CapitolFax.com - Latest Comments in Question(s) of the day

Re: Question(s) of the day

anon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:29:58 -0000

blackberry, every day.

Re: Question(s) of the day

John in Chicago — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:44:55 -0000

I use a Blackberry 8830, I read the site on the train, at lunch, in meetings...probably read it more on the BB than on the laptop.

I like The Hill's mobile version, can't think of any others off the top of my head

Re: Question(s) of the day

Macbeth — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:13:13 -0000

===
Also, the â€œcontentâ€ argument is whatâ€™s really 1990s, dude. Back when sites had none.
===

Nope. Portal sites are dead. What matters is what *you* post (which is always great), your links to the primary sources, and the content of the comments. That's it -- that's what matters.

The feeds bulk up the site, slow down the site, and aren't necessary. I know you like them. That's fine -- it's your site. But what the feeds do is considerably lengthen the page load. There's no need for it -- especially when we can all subscribe to the feeds outside of your blog.

Again -- I love this site. But it's one thing I've observed over the years.

I suspect this is an agree to disagree point. :)

Re: Question(s) of the day

neato! — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:35:30 -0000

subscribe for text message updates sent to your phone. (ad revenues....for you, time saver for me!)

Re: Question(s) of the day

Been There — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:20:45 -0000

If they are in session then I am checking this site 3 -4 times an hour while I am in Springfield. Couldn't live without it down there and it works great. If I am not in Springfield then I am on my laptop all day and this site is my home page. Then I maybe check it on my Treo 680 only once on the way to the office and once back home.
The ESPN site is pretty good except sometimes they send you into continuous loops and its hard to get back to the home page. I also agree with an earlier poster about the video feeds. They not only slow down my Treo but also my laptop on days like yesterday when you had a whole bunch of video.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Kiyoshi Martinez — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:38:42 -0000

1.) Probably 5-12 times a day I check the site on myBlackBerry 8700g.
2.) I use the WSJ mobile reader app for the BB. Also, instapaper.com. Other than that, not many other sites have mobile versions that I use.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Anon — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:31:31 -0000

I have an iPhone. I found myself checking for updates off the phone a lot this year and it worked really well.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Rich Miller — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:30:13 -0000

Also, the "content" argument is what's really 1990s, dude. Back when sites had none.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Rich Miller — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:21:27 -0000

===the news feeds are very 1999â€²ish (sorry â€” harsh but true).===

The news feeds stay because I like them and so do many others. No debating that point.

=== What matters now is content â€” and the content is in the body of the page â€” not on the sidebar.===

That's content. Every one of those stories links to content.

I suppose you'd tell Google News that they're a massive failure because you can get news stories there? HuffPo is a dinosaur? You gotta be kidding me, man. Aggregation is the big thing now (check sj-r's little page for even more proof), and we were doing it before most.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Macbeth — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:13:07 -0000

Agreed -- dump the old-fashioned sidebar content. No one needs news feeds via another site. If we want the feeds, we'll subscribe to them directly. The news feeds are very 1999'ish (sorry -- harsh but true).

The idea of "portal" sites is outdated. What matters now is content -- and the content is in the body of the page -- not on the sidebar.

Re: Question(s) of the day

How Ironic — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:12:52 -0000

@LG

I had to cancel the updates as well. My problem was opposite. I got them literally every 5 minutes non-stop. I couldn't take it.

Re: Question(s) of the day

LG — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:30:42 -0000

iPhone. many times every day, especially from the road.

CapFax postings work well; appreciate the "On the Blog today" feature. often read news feeds but slow loading of feeds can delay the overall blog page refresh. lately use TwitterFon to track hot issues - works very well.

as for phone alerts, i did not have good experience with that. the alerts come hours after you have posted. Twitter is instantaneous.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Rich Miller — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:50:45 -0000

===the AP news app is nice.===

And it's free. I thought the AP was worried about everybody stealing their content? They're giving it away!!! lol

Just sayin...

Re: Question(s) of the day

mj — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:48:10 -0000

1 - every day I am at the capitol, 3x or more. iPhone works well.
2 - the AP news app is nice. It would be great to have LIS info like Anon 11:30 said. Congress+ or California in Your Pocket from iTunes app store are good examples

Re: Question(s) of the day

muon — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:48:08 -0000

OK, I get the iphone posting situation, and I get that I could type the mobile url directly into my favorites (it's been there for a while), but that doesn't explain why I don't get anything at all on my windows mobile device from the main page.

On the format of the mobile page, the improvement that would help me the most is to exclude the comments from the top story from the mobile home page. At times, it takes a lot of scrolling to get past them and find the list of other recent posts.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Ghost — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:32:41 -0000

You need a home page click through or flash that just says

Welcome to the Capitol Fax Blog

Bite Me!

then transition on to the main site.

Add a few mobile games, like whats in Rich's beard; or maybe explecitive driven mad libs for government....

Re: Question(s) of the day

How Ironic — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:07:38 -0000

Cap Fax Mobil URL:

http://thecapitolfaxblog.co...

Put it in your phone "favorites" and viola.

Re: Question(s) of the day

L.S. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:00:58 -0000

the site is pretty easily viewed with my blackberry bold and I check it pretty regularly during session. my only complaint is that sometimes the password doesn't work. not sure if there is anything that can be done on your end. about that.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Rich Miller — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:58:34 -0000

The reason that I don't have automatic forward is that it kills my ability to post from my iphone. Long story, but auto-forward is out of the question on this version.

Re: Question(s) of the day

yinn — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:55:18 -0000

What is a smart phone?

I figured out how to add feeds to my desktop about two weeks ago. Please don't harsh my sense of accomplishment.

Re: Question(s) of the day

muon — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:53:40 -0000

As I indicated earlier, I can find the mobile address, but only from my laptop. The link is invisible (as are all the links and content) if I go to thecapitolfaxblog.com in my smart phone. By comparison, if I enter espn.com on my mobile device, the espn website detects that I'm running mobile and automatically redirects me their mobile site.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Lefty Lefty — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:50:44 -0000

Rich, all your news is so interesting I skip all of the other links on the site! (Come to think of it, I think I asked you a while ago how to find previous day's stories. This site is so responsive that I didn't even have to look around myself. You're like 24-hour tech support during the business day.)

Plus I never had a smartphone before our Apple overlords bequeathed the wondrous iPhone upon us so I never used mobile websites. Some like Google and SSSox default to the mobile version so I am familiar with them.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Just the Facts — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:42:48 -0000

I use the Blackberry Curve and access the Cap Fax on my way to and from the office on the train, as well as while driving back and forth downstate.

I also access WSJ and NY multiple times daily. The WSJ allows you to access an entire article without having to go from page to page as you do with the NYT. The downside is that it takes a bit longer to download the WSJ articles and if you aren't on a fast network that can be a bit slow.

Re: Question(s) of the day

Rich Miller — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:41:32 -0000

shore, you can sign up for automated web alerts to your cell by clicking that icon in the upper right... Click here

to those who couldn't find the mobile site, it's clearly listed at the top of the main page, just under the header. Not sure how much more clear I could make it.

Re: Question(s) of the day

shore — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:39:16 -0000

Whereas 10 years ago my parents read the tribune and the suntimes in the morning for news I read this and then espn.com for sports. I give you credit for not being one of those sites that makes you click around a lot and so people are just able to read everything you've got in one large scroll rather than that obnoxious after the jump thing.

You also might consider something like those cnn, newsalerts when breaking news happens. The tribune does it, but since this is better than their product it might be good say for instance if you have a new post on something or a big story breaks.

Have a nice break.