We did some things with the Ward 5 ward councilor primary election that we have not done, or have not done comprehensively for a single race: forum video coverage and analysis, web site analysis, candidate questions.
What did you like? What was effective? What would you have us do differently for the contested November races?
Generally it’s good to have coverage of these races, but there were too many posts on the same topic on the same day (after the election). I don’t think most people are interested in this depth of analysis of a ward-specific preliminary election.
@Newtoner – Yes, there were four separate threads the day after the election. I guess that’s mostly due to the Ward 5 race being the only game in town for this week’s election. The political junkies (I’m talking you Sean) couldn’t help themselves 😉
That said, I like the idea of posting questions/answers from candidates on the various topics of the day.
I mostly liked the links to the debates because I probably wouldn’t have known about them otherwise.
Good coverage is helpful but it took up way too much real estate on the homepage and pushed down useful posts that were for all of Newton.
I especially appreciated how much time and thought Bill Humprey and Kathy Winters spent talking to voters on Village 14, not just during the final weeks of the campaign but throughout the summer.
Going forward, could there be one post about the questions that gets updated over times or some kind of Index thread with sub threads that don’t clog the front page? Not sure if V14 is equipped for that, but could help if so.
I really liked the idea of digging deep. But I agree with MMQC — it sometimes drove broader all-Newton news down the list. It would also be difficult to maintain that same level of coverage when there are multiple races. But overall, thumbs up for having more coverage.
Maybe an idea would be to make a sticky post with links to the more in depth posts? Or something on the side bar? I’m sure there must be a way to have an index, like Bryan suggests, so the content is here but it doesn’t fill up the homepage.
This argument over posting too much on one subject – Ward 5 primary coverage is silly. If anyone doesn’t want to read any post it’s easy not to read it. I’m sure there are many subjects posted here that are not of interest to every reader. Just read what you (collective you – English can be a weird language) want, comment if you like and move on.
I really like the idea of a post with links to all posts about a particular race, that can get updated over time.