SPECTATOR: KWHI WEBSITE INNOVATIONS
Several months ago, we updated one of our websites, KWHI.com….changing it from its original 1999 version to a 21st century website. There were a few growing pains for us, and for our listeners/website viewers. I know I hate it when my favorite websites make changes....like weather.com, which seems to change every 3 months. But one change in almost 15 years doesn’t seem irrational.
KWHI.com has always been a popular website, averaging over 30,000 unique visitors each month. One of the major reasons for the update was to make it “mobile friendly”…which means making it easy to view on smart phones. More people are using their phones to access information, and we wanted to make it easy for them to read local news and sports stories, view Country Store items, access the Bulletin Board or read obituaries. And if you use Facebook, just by “liking” kwhi.com, you can get instant posts whenever we publish a new story, sports score or photograph. You can also watch news videos on kwhi.com, like the ones from our “Candidates’ Forum”.
With the changes, more and more people are using KWHI.com. Last Tuesday we had a record of over 9000 unique visitors to the site. One of the popular additions is the ability for our listeners/viewers to make comments to our stories. Now not all of the comments are approved for publication on the website….and some people take offense to that. I’ve had people say we are infringing on their right to free speech because we didn’t publish their comment. I tell them they can write whatever they want on their own website….but not on ours. Being licensed by the federal government requires us to take a lot more care with what’s said on our website, as well as over the radio.
So here are some guidelines for posting comments to KWHI.com. We won’t approve:
1. Comments that attack another poster
2. Comments that attack another person
3. Comments that demean our public servants
4. Comments that are political
5. Comments that use curse words
6. Comments that are libelous or slanderous
7. Comments that we are not sure of their validity
8. Comments that don’t add anything to the story
You would be surprised at how nasty some people can be when posting things on the internet. But that’s not the purpose of our website. We report news and information. We are happy to post your comments, as long as they have some value.
And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.
Thank you for this article.
Some folks can be hateful and “nasty” on the Internet. Sometimes trolls like to create problems on a website, too.
I am very happy that you have specifically stated some of the guidelines for comments KWHI won’t approve.
I like to read comments by others but I don’t like when a person is “attacked” for sharing thoughts/comments within acceptable guidelines. I am sure you and your staff do not have time to babysit comment sections. Thank you for allowing comments about the articles that are posted here.
I love your new website!
We are so fortunate to have a local radio station that covers news in our area. Houston and Austin does not cover small towns like Brenham and surrounding areas on a daily basis like KWHI does!
I left a response to one of your articles a few weeks ago and now my name and e-mail address cannot be erased from this site. What’s with that?
A couple of people have mentioned that their name and email are shown in the comment area on their computers. This is your computer or phone’s web browser “autofilling” those fields to make it easier the next time you want to make a comment. It does not appear like that on our website.