording and got an insulting response from an editor. this is what has been reported, i dont know who the response came from.

by searcher Wed Feb 01, 2006 14:14

1. The text on the 'latest comments' page should be darker to provide contrast with the background and make it easier to read.

2. There used to be a little box to tick near the 'search' box. This allowed us to 'include comments' when we were doing a search.

3. Regarding "play the woman". I presume that was intended as some kind of reverse sexism or positive discrimination. Some people will always interpret things in a negative way, and will always find something to be offended about.

4. I don't like that particular shade of green. The old shade was sharper.

by R. Isible Thu Feb 02, 2006 04:12

QUOTE: but there are emails flying around and are now starting to turn up on lists. apparently someone complained about the wording and got an insulting response from an editor. this is what has been reported, i dont know who the response came from.

Thanks for passing on that accusation PatC. As far as I am aware there has been NO response from an editor that was insulting. There was a response from a NON-editor who was also subscribed to the open editorial list to which anyone can subscribe. I think this has since been dealt with. All lists that are genuine responses from IMC Ireland Editorial are:
1) crossposted to the respondent and the editorial list (check the list to see if the response has also gone out to all the other editors. If it hasn't then it has no validity. Even if it has then it may be followed by a response from other editors.)
2) signed as "1 of IMC Ireland Editorial" or "1 of IMC Ireland Volunteers"
3) not contested by other members of the editorial committee.

In short, just because you post to the list and get a response from someone you're not guaranteed that person is an editor. The only genuine response is an open one that all the other editors can see (and if necessary contest).

by All Black Paddy Thu Feb 02, 2006 05:10

I agree with the thrust of Niall Hartnetts comments. However the main problem that I have with the new format is that the text is way too small in general. I have good eyesight and I can just about read the news articles. The text on this page (add comments) above the white boxes is completely illegible. Is there some setting button that I haven't seen? I have tried changing screen size from 1024*768 to 800*600, made no difference. I never had this problem before and if it's the same for everyone then you'll be losing a lot of readers with pooreer eyesight who won't be interested in squinting at the screen ('tis bad enough to be looking at them normally!) to read Irelands best news site.
P.S. Can't read the terms and conditions for publishing either but I'm sure I'll agree with them.

by Seán Ryan Thu Feb 02, 2006 07:33

I just googled the following search term: (inverted commas included)

"cyber law"

1,680,000 results for the term

"Aw shite," I said to myself, my ego deflated somewhat, "maybe I need to include me name, to narrow it down a bit."

"Still its only been online 3 days," I comforted myself.

Then I spotted that beautiful word; indymedia

Hit number 4.

I shit ye not.

I'll not fit my head through the door.

Indymedia, where history is written first.

by Seán Thu Feb 02, 2006 08:58

In my ecstatic haze at the thoughts that such a slap in the face to patenting, existed up there right next to harvard and other such promoters of ignorance, I lost my ability to count. Cyber law is actually fifth. Still in the golden rectangle, where one doesn't need to scroll. Microsoft and other similar shitheads don't even get a look in.

the search term without the commas, yielded a result of 13,700,000 hits. It was outta da rectangle a bit. But was still on the page. Hit no. 7

13,700,000 thanks to the tech Gods, and to the rest of ye.
Seán

by chekov - 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:01 chekov at indymedia dot ie

The text size hasn't changed! (except in a few small places). I suspect you've mistakenly set the text size to smaller than normal in your browser (control + mouse wheel).

There is also a link in the user preferences box on the left hand menu which allows you to increase the text size.

by organise Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:54

fair play to all involved in the site but i must make some basic observations, the colour is terrible, i thought it was just temporary, from a basic colour-psychological point of view, anyone who logged on to the old site will be much more likely to stay browsing because it is bright.. the current colour is closer to a grey, and really uninviting..... please please change back to the old, ahem... when its not broken dont fix it, damn i hate complaining.. sorry but needs to be said: the old site was much much better

by Davy Carlin Fri Feb 03, 2006 13:17

Good new additions - just one point though -

- I think the colour scheme is so so sleepy and so boring - it really is folks.

The rest is spot on - but would be sound as a pound with the old colours - methinks. D

by chancer Fri Feb 03, 2006 17:58

As a web developer myself I reckon the new colours are great, very crisp and professional looking. The old site always looked a bit clunky and the colours were too jarring. As far as the text goes I can't see any problems. The colour of text is never a problem for legibility, its the contrast between forground and background, and on that score I think the site gets ten out of ten.

To most people the old site probably looked like any typical cheapass activist site, but the new layout looks like a real proper news site, much less likely to turn mainstream people off who generally have mindset that only trusts brandnames and "official" looking things.

And I don't understand people who say they can't find this or they can't find that, just look around, its just a matter of familiarity, and would be the same on any site, probably the old one too when you first used it.

Great stuff!

by Greengrass Fri Feb 03, 2006 18:09

"The colour of text is never a problem for legibility, its the contrast between forground and background"

In that case look at the Latest Comments page. You may notice that the story and comment titles are the same shade of green as the side bar and do not contrast enough with the light green background.

by chekov - 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group Fri Feb 03, 2006 18:14 chekov at indymedia dot ie

The tones have been fiddled with here and there. I pretty much agree with chancer though.

By the way, the constrast on the latest comments page are now actually considerably greater than they were on the old site. Go figure.

by reader Fri Feb 03, 2006 19:25

The list of other imcs should definitly be put back fully, any chance that people would cick to other imcs should be increased and is vital to this one.

by RobbieS Fri Feb 03, 2006 19:39 robbiesin at gmail dot com

Chekov wrote:
"There is also a link in the user preferences box on the left hand menu which allows you to increase the text size".

I've just discovered that the only thing that gets bigger ahem, when I use this, are the graphics. Text-size remains the same.

I use Windows XP, resolution 1024x768, display setting to High Contrast 1. In Internet Explorer, text size normal.

I only dicovered this, because the front page has been too big for my screen since Oscailt3 was launched, and I've had to use scroll-bar or arrows to find newswire. Page sizes for articles are eratic, but this one is perfect this time.

The problem may be with XP (surprise, surpise!), but I never had such problems on Oscailt2.

When I scroll over, the margin/gutter on the right seems unnecessarilly large (much larger than before).

IThe debate over the new newswire seems to have been resolved for now, but I find the comments layout mildly annoying.

The grouping of comments into numbered links makes it less easy to search for words or phrases used, especially in articles with dozens of comments. Ctl+F does the job nicely on Windows if the comments aren't divied or segmented.

by RobbieS Fri Feb 03, 2006 19:43

I've just found the number of comments per page options at the bottom right hand corner.

by dunk - revolt video Fri Feb 03, 2006 19:50 revoltvideo at hushmail dot com

revolt video had its first meeting in seomra spraoi last wednesday, very good, lots of interesting projects in the pipeline
anyway next wed we are having a workshop and tutorial evening, we emailed and asked some of imc-ie could they come along to take us through the new oscailt features- we hope someone will be able to attend.
eitherway we will be giving workshops on photo, audio, video, computer use. we should have some free software to distribute

by dunk Fri Feb 03, 2006 20:09

Context Sensitive headlines - every article is now accompanied by a list of headlines from the same author and with the same category - making it much easier to follow threads through our coverage of issues. - maybe a link to how to do this would help

will some editor have to add the little audio image on past audio threads so as when you click on audio you get all past stuff,

personally prefer the old gif which has been reinstated, conasoid impra.......

def agree all links to full imc network should be put back along left edge

a link, to get up to date reports of hits etc, and a visual to show this, ie a graph of months to hits etc, and

all in all though, great stuff

by user Fri Feb 03, 2006 21:07

when I click on the more>> at the bottom of the breakingnews bit of the newswire it brings me to http://www.indymedia.ie/breaking_news/historyandheritag...eport I was expecting more breaking news...

by billy Fri Feb 03, 2006 21:46

Overall i like the new look, some things took a bit of getting used to, but now i know my way around.

One thing though I don't like is the the exclamation mark icon to right of every comment to report abuse. It's too ugly. Maybe it should be changed to nice pastel red colour like that used by the author and calendar icons below each comment title. And maybe it could be moved over there too so it doesn't jump out as much.

by chekov - 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group Fri Feb 03, 2006 23:05 chekov at indymedia dot ie

Billy, I like the cut of your jib. I agree with you about the alarming look of the icon but I didn't have a good idea of how to fix it - now I do. Thanks!

by chekov - 1 of Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group Sat Feb 04, 2006 00:03 chekov at indymedia dot ie

That's a bug - nice one for spotting it.

by dave Sat Feb 04, 2006 18:26

as someone who has worked with colours and their effects a lot (i also did my thesis on it, boring i know but hey) i must admit that the shade of green here is one that will suit very very few people, the older green is more likely to keep people returning to the site ( same reason why corporate websites are bright and often have music as you first enter), this shade of green is not one that will encourage first time users to indymedia to return to indymedia, its boring, uncaptivating and i would highly highly recommend changing it back to the older shade of green or developing a brighter shade, you would be astounded as to how important and effective colours are upon the mind. even if indymedia foolishly decide to keep this shade of green i would recommend placing the writing in a colour other than white, the white and the extremely light green are a disastorous mix for any website that is attempting to gain support, grow as a collective/ movement etc. Really, i cannot re-iterate the importance of colour and keeping this shade is a step backwards, everything else is fine but the colour is really inappropiate, perhaps better for a fluffy type peace site but not a non corporate politcal site, why do you think most other indymedia sites are black or deep colours? deep colours are much much more effective.As a bit of empiraical social research( peculiar life that i lead) i asked three friends of mine who had never looked at indymedia to go the site yesterday , i then showed them the old site as i had a page saved on my computer, all of them thought that the old colour was much better and they all said they would be more likely to return to the old site... all of them used the word boring to describe the colour, thus, i can only encourage the editorial to change the colour.

by tc Sat Feb 04, 2006 21:36

>thats why corporate websites are bright and often have music as you first enter

Maybe I'm the exception but I've never stayed on a website that has music, in fact i can't think of anything cheesier, and I think bright colours just look cheap and tacky. I mean have you ever gone to those socialist sites with all their hyperactive reds and blacks, they look like children made them.

>why do you think most other indymedia sites are black or deep colours?

Eh probably 'cos they were made by activists who love all that "in your face" hyperactivity. it works well for a poster thats trying to catch your attention, but I think for a website that you have to read everyday, you want something more akin to newspaper or magazine, easy on the eye like.

by anarchaeologist Sat Feb 04, 2006 22:44

Actually, after a couple of days looking at it, it is getting lighter on the eye. tc's right. Keep the new green!