WSB Pledge Day update #4: Site features

As we mentioned in WSBPD update #1, the first thing we will invest in, to improve WSB, is a video camera. Some West Seattle people, places, and events just beg for moving pix and sound. Even still pix are a relatively recent addition for us — we bought a small Nikon with 10x zoom on closeout a few months back, and it’s enabled us to get beyond what we were managing to eke out with a combination of a dying decade-old Sony plus a cell-phone cam. Speaking of which, we also will invest in a low-cost blog phone line, since we’ve found that some information providers just don’t want to do business via e-mail. But that’s all “infrastructure” stuff, as our governmental friends might call it. We have tried to enhance the features you see — adding “live” screengrabs to the WS “Live” Cams page, refining and expanding the categories (list on the right-side sidebar) so you can subscribe via RSS to just the categories that interest you (Admiral Theater, Elliott Bay Water Taxi, Alki Statue of Liberty, among other topics, all have their own categories now) or bookmark the specific category page, and continuing to update the Other Blogs in WS page, currently with 91 blogs (and we’re always ready to hear about more!), as well as researching and posting the WS Weekend Lineup every Friday morning. For a while we were deluged with lost-pet announcements and about to create a pet page — that’s still in queue — and we’re mulling a few other ideas. Most important — is there anything you wish you could find at WSB? We can’t promise everything (some things aren’t scalable for a small family-run site) but we would love to hear your wish list.

Sue August 28, 2007 (5:04 pm)

As for things I’d like to see, I’d love to someday see a message board/forum here (or even a related yahoogroup list or something like that) so that we could have further discussion on some of the topics, new topics that you didn’t necessarily have a post on to comment on, or simply to ask where to get the best X in town.
Even without that, you guys are great and I really appreciate all that you do here. WSB is my home page on my home computer and I find your site invaluable. Many thanks!

josh August 28, 2007 (6:48 pm)

For now, you might try taking videos with your Nikon. Most digital cameras have the ability to record video. As for the phone line, take a look at http://k7.net — they’ll give you a free phone number for voicemail and FAX service.

A August 28, 2007 (6:55 pm)

I second the idea of a related message board.

My partner just started a new job after 3 months of involuntary unemployment, so we can’t contribute quite yet, but we’d really like to do so. Will you please leave the link up in the sidebar so we (and others, I assume) can donate in a couple of weeks?

ms_f August 28, 2007 (8:08 pm)

Yes, a message/discussion board would be really nice.

The House August 28, 2007 (8:13 pm)

Just let me know when you want me to contribute an editorial piece….I’m all over that!

Agen August 28, 2007 (9:29 pm)

I, too, would go with capturing video from your Nikon – uploading to YouTube or DailyMotion is very easy with the video files that your digicam produces.

Lou's Wife August 29, 2007 (12:03 pm)

Having Kids, I would love a section about things to do with kids or family friendly places to eat (like Elliot Bay Brewing Co.).

Mickymse August 29, 2007 (1:01 pm)

I sort of agree with The House… Think down the line of perhaps taking some burden off your shoulders and bringing on one or two people to your WSB team. You could get folks who could specialize on all sorts of things — say, restaurant reviews or local school sports and events.

t September 2, 2007 (9:51 am)

Adding a late suggestion – depending on your ambitions for the site, I would like to see you evolve to some “feature” journalism that goes beyond blogging. There are several ways you could do this, my suggestion would be a couple of regular date-specific features, like a regular First Thursday short profile of a West Seattle artist or musician or writer, or a regular monthly post with a historical image and brief historical post on some spot in West Seattle, or a regular monthly post on a featured “outdoor activity” in the hood, or whatever. There are a million specific regular features you could implement, and being bloggers, you should choose them based on your own personal interests (the blogger’s prerogative!). But knowing, for example, “Every 15th of the month they post a cool historical photo and a little background” would be added value, in my view.

I suppose you could even have these written by someone else, if you want to give someone a regular forum to post featurettes on a given topic.

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