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New SWIFT Format

The new, new format. (Daily blog style).

Don't like it.

I used to look forward to one, rather lengthy article on Friday mornings. I'm not going to be checking this thing every day, and if I do it once a week I have to click several times to have to read all the articles posted in the last week. (How do you get to them? Oh yeah, you can't click on the headline, you have to hunt around until you find the little "Read More" link.) Granted, that's the way it is with other blogs but now I just skip articles I'm only mildly interested in rather than actually skimming them and maybe discovering something I didn't expect.

There are also two typos in the heading.
 
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I agree with alfaniner: I miss the weekly digest. There's not enough to check daily, and hunting down the ten new links once a week to collect the pieces myself is a hassle. Someone posted an URL which did this, but I can't find a link which corresponds to this. Could there not be a "weekly digest" button?
 
I don't like it either. Individual articles normally don't interest me enough to check the site daily. And I don't feel encouraged to click on dozens of "read more" links if there may only be 2 or 3 additional lines behind each one.
The old format was way better. :(
 
I agree that the article headline should link to the full article.

Can I also suggest adding previous/next links at the top and bottom of each full article to simplify navigation?
 
I suppose RSS (or similar) should be standard on any blog-style web site. As far as the new style is concerned I quite like it. Although, like others, I looked forward to my Friday fix of all things skeptical, this new way gives me a tasty bite several times a week. I suspect that it will also mean a wider variety of topics.
 
CrikeyBobs said:
I suppose RSS (or similar) should be standard on any blog-style web site. As far as the new style is concerned I quite like it. Although, like others, I looked forward to my Friday fix of all things skeptical, this new way gives me a tasty bite several times a week. I suspect that it will also mean a wider variety of topics.
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There was RSS before.I have not managed to see what changed now,but it looks like they took out RSS.Is that true?
 
I think they're working on the RSS. I'm sure there was a comment from Rich in one of the latest entries to that effect.
 
It all looks fine: but I normally expect to just click on the title of an article to read that article. No response. OK: I discovered the secret. I have to click on 'read more', THEN the piece opens. Why isn't the title a live link to the piece as on just about every other website I use.

Like others, I shall miss the buzz of a continuous, weekly Swift. The new style looks pretty much like a mixed-author blog. The distinction between Swift pieces and posts plus comments in this forum seems to have been seriously blurred.
 
Maybe it would be better for the regular forum readers if you updated the link on the main page once in a while. When you go to forums.randi.org there is a link to the commentary, still dated Sept 5. If that section was updated every time a new article was posted, it might drive more traffic to Swift.
 
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RSS feed

Come on guys, if you switch to a blog format than you MUST have an RSS feed. This isn't 1995 where people want to come to your website every day to update. Every CMS I have used has RSS built it - I can't believe Joomla doesn't.

Even worse you announced the new changes in the new system. Meaning myself and all the other people who relied on the RSS feed had no idea what happened unless they noticed and came searching. At least put one last post on the old feed so that those people know what it going on.

And when you add the feed put it at the same URL or make the old URL force a redirect. Most blog readers will happily update their blog readers if you send a URL redirect out.

Surely Phil gets it - he gets most of his traffic from those of us who subscribe to his feed.
 
I, too, miss the link to a digest of articles. I've been reading SWIFT for a long time now and have never actually read one on-line. I print it and read it.
 
alfaniner said:
Maybe it would be better for the regular forum readers if you updated the link on the main page once in a while. When you go to forums.randi.org there is a link to the commentary, still dated Sept 5. If that section was updated every time a new article was posted, it might drive more traffic to Swift.
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Today's way of describing that is "lack of joined up thinking". In the olden days we'd have said "The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing". I presume it's been changed because the latter makes it too apparent someone's cocked something up.

I'll have to think what to do about the SWIFT digest block on the Forum's homepage now the JREF has changed the SWIFT format - any ideas?

In the meantime I'll switch the SWIFT block off.
 
RSS feeds will be added soon. Upgrading Joomla was complicated, and we're trying to make sure it's stable before adding all the bells and whistles.

And for the record: my blogs gets a lot more traffic than it does from RSS feeds. :-)
 
I don't mind the format, but if it isn't on an RSS feed, then I can tell that I'll just forget to read it.

Thanks Phil for updating us. I can haz patience. :D
 
arthwollipot said:
I don't mind the format, but if it isn't on an RSS feed, then I can tell that I'll just forget to read it.

Thanks Phil for updating us. I can haz patience. :D
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Agreed, except for the patience thing. I want my RSS dammit. :D
 
The new format

I agree with those who don't care for the new format. I usually visit once a week or less, and it is far less convenient to have to open each article individually ... I find that I end up reading far fewer of them than when it was in one long file.

I used to recommend the Swift commentary to people with an interest in skepticism, as a good starting point, worth reading once a week. I no longer can do that. The new format is far less attractive and far more difficult to use for a newbie. I urge a return to a weekly newsletter version as the default home page, and leave the blog style as an option for those who prefer it (probably those who visit daily).

One last point: from the point of view of getting a causual vsiotr's attention, and keeping him on the website, the old style was far better, with a much nicer look (pictures nd graphics).
 
I'm with Stir and a few others. I've been trying to live with the new format for a month now and it is just not as easy to use. My SWIFT time is Friday at lunch. I click on my Favorite's link to JREF and easily scroll down the page reading all of the items, or at least I used to. Now I have to search back through the items to find out where I left off and click on the 'read more' link to get each whole article. As it is, I'm reading SWIFT less and enjoying it less. I'm really disappointed about that since I used to look forward to my Friday lunchtime journey into rationality.
 
Yeah - agree with previous - and ever since the whole site went over to the joomla cms it started to feel increasing disjointed and unintuitive to use - and the link to "commentary" at the top of each forum page ,eg this one needs fixing - When i click it I'm still getting:

:James Randi Educational Foundation This is the old site. Please update your bookmark to http://www.randi.org.
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Well the top link's been fixed but i am still not liking this latest Joomla version of Randi.org

for example The link in this article

A Good Question Swift Written by James Randi Friday, 05 December 2008 05:17
I frankly don't have as much time as I'd like to look through the comments following the items that appear on SWIFT, and I'm sure I thus miss a lot of good material. At this article, I discussed some differences between UK and USA English usage,
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The "this article" hyperlink above
http://www.randi.org/index.php/swift-blog/321-this-is-english.html

should take me to the article in question but instead redirects to the main first Swift page
http://www.randi.org/site/
 
Not a complaint, but a suggestion...

Would it be possible to include the author's name in the RSS code? I see articles appear in my RSS reader (which is what I wanted - thank you) but I can't tell whether Randi or Jeff or someone else wrote it. I also see only the first paragraph or so, but I can live with that.
 
Stir said:
I agree with those who don't care for the new format. I usually visit once a week or less, and it is far less convenient to have to open each article individually ... I find that I end up reading far fewer of them than when it was in one long file.

I used to recommend the Swift commentary to people with an interest in skepticism, as a good starting point, worth reading once a week. I no longer can do that. The new format is far less attractive and far more difficult to use for a newbie. I urge a return to a weekly newsletter version as the default home page, and leave the blog style as an option for those who prefer it (probably those who visit daily).

One last point: from the point of view of getting a causual vsiotr's attention, and keeping him on the website, the old style was far better, with a much nicer look (pictures nd graphics).
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A hearty "me too" on this observation.
 
RE: the RSS feed. There isn't a way to have it display the author automatically. I guess I could do it manually, or look into a different RSS feeder. I'll add it to the list of 8234 little things to fixed.
 
Jeff Wagg said:
RE: the RSS feed. There isn't a way to have it display the author automatically. I guess I could do it manually, or look into a different RSS feeder. I'll add it to the list of 8234 little things to fixed.
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No problem. I'm happy to have the RSS feed at all.
 
The new format is functional and fine. But purely on preference I prefer the old format in the archives .... its easier to read at work ;)

Still though, the new format is fine also
 
We're a couple of years into this, now, and I have to say that the new format seems to be fine. I'm also of the old school and was accustomed to my weekly Randi musings. But, as with the passing of the torch of the JREF, itself, let's face it, Randi will not always be there and many of us who miss the curmudgeonly commentary would probably be the first to raise the roof if someone was to try imitating Randi.
(I can just about hear the commotion already. "How dare that XXXXXXXX try to copy a style that belonged only to our founder. She/He needs to find her/his own voice and stop treading on the good name of The Amazing One.")

Note to Jeff - if you're reading here: I mentioned once that I preferred having the commentary here in the Forums and would try to start a thread or two. Well, total lack of interest, it seems. It would also appear that the commentary right below the articles is popular with the readers. So be it. Never let it be said that I'm one to fight change just for fighting's sake.
 
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