Pay no attention to that asshat We Are Stardust.  What a crank; gets brain-cramp at the drop of a hat!  Practically blind, too.  And hates turnips: that about says it all...

Plus: Genghis is top-notch at all these tech tweaks; we prolly outta give him a raise...  ;o)

What do you think of it? Awesome!

Is it useful? Yes, very.

How can we improve it? FREE BEER!

How is the placement? GREAT!

How is the content? Fine. I love ArtA's stuff. Better than having Quinn posting articles on tractors and farts (this is not Quinn-bait. NOT). But that's just me...

Generally, we haven't put straight-up links without commentary on the front page. Should we start doing that? No. Imo, if someone finds a piece highly worth commenting, they should write a blog explaining why it is so important to them. And then y'all can masthead that.

Wow! I just noticed that comments on the In the News posts show up in the Latest Comments section. Brilliant, Genghis!

Trusting members/readers to tell each other what news they think is important is so totally dagblog! (First time, I believe, the word has ever been used as an adjective; you're welcome.)

The only thing I would suggest is that we, the readers, use that trust responsibly. It's so much easier to just link or copy/paste an article than to elaborate a personal take on it, that it risks being overused. Show some restraint, folks.

By all means, link to articles you find important but don't have anything useful to add to. But consciously skip the straight news; it's pointless to compete with Google News or TPM or the CNN chyron. Everyone here is some kind of news junkie already. In general, we know what's happening. What we want and need is the insightful analysis, or the overlooked aspect that's the key to understanding a story. The kind of stuff we try to highlight in all our better blogs.

Once again, Genghis, bold move. I hope we the readers live up to your faith in us. 

I'm not 100% convinced by the news thingie. I'm already drowning in aggregators and people coming up with their 23 must read links of the day, and subject-related summaries and then the actual newspapers and on and on. 

We're gonna see a TPM-style pull, whereby people choose stories from their favourite sites, which they think are a minority taste, except... most everybody here reads them.

Then people will start in with the breaking news stuff that just has to be read. Just because. Or because it's part of being an "informed" person or somesuch rot.

And then linking to stories just back-up some long argument/fight that was running earlier.

You can already see all 3 tendencies in the list. I can guarantee they WILL eat that section. 

And less focus will go to the blogs people have done, or into doing blogs, etc.

I'd rather someone put up 5 great links to Archaeology stories someone has loved in the last month. Or 5 great music blogs. Or Art History sites. Or perhaps best, Tractor and Combine sites.

I don't really care which one shows - but I know I'm going to find it MUCH more interesting than rechewing the same goddamn stories of the day, as published by the usual suspects.

Anyone that's ever been at TPM knows which way this stuff trends - less thought, less heart, less imagination, fewer new frames.

EITHER IT HAS TO BE INTERESTING AS HELL AND OFF THE BEATEN TRACK, OR LEAVE IT OUT - that's my guiding principle if you have to have "News."

And BTW, We Hate Your "News" Story.

My thing is that the In the News section received almost no comments until yesterday.  Maybe it's because it's new, but, in any event,  I am often surprised that so many here seem never have gone around to different sites to read, and are "Amazed!  Simply Amazed" at the most prevalent, ubiquitous headlines.

It may be that folks here mainly read here, so that it serves a useful purpose.  In general, I see it as the "Well, duh" portion of the site.  (while acknowledging that my take is very er...in the minority.)

Genghis, thank you so much for asking! Makes me feel important, and you KNOW how much I need that!

Well, so far I haven't used the news part, but it doesn't bug me. I am more interested in the latest comments, and they are still easy to get to, so I'm happy. I have to say, I LOVE the user-friendliness of the site, and I love that you are here so often, tending to it.

The one and only thing that frustrates me from time to time is how difficult it is to see who a comment is in reply to on a thread. Is that a terribly difficult feature to add?

Thanks again for caring what we think.

Personally I wish you'd move the News Section nearer the bottom of the page just so those of us who like that sort of thing don't have to feel the hate of those who don't, making us wonder each time should we dare post again or should we just fuggedabouit because rather than being appreciated, it will bring scorn. I find the complaints ridiculous regarding such a small piece of real estate and think it would be a blessing if you moved it way down the page.

I'm pretty sure those who like it are both skilled in using a mouse or touchpad in order to scroll down the screen and wouldn't mind doing so. (I've always used a relatively small laptop; in that case, it's just a thing you expect to have to do on every site you visit.) On the other hand, it seems plenty of those who prefer other sections seem to find that pretty hard to do and need the help with their handicap, so please consider giving them the top of the page.

Even better, how about just put a link on the top to "News Links,: don't show any of the posts  in it at all on the front page, just have them on a separate page, Many sites use tabs along those lines, having long ago given up the thought that they can fit ledes to all the content on a single page, and there aren't any complaints. Like I said before, if people like something, I think they will find where it is, like a "Creative Corner." Also, a reminder that the largest possible audience is not always the most desirable one.

BTW, I go down and look at "From The Dagbloggers" often to see if I missed something including new comments. But I figure you have it there because you already have links to the individual bloggers posts across the top of the page.

One of the things I really like about your site is that every section and category goes page by page  chronologically and you don't cut it off at any point. With that feature, as a relative newcomer, I could easily do things like read a lot of Orlando's posts all at once even though they were spread over a great length of time. Similarly, if I were away from the site for a while, I would love to look over what News Links were posted. Just like others might like to see what Dickday posts they missed.