Those who have watched this website closely over the past few months are likely to have noticed a lot of changes. The site has changed both in terms of its look and its functionality.
Most of these changes are due to the fact that I have been taken on as the Clarion webmaster. I am the person responsible for making sure your online edition arrives in your inbox every Tuesday, hot off the presses.
Those who have watched their calenders closely over the past few minutes are likely to have noticed that today is not Tuesday. The main reason for me writing this message is to apologize for all the delays that came about in getting the paper to you internet subscribers this week.
On Tuesday, College Publisher, the network that we use to host our website, went down. We do not know if this was a scheduled maintenence downtime, or simply the result of an error with the server, but we were unable to post. The paper was going to be a few hours late, but that was a minor inconvenice.
Those who have watched campus activity notifications closely are likely to have noticed that the Driscoll Commons are being remodeled. What they may not know is that Student Media and Broadcasting, home to both the Clarion and KVDU, the university’s own internet radio station, are located off in a small corner of the commons. What this means, as you have probably already guessed, is that it is nearly impossible to actually get into Student Media.
The staff of the Clarion, primarily myself, wish to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that our delay may have caused to you, the readers. We are genuinely trying to make you happy. Our entire purpose with the Clarion is to serve you.
With that said, we should note that over the coming weeks you can expect significant improvements to our website, and we hope that you will enjoy them. Already we have the ability for users to post comments about the stories they read, a weekly poll, and we are going to establish message boards for your use. We’re excited about these and other changes.
But, of course, we are also always looking to do more for you, and make sure you have the best experience with the website possible. To that end, we would be happy to help if you e-mail us with any website issues whatsoever. Not, you know, a lot, because nobody likes to hear that their system is buggy, but we would be happy to take a look if you are having any issues at all.
We’re also taking suggestions. What do you want to see on our website? What would you like to be able to do with it? What would you change in regards to its design? We always welcome new ideas.
In either case, whether to report bugs or to share a suggestion (or even to leave a compliment, if you wanted) the best person to e-mail is me, and you can do that at agalleg5@du.edu. You can e-mail the editors as well but they are just going to forward it to me anyway. Why not save them a step? They’re busy enough making sure the print edition is as wonderful as it is. If I could make the website even half as good as the print edition, I would be extremely happy. The rest of the Clarion staff are hard workers, and their time and effort can definitely be seen in the weekly print edition.
It should be mentioned, also, that as there are features that the website has that the print edition does not, so too are there features that the print edition has that the website cannot support. Comics, full pages of color photographs of events on campus, and wonderful deals from area companies advertising with the Clarion can all be found in the print edition, so it’s worth picking up a hardcopy as well. New editions come out every Tuesday in several locations around campus. Look for hardcopies in your residence hall, in the Driscoll Center, and elsewhere.
Thank you all for your support and your continued readership, as well as your patience as we work around several obstacles in order to get the online edition in peak condition.
Sincerely,
Alex Gallegos
Clarion Webmaster
