links for 2010-04-30

"Despite the jump in levels of interaction around the publisher’s content, Bromley admitted only 0.2% of its readers comment on stories and 12% vote on comments, with the remaining 88% passive consumers". Not sure why NMA say 'admitted' there as if this was an unusual bad thing - that's a fairly standard 1:9:90 split in interaction levels on the web.

A developer writes: "The main problem with some journalists is that they don’t have an awareness of what is possible and what isn’t, and what is best practice. Having a basic understanding will make them more practical and allow us to work much faster together". Or as I like to think of it, having the ability to judge when you can make a big impact from a small technical change, or when a small change is going to have a big technical impact.

"What if the BBC had of been the pool broadcaster for the day? – the corporation’s editorial guidelines are stricter and have a section on secret recording, in which “deliberately continuing a recording when the other party thinks it has come to an end” is listed as a definition of secret recording.

"It was my first shift at the Guardian yesterday. The organisation of the copy flow is amazing. There is a content management system called Octopus that (from what I could work out) everyone uses at the same time – reporters, section editors, subs and revise subs. It prevents those InCopy glitches where two people accidentally check in to a story at the same time and wipe out each other’s work (yes, I know that officially can’t happen, but it does, repeatedly). You see something become available, you take it. When you’re finished with it, you check it back in, but to the revise subs’ folder. The quality of the copy is extremely good, which makes it pleasant to sub but harder to cut. There are no paper proofs and no red pen – not that I saw, anyway."

The thing I find saddest about Allison Pearson quitting the Mail citing her struggle with depression, and I wish her the best, is comparing the way she writes about the terrible pressure put on modern women, with the litany of columns she has been churning out for the paper piling that same pressure on her readers: "It's time to put your husbands first, ladies", "Should we mothers stop trying so hard at Christmas?, "An agonising decision: Would you save your child or your spouse?", "Behind every useless man is a woman under siege", "High-fliers swear by a 5am - but how hard is it, does it work and what does it do to your sex life?", "Don't blame overworked mothers for this cruel disease", "Deluded and selfish - world's oldest mum made a mockery of motherhood", "So do men REALLY prefer Miss Average?" and so on and so on...