Online musings
Here's something I discovered by accident: PAHomePage.com will allow you to customize the layout of the website to your personal preference. If you click and drag on the heading bars, like the community calendar, you can drag things around. Check out this before and after picture to see what I mean. I don't know if this is a feature or a mistake, but if you've ever wanted to arrange section categories for the classifieds and the community calendar, this is your chance!
A reader also notes that people don't seem to be interested in the polls on PAHomePage.com...
This person's point?
A: it seems the polls are useless to measure public opinion if only a handful of people are voting
B: if nobody's voting, is anybody watching?
Well, given the elderly demographics of this area (and state), I think Mr. and Mrs. John Public would rather deal with rabbit ears than a cable modem.
A reader also notes that people don't seem to be interested in the polls on PAHomePage.com...
The new (and "improved"?) PaHomePage.com features the "WYOU Interactive Web Poll." Tuesday's question, "Do you think your car insurance rates are too high?" OK, I'll play along, so I click "YES," and I get a results page: As I write this, 77.78% say "YES" (to be expected) and 22.22% say "NO."
But get this: that's SEVEN "YES" votes and TWO "NOs." That's right--a total of NINE %$^%$ VOTES!
This person's point?
A: it seems the polls are useless to measure public opinion if only a handful of people are voting
B: if nobody's voting, is anybody watching?
Well, given the elderly demographics of this area (and state), I think Mr. and Mrs. John Public would rather deal with rabbit ears than a cable modem.
posted by Howard Beale at 7:34 PM
16 Comments:
"I don't know if this is a feature or a mistake, but if you've ever wanted to arrange section categories for the classifieds and the community calendar, this is your chance!"
If you knew how to read you would see that it says "personalize this page" right on the top.
I posted a few threads ago about the user-preference windows. Neat feature in an otherwise somewhat-dull website. "A" for effort, maybe.
I also notice the poll results on PAhompage don't always match the results on wyouonline. Slow to catch up or not in-sync ? Or maybe people haven't discovered the new site yet.
I agree Howard, I think folks at home prefer the boob-tube over the modem. Every time I check out 'YOU there is certainly no shortage of phone calls.
Although I'm not yet a fan of the page, is it possible that this was noticed when the poll just started? Even the most popular polls that have thousands of replies at some point has nine entries. Nothing starts with a thousand - all start with ONE. Just a thought.
Insiders at 50 say the ability to move things around on their home page is by design.
"PAHomePage.com, built for you, by you."
Guess that's what they mean.
Oh God, I hate to be first in line to bash, but the weight is on me to do so - clearly and undeniably, no one is watching that POS known as WYOU, and they never will. Would you?
Sounds more like a "pole" than a "poll" to me. Recent topics and totals: PA Budget--27 total votes; Sports--9; Cold Case Crimes--7; Travel--21; Abduction--13.
I guess people felt they didn't have enough information to make an informed choice. Must have been watching WYOU;
You know what I think? No, of course you don't really care, but here it is anyway; any and all of the pro-Nexstar comments here come from a scant handful of people who are in complete and utter denial about the WYOU and WBRE situation. No one's watching, and it's been that way for at least five years now.
12:33pm
Nice theory, or maybe they prefer not to be negative about everything.
As to Howard's theory of this market not being interested in station's web pages, then WNEP would have closed up their online presence a long time ago.
12:33PM:
You may be right, but using your logic, the opposite can be said. Meaning: The anti-Nexstar comments are coming from a number of former employees who will cut them down no matter what the effort. I'm sure Vince, Phil and Barry could relate.
The point about the abundantly elderly population here is valid. Many want no part of computers, some even won't vote on the new machines. However, many DO have computers and are very computer savvy. I don't think the sparce replies on these polls results from our population demographics. Give it time, it's new. It needs tweaking to peak. Lots of people won't be interested until it until it works out its newness and adds improvements. Try again in a couple of months. If it doesn't have better numbers then, it's a dud and should discontinue the polls.
"Try again in a couple of months. If it doesn't have better numbers then, it's a dud and should discontinue the polls."
4:34 PM
Give it time? Easy for YOU to say. But what does Perry Sook say? He has a notoriously short attention span.
I'm told that when the latest market research was delivered he ripped into the project director because his LAST research hadn't produced the "quick fix" Perry was after.
"The anti-Nexstar comments are coming from a number of former employees who will cut them down no matter what the effort."
4:03 PM
I'll admit it, you've got me there. Having been corn-holed by Nexstar perhaps I'm just a bit suspicious when I hear Perry telling people to bend over, that "it's for your own good."
They've since taken it down (surprise!), but one of the "22 Interactive Poll" questions listed on PaHomePage.com was "What is your opinion of Abortion?"
PRO-CHOICE—two votes.
PRO-LIFE—zero votes.
NO OPINION—one vote.
What's wrong with this picture--with this poll? In heavily Catholic NEPA no one is anti-abortion?
Or is it that no one voted because no one is watching.
By the way, I also object to the "pro-choice" and "pro-life" labels.
4:34PM makes an excellent point (at last, intelligent discussion). Given this market's elderly demos, can a setup like PAhomepage succeed ? Let's remember that the internet is a medium where you must be (inter)active to recieve information. With television, you just have to sit back and get fed. What works in this market ?
This market's elderly demos are forever overstated; no one seems to mention there's a large population of everyone else, too. Take a walk through Circuit City, Best Buy, etc., you can barely move in there. Nexstar's troubles are not demo-related, except for the fact that they really don't have any.
"Nexstar's troubles are not demo-related, except for the fact that they really don't have any."
7:04 PM
Oooh! Ugggh! Ouch!
Sorry, it's just that the truth hurts.
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