No-clue NOLA.com
I’ve always had problems with NOLA.com. Its layout is ugly, its javascript is buggy, and its template was clearly designed by someone who’s never even thought of reading a newspaper–online or otherwise.
Today, I found another reason to loathe the site: its editors are lazy bastards.
In NOLA.com’s “Visitor” section–one of the site’s eight prominently featured information areas–there’s a “New Orleans FAQ”, which purports to answer questions from potential visitors. When should we visit? What should we see? That kind of thing.
There’s no mention of Hurricane Katrina anywhere on the page. So in addition to lists of restaurants and shops and cultural attractions that don’t exist anymore or haven’t yet re-opened, we get this little ditty:
Q. What about hurricanes and tropical weather?
A. Tropical weather is a definite concern to residents and visitors to New Orleans. While not at the top of the list of danger zones for hurricanes, New Orleans is high on that list, and even tropical depressions can bring dangerous flooding. Even regular storms can produce extremely heavy rainfall, and street flooding is a continual issue in the New Orleans area. Massive pumps work to alleviate this flooding, and generally, knee-deep flooding from an afternoon storm is drained away quickly after the storm eases.
– NOLA.com
But then again, when your site is just one in a large, ungainly family of sites–most of which have nothing to do with one another–I guess you can’t expect much attention to detail.
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Here’s a thought for nola.com, why not have local talent do their site - it would create much needed tech jobs and give the site more of a “local feel”.
I really do live in a dream world.
Here, here!
I would help.
yeah, I can never find a TP article (or anything else either) I’m looking for on the first try and I research things online for a living, so it’s not that I’m clueless.
I have often wondered why their site sucks so much. a local would do so much better and could probably use the money. let’s storm their offices! actually, let’s storm everyone’s offices and take our city back!
PLUS! At some point in the last few weeks they’ve split each story across multiple pages, no doubt to increase ad-viewing. Pain in the butt if you’re trying to copy the content. You can use the “Print This” link on the left side to get around that.
And, if you’re annoyed by the name/gender/age cookie they keep asking for, click on the “Outside the US?” link to bypass filling out the form.
Thanks for the tip,RCS. That page drives me nuts!!!
I have written to them many times, asking for links to groups of stories (like the series on Katrina’s Dead…well written, IMHO) with no results.
I love the idea of local talent retooling their site, Jack. If only it could happen.
I keep messing with the gender/age cookie by putting in everything BUT my real birthdate.
That didn’t help I still can’t get straight
into Chris Rose’s articles withouth the cookies punching me out;
the outside the US din’t work, thanks.
Laurie
God, I’m so glad to know that I am not the only person who has a hard time navigating that site. I thought it was the new highlights I added to my hair. NOLA.com is as ugly as a mud fence, too. I didn’t know it was done by that Advance company, which also has an ugly website.
Here is one redeeming feature: You know the city notices, how they are printed on tiny type in the back of section E, as Maitri referred to in another post? Well, those are a lot more readable on NOLA.com. They should get the guy who designs the legal notices to do the rest of that crappy website.