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Hold the Presses: scmp.com is still rubbish

A progress report on the redesigned scmp.com:

  • The headlines are now shown in full.  Well done!
  • The home page is still slow to load, and sometimes is simply not available (see below).  Sometimes I can access the home page but then when I login I get the stupid message again. 
  • The search is marginally better than before, but either it is not working properly or they haven’t got round to making all the archive content available. 
  • There is no PDA service, and I have not been able to extract anything from the replacement WAP site because of the way it handles passwords. 
  • There is still no page showing all the stories for a day or for a section (e.g. Hong Kong news).
  • There are no links to previous quoted stories/letters (how hard would that be?).
  • Most stories still spill over on to a 2nd page.  You can display the full story on one page with one click, but wouldn’t it be sensible to make that either the default or a user option?
  • The RSS feeds seem to be rather less than comprehensive.

There is one thing I quite like:

  • The ‘related story’ link is a good idea, but it’s a pity that it often turns up very old and often out-of-date stories that don’t actually seem to be relevant (e.g. Deflation turnaround hopes snuffed out from 5 years ago is allegedly related to a recent column by James Tien about civil service salaries). 

Also, as others have pointed out, the website still does not have all the content from the newspaper.

All round it’s very disappointing.  Especially this message:

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Apache/2.0.59 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.59 OpenSSL/0.9.7g mod_jk/1.2.19 PHP/5.2.0 Server at http://www.scmp.com Port 80

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5 responses to “Hold the Presses: scmp.com is still rubbish”

  1. dave avatar
    dave

    If you put all the sections into an RSS reader, you can skim through the headlines and first para of each story in each section like you used to. If you then want to read a story it opens up in full, without that irritating “1 2 All” multi-part rubbish.
    It does take a little bit of setting up, but you skip all the pointless loading delays.

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  2. Chris avatar
    Chris

    Thanks Dave – but why do the SCMP force users to jump through these hoops? Adding an RSS feed only has to be done one, but the SCMP site makes it harder than it needs to be.

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  3. fumier avatar
    fumier

    My main complaint about the SCuM Post is that there is no cheese section.

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  4. Amy avatar
    Amy

    Here is what I received as a response to my letter about the new SCMP online interface and the blatant omission of the “next article” button:
    Dear Miss Leung,
    Thank you for your comments. We take feedback from our subscriber community very serious, and will definitely be reviewing adjustments made to the site.
    We apologize for the temporary interruption of this service, and we can assure you that our teams are working hard to address this interruption. We expect this to be rectified very soon.
    In fact, we are reviewing the possibility of reinstating this functionality at some point in the very near future, to ensure that your online experience with scmp.com maintains a high level of satisfaction.
    And, we will continue to improve the usability of the site over the coming months, and will review options for additional features and functions. We certainly welcome any additional feedback or suggestions you may have for the new scmp.com, because we firmly believe you and your fellow subscribers are critical in helping shape its ongoing development.
    Please visit http://www.scmp.com/customercare for more information about the new functions and features of scmp.com, or contact us directly if you have any other questions.
    Thank you for your time and suggestions. We hope you enjoy the new scmp.com.
    Should you need any further assistance, please feel free to contact us at info@scmp.com
    Kind regards,
    John TAI
    Customer Relationship Team, Subscription
    South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd
    Tel: 852-26808822
    Fax: 852-26808687

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  5. Amy avatar
    Amy

    Here is what I received as a response to my letter about the new SCMP online interface and the blatant omission of the “next article” button:
    Dear Miss Leung,
    Thank you for your comments. We take feedback from our subscriber community very serious, and will definitely be reviewing adjustments made to the site.
    We apologize for the temporary interruption of this service, and we can assure you that our teams are working hard to address this interruption. We expect this to be rectified very soon.
    In fact, we are reviewing the possibility of reinstating this functionality at some point in the very near future, to ensure that your online experience with scmp.com maintains a high level of satisfaction.
    And, we will continue to improve the usability of the site over the coming months, and will review options for additional features and functions. We certainly welcome any additional feedback or suggestions you may have for the new scmp.com, because we firmly believe you and your fellow subscribers are critical in helping shape its ongoing development.
    Please visit http://www.scmp.com/customercare for more information about the new functions and features of scmp.com, or contact us directly if you have any other questions.
    Thank you for your time and suggestions. We hope you enjoy the new scmp.com.
    Should you need any further assistance, please feel free to contact us at info@scmp.com
    Kind regards,
    John TAI
    Customer Relationship Team, Subscription
    South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd
    Tel: 852-26808822
    Fax: 852-26808687

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