Hello all. I'd like to know what criticism's, both positive and negative, everyone has of the Miner. At the latest conference we went to, there were many ideas tossed around to improve the quality of the Miner, but more importantly is what the community thinks. I'm going to group this discussion into two parts. Feel free to comment on whatever. I don't want to hear "Teh Miner's teh suxxxorz," but if you have negative criticism, please tell me. I want to hear.

themissouriminer.com:

There has been much discussion generated about the layout of the website, and specifically what features we're giving to students/alumni. Here are some suggestions we were throwing around, and feel free to comment on them:

1.) Dynamic content. It's fine that the focus of the website is on the newspaper, but what does everyone think of the website posting stories as they happen, rather than as they're printed?

2.) Web exclusive content. This content wouldn't necessarily be simply stories that don't appear in the paper, but rather a series of interactive (and video/picture enhanced) stories that don't fit into the classic "idea" of a print story. For example:

- Each week we could run a web exclusive story that gives every student who desires to ask an administrator whatever questions they wanted about the topic of the week. The administrator would then reply to the questions in a story online. You can tell that this isn't typical paper print, but would fit online.

3.) Forums. Now, I realize I'm talking to the population on campus that frequents a largely UMR forum to begin with, but bear with me. Each major story would automatically be linked to a topic in the forum, and in addition to the news forums, we would hold forums that could be used as free advertising for on campus organizations. Free advertising. We would also have alumni forums (as they make up a large portion of the web traffic on themissouriminer.com to begin with), and other general discussion types of forums like most do.

4.) Minerwiki. This is an idea I'm particularly fond of. We would set up a site that would contain everything from the oh-so annoying occurrences that every hates trying to explain to everyone (i.e. the sonic booms, where can I use my points outside of campus, where are the best hang-outs, etc.) to a relatively all-encompassing database containing information on the various organizations (more free advertising for those who are interested), professors (now, we would have a locked section of the professor wikis because of potential vandalism), normal on campus events, etc.


Now on to the print version of the Miner, itself. I'm not going to phrase this section in suggestions we've made (because there is much debate), but rather questions about how you all would redesign the paper if you were given the opportunity.

1.) Size of the paper. Does everyone like the large broadsheets? Would you rather see a smaller paper?

2.) Color. Now, bear in mind that color is REALLY expensive, and is not feasible given our current situation. However, is color important enough to everyone (however, it would still probably be only one or two pages in color) that it would be worth it to decrease the amount of content in the paper?

3.) Thoughts on the current sections. What do you like/dislike?


I think that sums up about everything. If you have anything else you'd like to add, feel free to do so, but please keep it civilized.

An editor who actually reads through the paper.
There are so many damn mistakes in any given edition of the paper that it makes my eyes hurt.

The layout is terrible.
For example, when a picture squeezes a sentence into a 1/16'' column where every word is hyphenated and continues on the next line, that's ridiculous.

Frankly, I think most of the editorials are horrendously argued (especially the political ones) but I guess that's a subjective thing.

That's all I've got for now.

Teh Miner's teh suxxxorz


Seriously though, my problem is that the Miner is very unprofessional looking. The articles are often poorly written, and as said above, mistakes are everywhere. I know we don't have a journalism program here, but I think we could do better.

Bring back the Crime Blotter also, and keep it up to date, not 2 months behind.

Thanks for getting rid of the old cookie-cutter site. It was painful. There was no valid reason to reqiure registration to read stories. The amount of advertising--both regular banners and the "College Publisher" branding--was overwhelming.

If there's anything I'd like to change about the current site, it'd be to flesh out the archives. Now, do you think you could completely decomission the old site and point the missouri-miner.com domain to your new place?


I suggested something like this some time back. I wouldn't run it under the jurisdiction of a campus organization, however. It's far too easy for a higher up level of authority (Student Life, et al.) to order take-downs of objectionable or critical content. A better solution would be to have it run by an individual or some group that the university can't get their hooks into.

Setting pages immutable for a day or two is fine if a group of roaming idiots decides to target a professor or organization, but I wouldn't go as far as permanently locking pages on the wiki--it defeats the purpose. Just be sure to use wiki software with a good reversion system. Also of importance is to appoint or employ decent admins and mods. They need to be willing to crawl through the pages regularly to find bogus changes, bot spammings, and drunken/abusive entry creations.

Yeah, the editorials are pretty out of control, and the "Entertainment" page is pretty annoying... except of course the comics games and horriblescopes, you gotta love those. I would say more comics, but they probably cost money, so not much of a chance on that.

1.) Dynamic content. yes

2.) Web exclusive content. good too

3.) Forums. I think we already have a good set of forums

4.) Minerwiki. Now that's a good one. It would've been real nice if that had been around when I just started here


1.) Size of the paper. Smaller would be better so I could read it on a desk

2.) Color. Not worth it

3.) Thoughts on the current sections. As long as they are spelled correctly, they are alright

Alright, I'll make a few replies, but thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

Ben: There is somewhat of a consensus amongst the editors (with some exceptions, but not many) that the Miner carries a degree of unprofessional-ism, largely contained in formatting. Those are the short term goals we're working toward now, but thanks for the suggestions. Also, I agree with you on the errors. It's absurd to find "HOMECOMMING 2006" as a headline.

Lukecp: As far as the Crime Blotter goes, our information is as up-to-date as the Police Department gives us. It sucks, I know, but we are giving you the most up-to-date information that we have. Article content largely depends on the writer, and I'm proposing a sort of training program for new writers. I was given my first story and just told to do it, and I'm far from a journalism major (like the majority of writers). I'd like to see training of sorts. You should have been at the conference this weekend. Some easy changes could be made to make our paper very professional looking. I'll post some proposed changes on here once all the editors have a chance to talk about them.

Castorite: Thanks for the support on the website. You'd be surprised how many College Publisher websites for major institutions there are out there. It's really nice to be moving away from that. We're working on the archives, but the idea to point missouri-miner.com to the new site is great. Thanks very much. As far as the wiki is concerned, we wouldn't lock entire articles, but our idea is to have professors submit a small biography about themselves, and that would be locked. Nothing else. Everyone would be free to comment outside of their biographies.

Jthxv: Could you be more specific? What articles specifically annoy you? I agree there are some shortcomings (particularly in the ratings sections, IMO, I'd love to see A, B, C rankings, or 3 out of 5 stars, etc.), but I'd like some suggestions.

Thanks everyone again. I'll be sure to keep commenting.

PDF copy of each edition? This might already exist, but I couldn't find it on the site.

No, PDF's are not currently available. We're trying to balance storage of PDF's online versus cost of a higher capacity website.

I don't read the online paper, but I would definitely prefer a smaller format for the normal paper, as in full sheets being about half the size they are now. Its just too damn bulky, and like Zak said, I can't easily read it at a desk.

I'd rather have more of a magazine format as well, the current one is just too bulky

I'd also like to see a smaller format paper, the large format is just too clumsy to use in most classroom situations.

How big we talking here, 5-10MB per issue?

Best part of the paper right now is definitely the back two pages. Get Fuzzy and Foxtrot are the only comics that matter, IMO. The "Sudoku" and cross-word puzzles are normally pretty good, and the horiscopes normally give me a chuckle.

What I get really annoyed at is when I read an article and then it says "Continued on page ___" when in fact it isn't on that page, or sometimes not continued at all in the case of a Greek Week article a few weeks back. It's like whoever put it together didn't actually make sure all the parts fit together, they just kinda threw it together. It makes me very aggrivated when I read stuff like that.

I remember coming here on my PRO day and grabbing a Miner for the ride back to the airport. As I read it I was thinking, "Man, this thing really sucks." It was like the people didn't even care how the outcome of the paper was, as long as there was a paper. I think it is a little better now, but sometimes there are stories that are complete crap and errors out the wazzou. I just wish the writers asked themselves "Who will care about this article after I publish it?" before writing the article. The paper might be a little more interesting then.

I
hate
reading
stories
like
this
because
of pictures