Letters to the Editor.
Hyperbole not included
I have to applaud you and Mark Derewicz on the article Feeling the Heat. Matter of fact, to the point and without hyperbole. One of the best pieces on the subject I’ve read, and I’ve read a few.
—Kim Bergstrom
This oil not recycled
Hello Endeavors editors,
I was very impressed by Mark Derewicz’s article on global warming and peak oil. I especially appreciated how he interviewed local experts, rather than recycling the usual quotes from national peak oil figures.
Thank you and please keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
—Bart Anderson
Energy Bulletin co-editor, Palo Alto, California
Site makes for sore eyes
Forgive me for being so forthright, but I find your website appalling. Dissonant color choices, a lack of whitespace, and low contrast create a site that is ultimately uninviting. I can barely take your articles on global warming seriously when everything is so “cute.” It’s like a website for a trendy software boutique or a manufacturer of children’s toys. Beyond matters which could be chalked up to personal taste, you have quantitatively done your readers a huge disservice by forcing your articles into a tiny column. This not only impacts readability — it also creates a gratuitous amount of scrolling. On my monitor, I could fit three copies of your site side-by-side! These days, it’s possible to design a site that stretches to fit the user’s monitor, no matter what the monitor size. I am surprised that your web designer was not aware of such widely-known techniques. The amateurish design seems to trivialize your content. If a website is supposed to make your content more appealing to visitors — to honor the content rather than overwhelm it — your website is not much of a success.
—David Bowman
The web designer replies:
Sorry to hear that the site’s visuals aren’t to your taste. As for the width of the text column, people tend to prefer shorter line lengths when reading online. Long line lengths can be close to impossible to read. We feel that readers would rather scroll than grapple with long lines or click through several pages just to read one story. (There are all sorts of ways to scroll, including keyboard shortcuts, mouse shortcuts, and mouse gestures.) A fixed-width design with a relatively narrow text column accomodates a variety of monitor and window sizes, while helping readers do what they came here to do: read. Thanks for your comments.
—Jason Smith
Facetop could help couples
I am a Carolina alumni and read about Alex McLin’s Facetop technology. I teach communication classes and do research on deaf-hearing couples. I’m hearing-impaired myself and was excited to read about FaceTop. I could easily see how this communication modality would improve communication for deaf-hearing couples if they needed to see each other and write things, too, instead of doing all their communication face-to-face, through email, or Relay.
—Anne McIntosh, Ph.D.
