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Elaborating on what happened with seMissourian.com Monday and TuesdayWednesday, September 10, 2008
We had some complaints come our way over the past couple of days about the problems on seMissourian.com — stories not updating, broken links and other quirky behavior. I can understand the frustration. Believe me, we were frustrated, too. Here's one comment that was submitted via online Speak Out: "It's 11 a.m. and the homepage touts a breaking story last updated 1 1/2 hours ago. Unfortunately, the link doesn't work, so we can't read about it. The new website is a joke. Things are hard to navigate, links don't work, etc. Stop bragging about your up-to-date wonderful webpage, stop asking for our feedback and then ignoring it. Just fix the darned thing." This sentiment, while very angry and a bit mean, is totally understandable. Let me shed a little bit more light on exactly what was going on. The problems began Monday afternoon, when I noticed we couldn't update stories on our home page, and if we changed out the "lead story" that appears in the middle-top of the home page, the link to the story was broken. I contacted the company that hosts our site, and they informed me this was a system-wide error (they also host other sites), a problem with their database. Within a few hours, it was fixed. Then came Tuesday morning. The same problem started again, we think around 9 a.m. Through the day, it only got worse, and it lasted until about 6 p.m. During this time we were unable to update local stories, and if we changed the lead story, the link was broken. Our webmaster did institute a fix for the lead story, but updating was a slow process. Other strange stuff also happened, like blogs disappearing. It wasn't pretty. This morning it seems our site is functioning up to form. I've done a few updates, and we've switched out the lead story with no trouble. The company that hosts our site assures us they're putting measures in place to prevent such catastrophic site failures in the future. We know how much your experience on our site is impaired when these problems surface. Our goal is to deliver news you want to read and the news that's relevant to you, as quickly as possible. Of course, when our site isn't functioning the way it should, we can't really do that. All I can do is assure you that we're doing our best to make sure this doesn't happen again. If you have any comments or questions about how our site's working (or isn't) please leave them here.
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Matt Sanders, former arts and entertainment editor and reporter for the Southeast Missourian, was appointed editor of the paper's online operation this year. In his blog Extra Edition, he gives readers an extra dose of news they won't find in our print edition or elsewhere on our Web site, and gives them a glimpse of the operation of the new seMissourian.com.
The case of Leslie Owen Collier: Local man's pardon gets national scrutiny (November 26, 2008) St. Louis housing sales plummet on news of new Guns 'N' Roses album (November 25, 2008) Does Playboy want kids to be porn addicts? (November 20, 2008) Having trouble voting in our contests?; the dramatist guild weighs in on SEMO (November 19, 2008) The price we pay at Thanksgiving (November 17, 2008) Where to win free tix, cash on our website (November 14, 2008) The wonders of self-diagnosis (November 13, 2008) Sister Mary Ignatius riles them up; what's wrong with our search (November 10, 2008) Where to find election information on our site; I'm out for the weekend (November 5, 2008) Expect a busy day in election land; problems posting comments (November 4, 2008) Check out reader photos from the GOP rally (October 31, 2008) Blogging live from the Show Me Center (October 30, 2008) Ballooning voter rolls and a Southeast Missourian in an odd couple household (October 29, 2008) We'll be streaming Palin live (October 28, 2008) Did you go crazy for Palin?; Check out our new email system (October 27, 2008) Scary stuff at a suburban St. Louis school; your favorite Homecoming window decoration; Gov. Blunt's election concerns (October 24, 2008) What's wrong with movie theater alcohol?; Vote for your favorite Homecoming window decoration (October 22, 2008) Sikeston schools' bomb scare: Overreaction? (October 21, 2008) Would you want to be Joe the Plumber?; state 'retardation'; burning St. Louis office buildings (October 16, 2008) Become a 'community photographer' and make some cash doing it; Blunt administration builds 'ethanol infrastructure'; prez campaigns coming to Cape (October 15, 2008) New (and old) ways to interact with the news department; requiring renewable energy (October 13, 2008) Have you heard the latest on 'Killshot'? It's a doozy. (October 9, 2008) Know any thankful people? (October 7, 2008) On the trail of the white deer (October 6, 2008) advertisement
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Do yall use Mac computers exclusively at the paper?
SEMissouri70,
We changed the company that hosts our video, which is different than the company that hosts our site. We now use the Associated Press video system, and their player windows are a bit smaller.
But if you click the "more videos from seMissourian.com" link below the video player, you'll be directed to a page with a slightly larger player.
On the website front, why is the video so much smaller?
Good question. We haven't been with this service that long, and I believe our upper management is really making the point known to the service that it needs to be more reliable.
That's really all I can say about it. Sorry, but I'd be speaking out of turn if I said more.
Why don't you contract with a more reliable web hosting service?