On archiving–there was a post about three months ago about residents on the Upper West Side who park in the bike lane during alt-side and were ticketed en masse by NYPD for doing so. A NYT article was quoted. That post seems to have disappeared.

On splitting of discussions–I tend to favor the current traditional blog format but agree that it would be helpful, whenever a post tops 30 comments or so, for a staffer to collect up to five past on-topic posts, link them to a sidebar, and perhaps even summarize their relevance in a comment to the 30+ comment post at issue.

Keep carnage–doesn’t draw comments (what can you say?) but is very important.

Keep up the good work!

Point well taken. For now, the “Hot Topics” column on the right-hand side of the page is one way of tracking the posts that continue to generate debate.

1) Hierarchy of posts / visibility of important posts: Find a way to keep important stories on top, tie themes together, and find posts easily, without losing the "crack" appeal of the blog.

2) Discussion / community: One of the most amazing aspects of Sblog has been the great community of community members/activists/officials/experts and regular folks we’ve found. It sounds like we need to find better ways to take discussions to the next level (threading, free-form discussion, etc.) and get to know each other better (through profiles, logins, etc.)

3) Scope: Obviously, everything we talk about is about place – we can do a better job of balancing coverage of different neighborhoods, and perhaps giving you ways to access more localized info (e.g., sf.streetsblog.org, portland.streetsblog.org).

Sound about right?

It might also be nice to provide a space for committed streetsbloggers to get to know each other. People could post profiles with contact information, interests, etc. A way to build/tighten this awesome community.

To respond:

Ddartley (#11) – the search tool should search all past posts – we never un-archive anything. If something’s not turning up, there could be some sort of bug – let me know if you can’t find something. I really like the idea of searching comments (echoed by Xue #15).

Ryan (#14) – your point about worldchanging.org is an important one. I look at that site, and I’m not immediately drawn into reading anything, the way I am on Streetsblog. I definitely worry that a magazine-style layout could diminish some of Sblog’s crushing grip on my attention.

Momos (#16) – I like your idea of breaking down the archives by a) orig reporting, b) ongoing stories and c) posts with lots of comments. When we added the "Hot Topics" sidebar, it really changed the way I read the blog, and these could do the same.

Re: citywide coverage – this is definitely something we’ve been discussing, and I’ll let the contributors/editors respond if they want. However, from a design point of view, we’d like to give a better way to find posts by borough (such as a google map).

Will (#18) – your point about going liquid is well taken. We are definitely planning to go wider, but may go all the way liquid. Over 50% of our visitors have >1024px wide monitors.

Carrie (#19) – donations… I love it! Good point about t-shirts. Perhaps we should have a t-shirt design contest, or at least a slogan contest for the shirt. More posts on the homepage is a great idea.

Please, keep the comments coming – it’s invaluable to hear how you all use the site, and we’re definitely excited to embark on this round of improvements.

* Would love to see headlined news broken down by burrough: news related to Brooklyn, Queens, etc.

* Make it easy to donate to you.

* T-shirts: make ‘em look good and include women’s versions. (Much as I love TA, their shirts are ugly and don’t fit.)

* Change yr settings to allow more posts on the home page; as it now, posts only a day old end up going on the second or third page, which makes it harder to find them

* Have an intern promote particularly good posts to other blogs and newspapers — it’ll help you increase traffic

Get Liquid
Also, please lose the fixed width layout – its a form of aesthetic control you impose on people – but you make assumptions about their monitor size, resolution, and type size the reader is comfortable reading at – in the end its basically anti-accessibility.

More Outer Manhattan Outer Brooklyn
We all cover Brooklyn and Manhattan hard, it would be great to get some better attention on the Bronx, Queens and SI. That goes for everyone publishing online self included.

To manage comments better, use nestled posting in which readers can specifically respond to other readers.

A few responses request more national coverage. I disagree. This blog has the right balance: occasional national/int’l stories providing case examples and new information, but remains committed to the particularities of transportation in NYC. There are whole areas of NYC that don’t get coverage, namely the Bronx (the ongoing battle to get NYSDOT to entirely dismantle the 1.25 Sheridan Expressway, for ex), Queens and Staten Island. Improve coverage of these before pursuing national ambitions.

2. As others have said, change the archiving system so that posts meeting the following criteria are prominently accessible:
a). Contain original reporting
b). Contain info with longer shelf life (such as the post “Electeds React to Congestion Pricing,” useful for readers who want to follow up with phone calls to electeds)
c). Many user reader comments (over 15)

Another suggestion: Make it easier for readers to become activists immediately after reading a post. For example, post the phone numbers of the 3 most important players with influence on the issue the post discusses. I posted the tel#s of various reps encouraging readers to call in support of PlaNYC. Glad to see some have done so.

3. Don’t split discussion off from posts. People write responses because they’re reasonably confident they will be seen by most readers of a given post. If the discussion is split away, they will become more general and less tightly focused on a post.

5. I read Streetsblog several times a day.

It seems useful to maintain the rapid-response aspect, but this site can certainly be much more than a blog. There are already a lot of valuable features (calendar, streetfilms) that could be expanded with a magazine format.

A few articles posted here have fundamentally changed my thinking on certain issues. They should stay prominent rather than slowly fade into memory…

If you want to keep the ease of use and display characteristics of the Blog format, you can keep it as is, but link to a PHP forum for *all* discussions. Shut off comments on the blog content, allow users to start discussions which refer back to the blog, or have blog contributor’s start the discussion thread on the forum, if you want to limit the ability for posters to start new threads.

I also agree with his remarks re the blog format, and I like Nick’s proposal for a more magazine style layout.

And while I see the need for a sober approach, but I miss the humor of the posts in Naparstek.com.

I don’t know if this is what I like BEST, but I am very glad that the discussion is civil, and when some nut does post something repugnant, most readers don’t take the bait, but reply coolly, if at all.

2. What could we do to improve Streetsblog for you?

Due to my tech-laziness, this answer might be ill-informed: It seems that some content does not get archived, but just goes offline after a while (I’m not talking about stuff that has to be taken because of errors/legal issues, etc.). If that’s true, I would really love it if we could search all past content. Don’t know how feasible that is. Also, it would be great if the search function also searched through comments.

5. How often do you visit Streetsblog?

from Merriam Webster:
*crack: noun
a potent form of cocaine that is obtained by treating the hydrochloride of cocaine with sodium bicarbonate to create small chips used illicitly for smoking

Ryan (#1) – Your point about important stories dropping off is something we’ve been thinking about. We’re considering switching to a more magazine-style layout (like http://www.huffingtonpost.com), or just doing a better job tying related posts together (http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com does a great job of this — yes, I read that site). Would people be shocked & outraged if Streetsblog became less of a "traditional" blog?

bev_rd (#2) and Dan (#5) – Figuring out how to take the discussion to the next level is another issue we’ve been discussing. I feel Dan’s concerns about splintering content, but also believe that there’s un-tapped reader energy out there. Can anyone think of other sites that have done a good job with this?

The one suggestion I’d have is to expand your coverage zone. I’ve seen countless posts on the Park Slope traffic changes, but little about my neighborhood out here in astoria queens (or other parts of queens.)

Ok, i have another suggestion. I object to using terms like ‘carnage’ to describe pedestrian deaths — this is an important enough issue by as it is — no need for sensationalism!