Saturday, June 11, 2005
Website review: www.cityofgreenfield.org
Since it's out there, I thought I'd take an in-depth look at the new "'City' of Greenfield" website.
The very first thing I notice when arriving at the site is not the attractive graphics nor the navigation nor the nice content. I notice that the site hijacks my browser and resizes the window to the maximum width of the screen--an absurd and unwelcome action on my widescreen iMac. I end up with broad swaths of black on either side of the content, and I can't use my desktop the way I want, with multiple applications visible at once. The site decided what's best for me and then did it without asking. Hmm, this sounds a lot like the mayor's leadership style!
I'll set that annoyance aside and take a look at the site. I see a nice logo, handsome color scheme, very readable layout and fonts, and a welcome search box right at the top. On the negative side, there's a scrolling "news ticker" telling me to enable cookies. The welcome letter from the mayor is long.
OK, let's say I want to find out when I have to start using the pay-per-throw bags. I'm pretty sure from news reports it starts July 1, but I want to confirm this and find out where to get the bags and how much they cost.
Search on [pay per throw]. 0 results. [trash pickup]. 0. [trash] gives 5 results; trying the first one. Takes me to a list of resources with a PDF on trash and recycling, so I click that. It just tells me which materials are suitable for recycling. Back to results. Second result just follows another path to the same info. Third result takes me to two pdf's; one has transfer station fees but no pay-per-throw info, and the other is the same one I already saw. Next result: gives the phone number for trash/recycling collection. If I was going to call, I wouldn't be on the web! Final result: same info as the third result.
We struck out with search, so I'm browsing pages. Not finding it. Nothing about it on DOW page, nothing on Mayor's Office page. I did get a broken link when I tried to click on the breadcrumbs.
I did find the Economic Development office, which lists Marlene Marocco. The newspaper has been spelling it Marrocco. I wonder which is correct?
Now I've just given up on the trash question and I'm browsing around. The offsite links (such as a link to the Stoneleigh Burnham School) open inside a frame, the way About.com does it--something I find annoying, but this may just be my own hangup.
Now I'm getting curious about who designed the site. I view the page source to find www.screendesigners.com However, this site doesn't give any clue who they are or where they're located, except that the unnamed designer was born in Europe and certified in Germany. Interestingly, one of the forms on the site points to a German site: https://www.ssl-id.de/designcrew.de/ which has exactly the same content as www.screendesigners.com. Hmm.
I ran a "whois" and learned that the screendesigners domain is registered to CRONON AG BERLIN, NIEDERLASSUNG REGENSBURG in Germany! Is the mayor unaware that there are some excellent web designers in Greenfield and even more in the rest of the Pioneer Valley? Why outsource the site to a foreign company??
Now I'm noticing the spelling errors on the "Visiting Greenfield" page. There's "resevoir" instead of "reservoir" and "beautifule" instead of "beautiful". "Subsuquently" for "Subsequently". And interesting to learn that "Francis" Goddard Tuckerman was a "port". That may be true, but I'm more interested in a poet named Frederick Goddard Tuckerman!
So, in the end, my review must conclude that this website is not ready for prime time. I can't really blame the Germans for misspelling English words and misidentifying American poets. But I do think the mayor and her team should feel embarrassed about not even proofreading the text, as well as not having a local do the work. And by the way, when does the new trash policy start?
UPDATE:
The site now lists "Jennifer Weno" as designer and "screendesigners.com" as the copyright holder. The www.screendesigners.com site shows the name "Peter Weno" in the source code, and that site is identical to www.designcrew.de, which lists "Herr Peter Weno" as "Kontact" on a German web directory. Apparently some kind of family business doing business in Germany. But "Peter" is not "Pieter", and "Jennifer" is a most American name. The mystery becomes clearer yet cloudier all at once.
The very first thing I notice when arriving at the site is not the attractive graphics nor the navigation nor the nice content. I notice that the site hijacks my browser and resizes the window to the maximum width of the screen--an absurd and unwelcome action on my widescreen iMac. I end up with broad swaths of black on either side of the content, and I can't use my desktop the way I want, with multiple applications visible at once. The site decided what's best for me and then did it without asking. Hmm, this sounds a lot like the mayor's leadership style!
I'll set that annoyance aside and take a look at the site. I see a nice logo, handsome color scheme, very readable layout and fonts, and a welcome search box right at the top. On the negative side, there's a scrolling "news ticker" telling me to enable cookies. The welcome letter from the mayor is long.
OK, let's say I want to find out when I have to start using the pay-per-throw bags. I'm pretty sure from news reports it starts July 1, but I want to confirm this and find out where to get the bags and how much they cost.
Search on [pay per throw]. 0 results. [trash pickup]. 0. [trash] gives 5 results; trying the first one. Takes me to a list of resources with a PDF on trash and recycling, so I click that. It just tells me which materials are suitable for recycling. Back to results. Second result just follows another path to the same info. Third result takes me to two pdf's; one has transfer station fees but no pay-per-throw info, and the other is the same one I already saw. Next result: gives the phone number for trash/recycling collection. If I was going to call, I wouldn't be on the web! Final result: same info as the third result.
We struck out with search, so I'm browsing pages. Not finding it. Nothing about it on DOW page, nothing on Mayor's Office page. I did get a broken link when I tried to click on the breadcrumbs.
I did find the Economic Development office, which lists Marlene Marocco. The newspaper has been spelling it Marrocco. I wonder which is correct?
Now I've just given up on the trash question and I'm browsing around. The offsite links (such as a link to the Stoneleigh Burnham School) open inside a frame, the way About.com does it--something I find annoying, but this may just be my own hangup.
Now I'm getting curious about who designed the site. I view the page source to find www.screendesigners.com However, this site doesn't give any clue who they are or where they're located, except that the unnamed designer was born in Europe and certified in Germany. Interestingly, one of the forms on the site points to a German site: https://www.ssl-id.de/designcrew.de/ which has exactly the same content as www.screendesigners.com. Hmm.
I ran a "whois" and learned that the screendesigners domain is registered to CRONON AG BERLIN, NIEDERLASSUNG REGENSBURG in Germany! Is the mayor unaware that there are some excellent web designers in Greenfield and even more in the rest of the Pioneer Valley? Why outsource the site to a foreign company??
Now I'm noticing the spelling errors on the "Visiting Greenfield" page. There's "resevoir" instead of "reservoir" and "beautifule" instead of "beautiful". "Subsuquently" for "Subsequently". And interesting to learn that "Francis" Goddard Tuckerman was a "port". That may be true, but I'm more interested in a poet named Frederick Goddard Tuckerman!
So, in the end, my review must conclude that this website is not ready for prime time. I can't really blame the Germans for misspelling English words and misidentifying American poets. But I do think the mayor and her team should feel embarrassed about not even proofreading the text, as well as not having a local do the work. And by the way, when does the new trash policy start?
UPDATE:
The site now lists "Jennifer Weno" as designer and "screendesigners.com" as the copyright holder. The www.screendesigners.com site shows the name "Peter Weno" in the source code, and that site is identical to www.designcrew.de, which lists "Herr Peter Weno" as "Kontact" on a German web directory. Apparently some kind of family business doing business in Germany. But "Peter" is not "Pieter", and "Jennifer" is a most American name. The mystery becomes clearer yet cloudier all at once.
Letter to the Recorder
Today I dashed off a letter to the editor at The Recorder after reading more about the city/town thing. I reused a few pieces of last week's post.
To the editor:
For some reason, Mayor Forgey and her personal lightening rod Ms. Marrocco have decided to make political waves by declaring Greenfield a city, which it technically is in the eyes of the commonwealth. But as Barbara Tillmanns pointed out in a letter to The Recorder, the charter expressly confers the name "Town of Greenfield" on the municipality.
Forgey and Marrocco already have dismantled "www.townofgreenfield.org" in favor of a citified web address; hapless visitors to the old site only get a message stating "No web site is configured at this address." No explanation, no link to the new site, nothing. Yet, dozens of sites on the web continue to point to the old address, including Yahoo!, The Recorder, the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Mass.gov).
The new website is lovely, but could someone explain how it will help Greenfield if no one can find it? In trying to make a point--that this decision has been made, and if you're not on board you're out of luck--the Disconnected Duo have only made things worse for Greenfield. Governing by decree didn't work with the bus stop, and it's not working here.
Importantly, the question of whether Greenfield should even change the charter remains to be considered. My dictionary defines city as "A center of population, commerce, and culture; a town of significant size and importance." Greenfield's population of 18,168 ranks it as the 100th largest city or town in Massachusetts, behind such powerhouse municipalities as Wareham, Somerset, and Milford (but dozens of residents ahead of Hudson, Norton and Rockland).
City? Come on. Boston is a city. Philadelphia is a city. Even Worcester is a city. I've lived in cities. Cities have been friends of mine. Greenfield is no city.
Sincerely,
Bill Denneen
Greenfield
