Fresno Famous

I know nothing

but... The old format was sloppy, but for some reason, I found it easier to navigate. I am not a master blogger by any means, but it seems as if things have been cluttered since the change. I would suggest simplification perhaps. It would be nice if you visited the homepage and you would see categories right away to select from. Categories such as Politics, Nightlife, Food, Why I love Fresno, Local Sports, Art, Media, Family. Make it more interactive for the populace. Kinda mainstream I know, but if the options are there in front of you, it would allow the poster to make it less mainstream if they so choose to with whatever they choose to write. As it is now, I just click on recent blogs and see a whole slew of general topics all over the map that may or may not interest me. I think it would be less intimidating if you would provide an immediate topic of interest and then allow a visitor to then pursue it and post away. So yeah, more simple. I understand the necessity of the Ads, but they are really in your face. If a more manageable format was developed, the ads could be placed more periodically, which would make them both less distractive and more effective.

You're right 559rel, we did

You're right 559rel, we did already hash all this out right after the launch of the new design. I would like to say it again though, we really do try to read all user's opinions on the design. The thing is, if you have a specific concern, let me know in detail. you all are certainly entitled to your opinion of just overall not liking the site anymore and it doesn't hurt my feelings at all, but it doesn't provide me with any specific thing i can do to fix any problems.

Pido, you are right about the spam thing too. honestly, i've gotten a bit bored with constantly messing with the design of this site, so over the past couple months i've been directing my attention to the spam problem. There was so much of it, that it did account for a huge percentage of what was probably perceived as valid user activity. So things may seem a bit more sedentary now, but the posts are at least real.

Trust me, for someone who has to refresh this site like ten million times a day, the slowness thing drives me crazy. i'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but i think its just the massively huge database of information that has formed over the years.

As far as any improvement or degradation of this site due to being owned by the Bee, i can't really comment on. All i can say is you guys have no idea how much pressure we were under to push this out by a certain deadline. not only that, but there were so many people giving their input here, and we're trying to listen to what you guys want at the same time. Its tough. there are only 2 of us that do this site, 1 GUI dev, and one back end dev (me), and we're caught in the middle of what everybody else wants.

Anyway, enough of this rant, my point is that the only real goal of myself and the other developer is to make this site cool and fun, and to not get in trouble for having those lines cross with other's official agendas. We're always open to suggestion, so don't hesitate!

Isn't Fresno Famous user

Isn't Fresno Famous user driven? Meaning that most of the content for the site is submitted by it's users?

Yup.

Simple as that...

It seems that most people (including myself) tend not to like the "upgrade". I agree with most everything said above. All of those things are probably a factor, but I'm sure it's mostly the way the site looks and functions that's keeping people away.

We've already hashed this out in a couple of posts when the upgrade first happened. They fixed a lot of stuff that people requested, but I guess we're stuck with the new foundation :-(

"If it ain't broken, don't fix it!"

Minor improvements would have been cool...

~Rell
www.myspace.com/559rell
www.myspace.com/trellthareallamane (music production)
www.fresnofusion.com

you are correct on finding what to do before the weekend comes.

one great feature of Fresno Famous and one of the real only reasons I would make sure to check this site before the weekend was because of Jarah's regular Thursday or Friday posts about what was going on in Fresno at the hip locations in the Tower and Downtown. I really miss that on here the most.

http://www.fresnofamous.com/node/308

here's the old posts.
http://www.fresnofamous.com/search/node/Thank+Goodness+It%27s+Fresno
that stopped just over a year ago.

that Weekend Recap is just as lame as the Fresno Bee's reporting on events after they happen.

Mike O's job reporting events to do in Friday Weekend section is now better than what is on here now.

I can list several others,

I can list several others, but I've noticed through other sites that there is a fairly small group of people who post everywhere (so the size of the online network isn't as large as it might seem). Edluv, for example, contributes to more sites than I can count.

I would hope that Fresno could support more than this short list of community sites (though some of them are more "community" or user-driven than others). As for Famous, I am starting to wonder, as others have asserted, if the design has pushed people away; true, we have the white/blue option, but we have to be logged in to see it, and sometimes people want to read without taking that step.

This site is driven by the contributions of its members, but if those members don't feel they have input (i.e., a sudden mandate by the Bee to update design, no questions asked), they'll walk away. Or so it seems...

Because there are a lot more sites now, too

It's also partly that there are a number of new sites that are going online to give people options.

Here's my list in a-z:
http://www.lateupdate.com (alphabetical except this one, ahem)
http://my.fresnoarts.net
http://www.fresnobeehive.com
http://www.fresnodesignalliance.ning.com
http://www.fresnolive.com
http://www.fresnoundercurrent.net/
http://www.fresnowiki.org
http://www.mindhub.org
http://www.thevalleyamateur.com

Sorry if I didn't link it properly. I'm sure there are more -- not even to get into Blogger, Wordpress, Facebook and Myspace and their impact. The point is, believe me, I try to keep up with sites and it's impossible to participate in them all.

Why not start your weekend early, with Arthops?

Time: September 4, 2008 at 5pm

'Summer Dreams', new work by Linda Lloyd Pitts will be presented the Art hop night of September 4th from 5-9 in the Javawava Neighborhood Restaurant at 1940 N Echo (across from Fresno High School).
You really have to visit the Javawava, one of the brightest gems of the Tower/FHS neighborhood! 'The Vineyard',the painting that was selected to represent Octobers 2008 Fall Wine Cornucopia at Chuckchansi will be shown that evening and complimentary tickets to the spectacular event will be given as door prizes.

The first Thursday central and downtown art venues throw open their doors and show great art.....and you meet a lot of great people along the way.

user friendly

Correct me if I'm wrong, isn't this supposed to be a user based site? A place where we can write and comment about things that are important, funny and entertaining to us. I like the fact that they leave the content largely to us. Unfortunately, we seem to have dropped the ball. Could be that Brutal Heat that fresnoise mentioned. Could be that going corporate with the Fresno Bee turned a few people off. As far as the advertisements go, I think Jarah would have been thrilled to have a few of those since that is how she made her living. It doesn't seem to me that FamousWhitewater posts any more or less than Jarah did.
Also, I can't be the ONLY one that likes the new look and finds the white on black EASIER to read, can I?

How funny! I have avoided

How funny! I have avoided the blogosphere altogether, but in the back of my mind I always thought I would start blogging here if I ever started blogging anywhere. This morning I said: "OK, let's do this thing." When I log in to set up my page I am told it no longer exists and takes me to some non-fresno site. Then I find this thread. I guess The Bee killed Fresno Famous?

From an inexperienced blogger, yes there doesn't seem to be much here anymore.

To little to late

Those in charge did to little to late, to try to make this site readable again.I agree, too many huge ads and not enough content.
The changes ran off a lot of people, and many have not returned. I seldomly ever post here anymore either.
It is to bad as this used to be a nice place to find out what was happening in the area and to discuss local issues.

I was thinking something

I was thinking something similar recently. I chalked it up to summer (everything seems to die off in the summer here), but things still seem to be sluggish.
There have been some good posts, but they get buried fairly quickly without comments, or if someone posts the same thing twice (which has happened a couple of times lately). I'd like to think that at least one of these posts was worthy of being "recommended;" instead, the newest post in that thread is over a month old, and it's one of two in that section that focused on the chat feature. Perhaps the recent announcements at the Bee have shifted focus a bit...
On the other hand, there has been further reduction in spam (which used keep the comment thread lively, despite being annoying), and Famous Whitewater has been writing a bit more.

It seems I visit a lot less

It seems I visit a lot less often since the design change too. I don't know if that's necessarily the design's fault or the fact that there's not a whole lot of interesting content.

the rhythm is different

admitedly, the rhythm is different.
There still seems to be a lot of interesting posts. Some of the articles disappear rather quickly and others....like the 'more beer in the tower' or whatever seem to be up there for months and months.

I think there's a lot of good info and communication to be had here, but it is different.

The good thing is, the folks in charge seem to be pretty good at responding to actual suggestions.

good luck to ya.

thanks Victor

thanks Victor

Things to do next weekend

Well, to look for things to do next weekend, check the fresnobeehive.com's Post No Bills. And if you are into the arts, check FresnoArts.net.

Victor