May 21, 2016

Price Tags — Refreshed

We have made an update to the look and feel of Price Tags.

Many people have assisted us with this, but any blunders are certain to be mine.  Please pass them on to me.

The major work is done, and I’ll be adding customization over the the next while.

Price Tags, while lively and busy, was looking stale to us.  Plus, the “theme” was outdated and no longer supported.  It did not provide access to new features, none of them huge, but all useful, which I will be adding.

Hope you like the new look.

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Comments

  1. Most website redesigns I have seen make the site look worse, with a higher density of clutter and/or a lower density of content. My first impression is that this is an exception. I like the sparse design, single-column layout and easy-to-read text. Nice.

  2. That’s a great header image, Ken, but you’ll have to revisit the spot soon. Since that was taken there’s a new rental tower going up in front of one stadium and you might be able to see a couple of significant midrise buildings on the edge of Chinatown that were just completed.

    The Marriott hotels and casino complex that’s rapidly rising at the end of BC Place is supposed to be finished this year as well. You might also be able to see the new elementary school that’s being built, if they’d only get that viaduct out of the way!

  3. I like that there are no portraits on tthe left side Recent Comments – it was tedious seeing the same faces over and over – three two sentence comments and three identical faces stacked. Blech.

    Plus, there is less opportunity for their self-promotion/self-aggrandizement. Like good comments – not somebody’s face reproduced ad nauseum. It’s creepy.

  4. I like the new look.

    I do not like / suggest improvements for:

    a) anonymous comments should not be allowed. Insist on a facebook or LinkedIn ID at least. Plus a face. Plus a minimum bio so I know if the responder is a student, a retiree, a professional or what. Unlike a democracy every view does not have teh same weight. Some folks are far more educated on a subject than others, and it would be good to know who is and who is not.

    b) allow a way to show more recent comments, say 100-200, as it is tedious to find new replies on 4-6 blog entries if there are more than a dozen replies each.

    c) allow edits after posting as often I find errors later or wish to add a link or a picture or a 1/2 sentence a day or 45 min later.

    d) allow a footer so people can promote their website, firm or cause via a link. Those interested can click on it and find more info.

    ==> As such the comment section is far too castrated, and does not lend it self to a meaningful dialogue / deep dive on a topic.

    1. I’m neutral about non-anonymous comments but don’t want there to be a requirement to Facebook or LinkedIn. Many people are not on those. Maybe only require a valid email address or something.

    2. a) The validly of a comment should be grounded in truth and not based on the pedigree of the commenter.

      b) Not every blog entry requires a comment by the same person.

      c) No post posting edits please, posters should think carefully about their writing before posting.

      d) PriceTags should not be used as a platform to promote business activity. Individuals engaging in such activity should be permanently banned from PriceTags IMO.

      …… the comment section is far too castrated?????????? Such fears are perhaps best discussed in private with ones’ psychiatrist.

    3. I would encourage posters to use real names, as I think it promotes civil discourse, but I understand reasons why posters may not want to do so. In those cases, I suggest that

      1) Posters use unique identifiers. Lots of “Anonymous” tags from different posters make it harder than it needs to be.

      2) Posters should be identified to the site owner/administrator for purposes of accountability, even if they aren’t identified in public

    4. Except in exceptional circumstances I will not comment on a site that requires a major social network like Facebook. I block Facebook as a matter of course for security and privacy reasons. Indeed, I will not even see the comments on such sites. As a blogger or news editor, I would never outsource such a critical service to an unreliable monopoly with such a history of bad behaviour.

      Anonymity seems to be seen as a silver bullet for improving comments. I believe there are studies that find some improvement in civility. But remember when YouTube comments suddenly got better? Neither do I: when Google enforced real names on YouTube, anecdotal reports were that it made no difference.

      It is important to distinguish between anonymity and pseudonymity. In most instances, knowing someone’s real-life name makes no difference to other participants: but a stable identity does.

      In my research, I have found that anonymous commenters often make extremely valuable contributions. One news site surveyed their commenters, and found that a majority (two-thirds I think it was) would not participate if required to give their names. Recall Aaron Swartz’s important analysis of Wikipedia, which found that most substantive content was contributed by infrequent or drive-by contributors rather than by the core community (or bureaucracy) who make the vast majority of edits. It seems to me that that losing such contributions is a high price to pay for a small increase in civility.

      Some anonymous commenters cannot afford to give their names. Perhaps they have inside information or risk censure by their employers (e.g. folks at Translink who criticized the agency during the referendum; or city employees or people in the development industry on this blog). Or perhaps they are female. Even if women here are not targeted with the hate that occurs elsewhere, there is plenty of evidence that their views are likely to receive less respect. Requirements for real names, photos and bios are all inadvisable.

  5. I like the changes and the picture. Are the “clouds” coming from the Central Steam Plant? Beauty comes with a price tag I suppose.

  6. Well said, Jolson.

    There is a purity to anonymous comments – no ulterior motive. If someone cannot discern quality through content a face is not going to tip the balance. The intellectual onus is on us.

    To paraphrase the great MLK: Judge a post not by their lame photo.

    I find these photos as repellent as those of smiley r.e. agents.

    Re. “Experts”.
    In the early eighties the experts mandated code changes that caused the leaky condo disaster – an event that one engineer called the second biggest man-made disaster after the bombing of Hiroshima. They destroyed lives. Spare us please of talk about experts – many have an agenda. Who was it that said: All professions are a conspiracy against the laity.

    If someone wants to promote their business, this should not be the avenue – pay for advertising somewhere else.

    1. I agree. Jane Jacobs was an amateur. Sincerity is the currency of comment discussion. The role of comments is not to stay within the boundaries of the expertise to which they respond, but to balance it, put it in context and give it meaning.

  7. Post
    Author

    Thanks to all who are leaving feedback.

    At this level of WordPress, costs and support are at very low levels, but features are limited to what you see here.

    If anyone would like to sponsor a move to the next level, contact me and we’ll have a chat.

  8. I thought I’d digest the new style before commenting, but here it is.

    There’s some strange tweaking going on with heading style. If you look fast enough on a slow browser you see the article title rendered once in the same font italicized as the date, then re-rendered the displayed bold font.

    Why does the date get such prominence compared to the title and the rest and waste that entire vertical column? It’s also not the same font as the comments counter, again given major prominence.

    Couldn’t the date simply be a line below the title or the side, like the comments have? How man fonts and sizes are being used (unnecessarily)? The left comments/posts column could use the same font size as the actual comments.
    You could save a little space too and move the up/down rate comment below the the date.

    Overall, not bad, but a lot of vertical scrolling involved.

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Ian: thank you for your thoughts. Price Tags is currently operating at a very low level of cost and tech support time. As such, the design of things like fonts is a compromise one-time decision.

      If anyone would like to sponsor PT to the next level, where all things can be changed, please contact us.

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