Sunday, December 21, 2008

plz to add comments, kthxbai

Oh no. I have been claimed by the gift economy.
I was reading an article on Stuff.co.nz and thought "Hey, that story's missing an important point. I know, I'll add a comment." ... and stumbled into the thicket of their "Feedback" system. "You are in a maze of twisty passages, none of which are what you are looking for."

So I left them a note saying so. You know - the whole Social Media bit. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a conversation about this thing here, in a way that doesn't mean I have to stare at the page, poking F5, just in case someone else is looking at the page too and thinking the same thing.

I also wanted to practise explaining what Social Media was - I'd like a job in the field one day, and I'm becoming aware that the phenom is not well know yet. People kinda look at you and go "wut?"

I noticed another thing too, Feedback pages that give you no information about the person who's going to be reading it are no fun. How should I phrase it? Is it for Sue, who likes proper spelling and grammar and a soft approach - or is it for Marty, who's a straight shooter and just wants the facts asap? There's no feedback in this Feedback. It's like the new-old saw: I'd rather talk to a person than a Coke bottle.

So I said stuff, and found myself plugging ijump - well, they are the only SM specialist company I know of in NZ, there may be others, I haven't looked. I just found them through Twitter. Um, QED?


"I wanted to leave a comment on one of your stories, but I find it difficult to use your "Have your say" system.

I find Stuff's stories to normally be more interesting to me than other sites, but other online news sites like the NZHerald offer me an easier way to become involved in conversations around news stories.

I wonder if you were to tie, not just stories, but also conversations on the Stuff site out to blogs and Social Networks through RSS feeds and email, then along with making Stuff more engaging and drawing the conversation to you, you could also find out what other people are saying about your brand and get some more feedback without requiring people to click on "Have your say", or even visit the site.
I stumbled across a company that offers help in this area, ijump.co.nz, maybe they could help out. (I'm not involved with them in any way, in case you were wondering, I just noticed them on a social network called Twitter).

All the best, Vaughan"

Their captcha isn't case sensitive either. Oh Big Media, honestly... wut?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Should be using ReCaptcha anyway - as should you :P