A Follow-up Question
A reader responded to the former post by saying that he preferred the original format with only one blog. The problem with this is that it doesn’t lend itself as well to postings by readers or to sub-topics like the renovation. On the other hand, if people only have the time or interest to be…
A reader responded to the former post by saying that he preferred the original format with only one blog. The problem with this is that it doesn’t lend itself as well to postings by readers or to sub-topics like the renovation. On the other hand, if people only have the time or interest to be reading the main blog, then that’s certainly worth knowing from our perspective so we can better allocate our limited resources. With that in mind, we thought this would be a good time to solicit everyone’s critical feedback about what you like, what you think needs improvement and what you think is missing from the site. We are limited in our efforts by that pesky full-time job, a non-existent trust fund and our own technical ineptitude but we will do our best to make this as useful and fun a forum as possible.
Cheers and bring it on!
B’stoner
I agree with what this person says:
“Some blogging software allows for categories to be defined. The main page shows all posts, but users can choose specific categories instead to see only entries related to a particular category. For example, see:
http://prospectheights.typepad.com/prospect_heights/
I don’t know if that is possible with this software, but that might be a useful middle ground.
I also echo the comment about reversing the order of comments — I’d much rather read them earliest to latest instead of the latest to earliest.”
Thank you for the excellent site.
Love the site!!!! I totally agree that it would be a tremendous enhancement to have a “Best Of” services listing arranged by category to supplement the Q & A format.
Readers could recommend their favorites and you wouldn’t have to dig through the posts to find contact info. I already keep a little database of recommended vendors from the FGKids site that I would be happy to contribute.
Some blogging software allows for categories to be defined. The main page shows all posts, but users can choose specific categories instead to see only entries related to a particular category. For example, see:
http://prospectheights.typepad.com/prospect_heights/
I don’t know if that is possible with this software, but that might be a useful middle ground.
I also echo the comment about reversing the order of comments — I’d much rather read them earliest to latest instead of the latest to earliest.
I think the new site is great, visually and functionally. I agree that making the services page more of a forum could be a good idea… It seems that more people are in need of services than have recommendations to give – either that or a reader who has a good contractor to recommend doesn’t want to write in that recommendation over and over. It would be nice to be able to read through recommended service people without having to read all the previous posts. Maybe something like this page:
http://www.fortgreeneny.com/plumber.html
I agree about reading the posts first to most recent would be better.
Besides that, I love the site!
Great site.
Would it be possible to have the comments to a post go in chronological order from top to bottom (with the latest comments at the bottom of the page)? It can get a bit confusing to read someone’s response to a comment that you haven’t read yet.
I agree.
I just noticed the small links up top today. I’ve been checking into the site for several months now.
The design doesn’t make it clear, especially for the casual visitor or non-web savvy person, that the service and renovation blogs even exist. What is that, 8 point type at top?
I suggest turning the Services page into an all-purpose forum where people can raise any question related to brownstones, real estate, etc. It would get more traffic. As it is now, you have more incentive to visit it if you’re looking for help; people able to give help may not visit it at all. But they might if it included other lively discussions interesting to them — and along the way, they may find and respond to posts for help.
One other comment is that you probably have a divided readership — those who do own their brownstones, and those who wish they did, are trying to figure out to pay for one, etc. I recently had a bid accepted on a house that fell through, but during that time period I was certainly paying a lot more attention to the services blog. Now, not so often.