Wednesday, May 24, 2017

The Commonweal Survey


Just Completed it; My Comments Below.

Did you get a survey?

What do you think about the survey and the issues


Recently Commonweal made some changes in its online design. What is your overall reaction to these changes?
Very negative
What are your primary reactions, positive or negative, to the new site?
The site is very difficult to navigate. In the old site I always could see immediately what was old and what was new. So I would check the website every day. Now I don't.
I liked the blog and the comments. They were motivation for me to come every day and check the site. If there wasn't something new to read, I could at least check up how the comments were going on what I had read.


Options Excellent  Good Fair Poor No Opinion


Ease of finding stories from the print edition Poor


Readability on a phone or tablet/iPad No Opinion


Search function Poor


Ease of navigation Poor


Ease of finding the newest content Poor


Ease of subscribing No Opinion


Ease of logging in Fair


4. Leaving aside questions of design, would you say that the Commonweal website has become more interesting over the last year, less interesting, or stayed about the same?

Less interesting than a year ago


Please provide any details or specifics about your answer to this question


Well I am not only reading less, I have no ability to comment. Reading the comments and joining in the conversation was a key part of my daily visit to Commonweal


Before the change I would say that Commonweal and America were the sites I checked most frequently and read the most because they both had comments; Commonweal had the most and the best comments.


This was followed by Crux, NCR, Religious News Service, all about equal. I would sometimes read Religious Dispatches.


Now Commonweal is somewhere between Religious Dispatches and the pack. By the way America dropped down into the pack largely because their site is difficult to navigate too, Did you both listen to the same consultants? 


5. If you have any other suggestions about topics, articles, or features you'd like to see Commonweal provide online, please tell us about them here.


Restore the comments, and give commenters the ability to submit posts (subject to review0. My comments were often so extensive they deserved a post. I used to comment extensively at PrayTell during the "Missal Crisis" I submitted about 12 posts all of which were accepted.

I liked the idea of Commonweal local communities but we don't have one here in Cleveland. If we did I expect it would be too far to travel very frequent.


We need digit communities for area such as Cleveland where we can comment on articles, and make out own posts to talk with each other about local issues.

6. As part of our redesign, Commonweal eliminated reader comments as a regular feature. What is your opinion of this change?


I feel negatively about eliminating comments


As answered in previous questions, they were the main reason I came daily to Commonweal, to keep up with the comments. While I commented some, I wasn’t among the most frequent commentators.  I had been one of the most frequent commenters at PrayTell , ranked about #6 according to Rita Ferrone.  While the commenting at PrayTell was high quality just like Commonweal, they didn’t have many women.  Commonweal had a far more balanced and diverse group of commenters.
 

They were a model digital community. You should have used them to help you found local digital communities, and a network of digital communities

Current print subscriber


8. How often do you visit the Commonweal website?  Once or twice a week

26 comments:

  1. One thing I liked about the closing of comments was no longer encountering the right wing ideologues. Of course, when in a masochistic turn of mind, I can always visit America's website. Mosman is there, too, as cerebrally calcified as ever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I don't miss the ideologue comments, either. And they're not only right wing. Once in a while I check out the comment section of National Catholic Reporter, and usually end up regretting it. The commenters there seem to try and see how fast they can go down a rabbit hole into total irrelevance to the subject. Within 5 comments will usually do it. It's the same people (most of them with funky not-real noms de plum) all the time, they must not have much to do with their time.

      Delete
    2. Yes, gave up the NCR comment pit a while back. And yes, not just the rightwingers.

      Delete
    3. Yes, I read some NCR articles sometimes, but never the comments. They are not worth it.

      Delete
  2. Now when I go to the website, if I read an interesting article I immediately think: "I wonder what the others think of it!" and would be ready to turn to the comments, if only there were some... so I miss the comments again -- it's not just something that upset me once and then faded into the past, but the frustration happens again every time there is something that I would like to see discussed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, soon after the shutdown, a Commonweal article appeared on mining. Immediately thought of Mark Logsdon. Luckily I was able to bring it to his attention on one if the email chains and he posted an informative commentary. I know Mark isn't 24, but it sure would have augmented the article to have his comment added.

      Delete
  3. I didn't know there was a survey. I almost never visit Commonweal now. I wonder if they achieved the benefits they believed they would by deleting the comments section. What they are lacking now is thoughtful feedback on their articles - they're working in a vacuum - and I think that will make their magazine into a kind of right/moderate intellectual ghetto.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, I didn't get a survey. I expect they only went to paid subscribers. I should ask Raber if he got one.

    I rarely visit there unless there is an article he wants to talk about.

    I wish them well as they move in their new direction. I used to donate through subscription, donations, or declining the honorarium for articles.

    I have given my money to another cause and removed them from the suggested memorial list in my obituary. At least for now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I read the print version more than online now. I don't know if every subscriber gets both or if some opt for electronic only. I share my print copy with one of my daughters in law. She is a fairly recent convert, and enjoys getting a different perspective from some of the more traddie publications.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just went to the Commonweal website to find the survey and found none in spite of looking right and left. Nothing in my email either (even though I paid my subscription). Where is that survey?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I do like NCR. They are probably closer than any other Catholic online publication to my own viewpoint. I like the reporting of Joshua McElwee and Thomas Reese SJ. Massimo Faggioli posts there sometimes. They have good editorials too. The latest one - The enemy is not the secular world, it is fear

    ReplyDelete
  8. I got an e-mail (with a survey link) saying:

    We are conducting an important survey of our online readers, and we hope you will do us a great favor by participating.
    The survey will take you about 10 minutes to complete. Please be assured that your answers are completely confidential.

    Our survey deadline is June 6. Many thanks for your continued readership of Commonweal.

    Best wishes,
    Thomas Baker
    Publisher

    You're receiving this email because you subscribe to Commonweal Magazine or have opted in at our website to receive these emails.

    Sounds like you might not have to be a subscriber since apparently you can get emails without being one. Maybe if you sign up for e-mails (I don't know how to do that) before June 6 you might receive a survey in your e-mail,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe if you are a subscriber and opted out of emails, you don't get a survey.

      Delete
  9. Did reply. Thought its was straightforward effort to find out what people thought, even asking them to explain. Even asked about comments! A good sign.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I was impressed that they seemed interested in peoples views. I recently received a 20 minute survey from my public radio station (I am a supporter). Lot of questions about my usage, and their competitors. Made by a professional marketing firm. But they didn't ask me much about their product or how they might improve it. Seemed more interested in whether I used a computer or an iPhone, very technically oriented rather than content oriented.

      Delete
  10. I didn't get a Commonweal survey either. I did get one from America asking how welcoming my parish was to my children.

    I go to the Commonweal website once in a while. I don't often click in, though. On the old site, I mostly only read the blog, not the articles. I can't find the blog there any more, so I guess that's gone totally. (I thought it was just the commenting function).

    I look at America a little more often now and once in a while, Sojourners, NCR and Religion News.

    I auto-send a monthly donation to Commonweal still. I like a liberal Catholic magazine being out there even if I don't read it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I said pretty much what Jack said, although I skipped the one about suggestions for things to cover. Seems to me that figuring out what to cover is what you hire editors for.

    Back when I thought I might be destined for public relations, I learned that you take the survey BEFORE you make conspicuous changes in what you are doing. Taking the survey afterwards smacks of looking for reassurance after getting the feeling you blew it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pretests are really good social science. They could have learned a lot by asking people what they thought about the comments and the idea of migrating them to social media.

      When I supervised people I always had them fill out a position evaluation six months out of phase with their annual performance evaluation.

      I asked three simple questions: What do you like about your position? What do you dislike about it? What would you like to be doing in your position that you are not doing now?

      The answers often revealed some non-obvious things, like people were really happy they could come in early and leave early to avoid rush hour traffic. Could have eliminated that possibility without even thinking about it.

      Delete
  12. I am a former print/digital subscriber. I did not renew, but I received a survey

    However, I may have opted in for a weekly email at some point. It simply highlights the main stories of the week and provides links. Perhaps that is why I got a survey.

    Since Jack reproduced much of the survey, those who didn't get one could simply copy the questions, add responses, and send an email to the editors. It's possible they used a formula to randomly select from among their readers, but even if an email is not counted in the official results, it's a way to communicate your ideas to the editors.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Send it to the publisher

    Our survey deadline is June 6. Many thanks for your continued readership of Commonweal.

    Best wishes,
    Thomas Baker
    Publisher

    The only questions I left off were a few at the end, gender, maybe age was there. If you write a brief identity sentence or two they will be able to fill in the blanks.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I received the survey. My responses were similar to Jack's. Lorna

    ReplyDelete
  15. The message I received said it was being sent to their online readers. Within it, I believe they ask whether you subscribe or not. I am not sure how they assembled a mailing list of readers. Check your spam folder?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Question #7 asked about subscriber status

    I only include my response as a print scriber in the post.

    Another response was online scriber.

    There was a third response which I think was for those who gave their e-mail address.You had to do this if your wanted to make a comment. I think that you could then opt out of getting further e-mails for Commonweal.

    You can also sign up for the Commonweal twice weekly newsletter without being a subscriber. If you then cancelled your newsletter you probably got taken off the e-mail.

    (However you might have stayed on the e-mail list if your were a print or digital subscriber, but perhaps not if you had gotten on the e-mail list as a commenter.)

    Then of course there were contributors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Distinguishing among print, digital, and newsletter only subscribers would be very important in evaluating the responses to the survey.

      It is also possible that Commonweal still has the digital information to identity the e-mails of those who commented (a subgroup among each of the print, online, and newsletter populations).

      I doubt they share my interest in digital communities to take the time do analyze the data that way. However they might be able to separate the reactions of the commenter producers among the print, digit, and newsletter groups.

      In terms of building digital communities, it would have been very helpful to have had a question that asked people about their frequency of reading comments, and why.

      Delete