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The comments on The DM Online hardly cease to amaze me anymore. When I was first hired as online editor and re-enabled the comment system, I was shocked at the sheer volume of online comments we received. You see, every time someone comments on anything on the site, I get an email. And back then, I was getting at least, and by at least I mean at the very, very least, 65 comment emails a day. I would read through them pretty generally if I had the time, but, for the most part, the comments went unchecked.

After a few weeks of "The DM SUX!!1!" and "This writer is a fool and a slut!" though, it was obvious that something had to be done. And what we did was install a comment policy. Based on the Washington Post's online comment policy, we changed the language and the terms of the statement to fit our needs as a college daily. And while it may get a little wordy, the comment policy basically says this: Don't defame anyone, don't use inappropriate language and leave your first name and your last initial. Should be easy, right? Wrong.

The daily number of comment emails dropped significantly when I started moderating them. From an unchecked 65 to 100 comments a day, we now get about 20. And do you know how many of those survive the Great Comment Purge As According to the Comment Policy? Maybe 6. On a good day.

Most people's comments get deleted because they simply don't put a last initial with their name. I know it may seem trivial and silly to delete comments, even if they're perfectly acceptable by all other standards, simply because they're missing a single letter, but the letter is not the point. The point is that the commenter didn't take the time to read the shortened, bolded version of the policy that's on literally every article page, much less the full version. And for not paying attention, delete.

There are other instances where I will delete a comment as well. Calling someone an idiot on the site isn't cool: delete. Something like "ok" or "sux" as your only comment: purge. Racial slurs, sexist comments, "The South will rise again," etc.: peace out. Typing in all caps: buh-bye.

A few things that don't get deleted (if they follow the policy), though, are bad mouthing The DM when it's merited or telling us we're wrong about something. I never delete a comment simply because I don't like what it says, because if I did, we might have two comments a day. If I was feeling nice that day. (And I'm hardly ever feeling nice.)

Reading your comments every day, I often chuckle and show other editors around the office how, well, silly a lot of them are. Some are sensible and well written, and some even contain an actual point, but most of the time the commenters think they're calling Meghan Blalock a bitch for the first time or informing Alex McAdams she doesn't know anything about music as if a light bulb will click on and she'll come to her senses and quit. Or they think their comment telling us that we're totally wrong about something on the opinion page will cause us to realize the error of our ways and track down all 15,000 copies of The DM from that day and burn them.

Everything we do is planned in some way or another. We know what columns and stories we're going to run several days in advance, and even if we decide to run something on the fly, it still goes through at least five editors. And, sure, mistakes get through sometimes. After all, you can't pick up a single newspaper or magazine in the world and find it without a mistake, usually even on the front page. That's what happens when humans run everything.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you just want to tell us we suck and you can't back it up with why, don't waste your time. And if you think posting on every edition of a "controversial" column or story that it's stupid is going to make us stop publishing it, you might as well leave the site. Because I'm always there, lurking in the background, hoping you didn't read the policy or that you don't really have anything to say. And it gives me great pleasure to check that little check box and press 'Delete.' (No, seriously, I get warm fuzzies when I do it.)

However, if you have something real to say, please comment. And if you took the time and put a little thought into your paragraph, I assure you we would take it seriously and I would be delighted. In fact, I might even print it out and hang it in the office. We love when intelligent people write in and give us a grounded opinion, and it's those opinions we actually consider when making editorial choices later.

But above all things, be sure to remember this: leave your last initial. Because if you don't, I will be there, purging without a second thought. And if you do, I, as well as The DM Online readers, will actually have to consider your thought. And after all, isn't that what commenting is all about?

Life = Work

I wish I could come up with some kind of flashy title for this blog, or even think of something witty to say to all those readers out there who will look at this, but that just won’t happen. You see, I am the Photo Editor of the DM, so hopefully that excuses me from my over use of commas and slight grammatical errors.

Taking the job at the DM was a great opportunity; however, completely the opposite of what I thought it was going to be. I thought this would be a great part time job, just a few hours a night, weekends off, excellent resume builder. Well, it certainly is a good resume builder, but the part time job with weekends and nights off went through the window on my very first day of work.

On a typical day, I wake up around 8 a.m. to a text message about work. Usually it is about a feature photo idea, or what did and didn’t run in today’s paper. In fact, my 8 am work text message is so regular I depend on it to get to my 9 am classes. I usually get phone calls and text messages about breaking news or photo ideas all day. Even though my work day ‘starts’ at 4:30 pm with our daily budget meetings, I have been on the prowl for pictures and in contact with photographers all day.

After 4:30 is when the paper starts to get a face. I do my part by keeping up with what stories are going in the upcoming week’s paper, and brainstorm feature ideas with the help of Sally, the Assistant Photo Editor. Sally and I then take in the photos from the photographers, format them and give them cut lines.

The photographers help immensely by having cut lines already written so Sally and I can simply type them into a single document and put them on the server. We shoot all digitally, which makes it easier for us load the photos onto the computer. Thank goodness the days of cutting and pasting photos onto each page are gone.

After all the proper formatting is done, and all cut lines and photos are in the correct folder and placed on the server, I assign things for the coming days. Even though it certainly is a lot of work; it is all done with a smile because of the great people that I work with every day.

Yes, folks, we're for real

As the City News Editor, one of the most surprising things I've seen is just how many people take us seriously. I mean, after all, we're just a bunch of students, not a professional news organization, right?

When I started writing for the paper last semester, I was shocked that people were willing to talk to me after I said I was with The DM. For the most part, no one treated me differently than if I had been with the Oxford Eagle, the Clarion Ledger or any other major newspaper.
I find that has stayed true as I moved up to the editorial position.

It still amazes me that the mayor of Oxford is willing to answer pretty much any question we ask him, let alone the fact that he is now holding a press conference for us twice a month. It amazes me that we have a reporter who is one of the first people the chief of police talks to after something happens. It amazes me that the vast majority of the city's aldermen, most of whom have demanding day jobs, are willing to talk to us, even when we call them at home.

Now, this isn't to say there are no problems. There are still a number of people who refuse to ever say a word to us, or who look down on us as a third-rate amateur rag. But thankfully, and to my perpetual surprise, these people are the minority.

So more than anything, I want to say thank you to Mayor Richard Howorth, County Administrator Richard Copp, Alderman Janice Antonow, Police Chief Mike Martin and all the other administrators who lend us their voices, opinions and knowledge when we ask them. Without them, the city section of our paper wouldn't do much good.

And now, I ask for the opinions of whoever is reading this. I need to know how to cover this city better. What do you see going on in Oxford and Lafayette County that you want to see in the paper? Is there an area of the city's culture that we're missing? Let me know what you think by emailing thedmnews@gmail.com, because there are only so many recycling and Pathways Project stories I can run.

Arts & Life... now including feature stories!

One thing I’ve been hearing a lot of around the office these days is, “Hey, Alex, where are the feature stories?”

I have to admit, I have not done the best job of injecting the Arts section with feature stories since I took over in August. Perhaps the biggest reason for the lack of features is because of the immense popularity of our columns. In making new designs and more prominently featuring them on the back page, the section has ignored some of the better features we could have run.
This is all going to change really soon. Don’t worry – we’ve got a lot (and I mean a lot) of feature stories on the way in the upcoming weeks and months that I think will really appeal to our readers.

Speaking of improvements, we are also working on new ways of bringing out fresh takes on our current columns. Your favorite columns will be seeing some more festive outings (like the Halloween edition of Hautey Toddy) and more personal takes on the topics (like Alex McAdams’ top 10 indie songs list this week in iWeekly).

Now that I’ve plugged the section enough, I’d like to share one thought on The DM office that you may not believe: we really are trying to put out the best paper each and every day. The quality of my section and the paper as a whole may see good days and bad, but it does not change the fact that we really strive to put out content you, the reader, will enjoy. I normally would not reference all of this a lot, but after last night, I feel like I need to.

Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year, so when I realized that in addition to my classes, I was going to have to go into work on that day, I got pretty annoyed and depressed. I got carried away and began to rush through my section with the goal of getting out as soon as possible. About half way through this, Marti, our editor, came back, put her hand on my shoulder and says “How’s it going?”

She began looking over my pages and giving me tips. I realized while we were doing this that, despite the holiday, we still needed to put out a quality paper the following day. Marti understood this better than I did, but it just goes to show you that we’re not thinking about ourselves when we put this paper together — we’re thinking about you.

I hope you enjoy the section in the weeks ahead!

The Other Kind of Late Night

I wish that I could say I stay up until midnight Sunday through Thursday because I have some extravagant lifestyle filled with long nights out with friends having an amazing time, making bad decisions and thoroughly enjoying my last year in college. However, that is not exactly the case.

I spend every Sunday through Thursday night in Bishop Hall at the Student Media Center designing the Daily Mississippian.

It's not the most glamorous job. It doesn't involve any flashy bylines or even my own mugshot. But to me, design is all about subtlety--the subtle changes from day to day that no one recognizes when they are there, but everyone recognizes when something is a little off.

Each day brings new challenges to overcome and new ideas to develop. But, hey, I guess that's just journalism.

And hopefully the next time you pick up a paper before your 11 a.m. class after a long night out, you will appreciate a little more all the long hours, stressful deadlines and hardwork that went into getting it into your hands.

Printing the Hard Stuff

It's always interesting to go to class and hear what people have to say about The Daily Mississippian when they don't know you work for it. As news editor, I take these opportunities to learn about what our readers like and don't like, and find ways to improve the publication.

But something particularly struck my interest in my English class today. Our professor had a student read aloud his paper on the topic of modern-day heroes. He took the stance that our society has less heroes and the media is partially to blame. As a local example, he used The DM and how the publication dealt with the Bradley Jameson incident as well as the three students killed in the ATO fire three years ago. The student felt The DM should have ignored the toxicology reports of the students. His reasoning was because it made the situation harder for the students' family and friends and that the information was uncalled for, tarnishing the images of the former students.

It was all I could do to keep my mouth closed.

The DM, like many other newspapers, holds its highest obligation to its readers. To do so, we must print any and all information we obtain about a story we are covering. Whether the information be good or bad, it is our duty to let our readers know what really happened.

Sometimes, this can be hard for our staff. In the Jameson case, we were first told no alcohol was involved - it was an open and shut case. We wrote a brief article on the accident, followed by a profile article about Jameson and how he was remembered by family and friends. Then came the toxicology report. Although some of us were saddened by it, we knew we had to publish it. If we didn't, we would be withholding information from our readers.

As usual, we were criticized for printing Jameson's blood alcohol content.

Just because we print this type of information doesn't mean we like to. It doesn't mean we are trying to sell papers (our paper is free anyway) or make things harder for the victim's family and friends. It just means we are trying to inform our readers the best we can so they can make informed decisions on their own.

Inside Copy Editing

A lot of my co-workers here at The DM wrote about job stress, long nights and the feeling that nothing is ever good enough. I've seen my share of that, especially last year when I was campus news editor before the advent of assignment editors. But for my blog today, I want to talk about the often overlooked role of copy editors at The DM and papers everywhere.

In my time here at The DM, I remember many many inquiries as to who was responsible for the grammar, spelling, poor comma usage, misleading headlines and every other AP Style or English language sin under the sun. Essentially, the whole staff is responsible. The person who wrote the deplorable cutline, who originally misplaced the comma and who refused to buy a style book usually gets blamed, and we all move on (hopefully toward better grammar).

This is why The DM, and virtually every newspaper in existence, has some form of copy desk. People make mistakes. As The Daily Mississippian is a daily newspaper we don't always do the type of fact-checking weekly magazines or monthly magazines do, but several people give each article a good, critical read before we go to press. At some magazines, fact-checkers have been known to call back sources to check every little detail. We're proud to trust our reporters on the big picture and use the support of editors for the rest.

After a city editor (or section editor in our case) looks over a reporter's work, a designer puts it on the page, and we get to work our magic. We read each article, first making sure it is readable and belongs in the paper. Our second concern is to check that the language is used correctly, that names are spelled correctly and that nothing looks fishy. Usually, one copy editor will read an article on the computer, decide on an appropriate headline (if it's a news article), and print it to get a second proofread by another editor. Then, the "slot" for the particular section, skims everything, checks the headlines and cutlines and makes a few more changes to the copy. Finally, the section is off to the managing editor and editor in chief who read everything again before we send the paper to the press.

You might wonder, do we even catch anything? After all, the paper you get every day still has several errors. First off, you might want to check and see if your English rules stray from AP Style ones (abbreviating Mississippi as "Miss." instead of "MS" when it follows the name of a city, for example, or leaving off the last comma in a serial). But, we do, indeed, catch a lot of minor things, change a lot of ledes, worry about every word in a headline and, on occasion, nix articles altogether. Here are a few things we caught that were memorable this year:

Charles Dickenson (Dickens)
Roberto Gonzales (Alberto)
Lindsey Lohan (Lindsay)
Oozy (Uzi)
Repel (Rappel)
Kenya Washington (Kyna Washington, LSU volleyball player)
Stephen Cohbert (Colbert)
Brittany Spears (Britney)

Diversity anyone?

It’s easy to publish easy news everyday. Every time you turn around some professor is getting published or an honors student has won another award. These stories fill the mailboxes of editors and reporters everyday. While this is refreshing, it's often the easy way out for your local news media — especially a community/college paper.

A bright light should be shined when credit is due, but my fear as a news editor/student is that the paper will somehow become a daily complement to the university.

If there is one fatal flaw in our new coverage here at The DM, it's that we don’t reach out to a diverse audience. According to recent data collected from the Department of Outreach, the Oxford campus (excluding satellite campuses) is:

80.9% White
12.7% Black
0.9% Multiple
4.1% Other
1.3% Unknown

It’s shocking when looking at the data that the number of minorities at Ole Miss is so small that they are grouped into categories such as “other” and "multiple."

We want to reach out to the community thats voices are never heard. A plan for covering a more diverse crowd in Oxford/Ole Miss is in the works right now, but a little help can go a long way when starting something like this. Shoot your ideas for diversity reporting to thedmnews@gmail.com with ATTN: DIVERSITY in the subject.

Whose story are we not telling?

Nothing new under the sun... or is there?

Marti wrote about this in the previous post so I won't say much about it, but Monday was pretty bad. Not just because the server died and I was up at the media center until about 2 a.m., but also because it rained all day. Literally. I don't remember it raining like that in Oxford since my freshman year. It was miserable.

But at a certain point you just kind of have to laugh. The days when things go so ridiculously wrong that you find yourself laughing hysterically simply because there's nothing else you can do. I actually find satisfaction in days like Monday because it reminds me that in life, there is nothing new under the sun (or the clouds, whatever the case may be). Everyone else has had days just as bad as mine, and they made it out alive. And it's likely that I will too. The absurdity of a bad day becomes comical, and all you can do is revel in it.

And I do truly believe there is nothing new under the sun. Everything I am saying right now has been said before. Everything's been done before. Everything's been thought before. However, I can't help but think that, in a weird way, there is nothing under the sun that is not new. Including The DM. Everyday, it's the same. It's The DM; it has the same template, the same name plate, the same masthead. But everyday it's completely different from the day before. And that's because of our staff who works so hard to put it together.

My role as managing editor includes reading the content and pages for the Arts & Life, Sports and Opinion sections. Marti reads the News sections and in this way we split the newspaper evenly and read the entire thing with a critical eye. I read for copy editing errors, Associated Press style errors and design flaws. I also run the daily budget meetings in which the whole staff and our faculty advisor Ellen Meacham discuss what will run in the paper the next two days. In addition, I manage payroll for all staff members, writers, photographers and any other contributors. In all, I usually work from five to six hours a day in addition to taking 15 hours of class per week. I get stressed a lot. Especially now that October is coming to an end, I feel burned out. I'm ready for a break.

But I love what I do, which is why I continue to do it. I just love journalism and I love editing and I love writing. I love The DM and I love being able to contribute to it everyday. It's all for you, readers. Keep on reading.

The night the server died

It's amazing how dependent we are on technology these days. In fact, after the Monday night ordeal we went through to put out Tuesday's DM, I'm going to say our dependence on technology is downright scary.

At the Student Media Center, we share a server with Newswatch, Rebel Radio, The Ole Miss yearbook and the advertising department. The SMC server has not been updated in about three years – and that's a very, very long time considering the amount of content we put on it everyday. As a result, from time to time the server shuts down, which throws the entire DM publishing process into turmoil. We depend on the server to retrieve pages, place content on the pages and generally prepare the paper for printing.

Last night's server shutdown was particularly severe. It was 8 p.m. before the advertising department had even finished prepping our pages for content, and it was well after 9 p.m. when our section editors got started desiging everything. We were reduced from six different working computers to a single station that we had to take turns using. By the time the paper was sufficiently laid out and copy-edited it was after 2 a.m. – and that was before Meghan Blalock, the managing editor, and myself gave our final read and approval on every column, story, photo and design element.

I left the Student Media Center around 4:30 a.m. last night along with Zachary Wilson, our Online Editor, who had to wait for all the pages to be totally read and completed before he could upload content on to TheDMonline.com. When my alarm went off at 7 a.m. to alert me to get ready for my 8 a.m. anthropology class, I thought I just might cry.

Many of our journalism professors tell us stories about the "old days" of DM publishing, when computers were barely used and pages were designed and formatted by hand. I cringe to think that we would have to cut and paste every picture and story into place the way they used to do it, but the fact that our server can malfunction and make it uncertain whether a paper will get printed at all is also unsettling.

In any case, Tuesday's DM is really and truly a labor of love from all of us on staff who gave up homework, appointments, study sessions, food and sleep to get it done. And if we're not in our 8 a.m. classes tomorrow, you all know why.

Moving through uncharted territory

The online world is a funny thing. And, frankly, a scary thing. It's an uncharted wilderness, open for exploration and discovery. On the journey, there are both treasures and pitfalls, and you really never know what’s around the corner.

As the editor of TheDMOnline.com, I have an interesting responsibility: look like I know what I'm doing. Trial and error (along with success and failure) are my best friend and my worst enemy.

What I have working for me are backgrounds in journalism and design, along with knowledge of the Internet and some basic HTML code. What I don’t have is a staff of full-time engineers and programmers to carry out what I envision for the site. And therein lies the main problem.

The Daily Mississippian is an interesting operation, and quite the double-edged sword. On one hand, we’re a group of 100+ student editors, writers, photographers, etc. putting out a student newspaper as part of our training to eventually become full-time journalists. On the other hand, we’re producing a real source of news and information that real people, including students, faculty, staff, Oxford residents and alumni, consume. Then we’re putting it online, where it goes international gets millions of page views every year. (Oh yeah, and we go to class, too. Sometimes.)

Since I started as online editor, one of the main problems I have struggled with is working through our content management system, College Publisher. CP has been extremely helpful with everything we’ve done with the site, but it’s a template program that’s based on uploading the newspaper to a web site. And at The DM Online, we want to do more than that.

Right now we have photo slideshows, a few audio options and some occasional video. And, as of today, three blogs. I feel like we’re definitely moving in the right direction, but we’re not there yet. Part of the problem is balancing student life with work life and trying to stay sane. Another is a general lack of time. And, finally, the fact that we don’t know what’s out there or really even what we’re capable of has proven to be a frustration.

In the future, though, there are several improvements readers can look forward to. For one, a more effective site design. Soon we’ll unveil a revamp of the current site’s design, and from there we’ll work on making improvements and removing some annoyances in the current system. Our video will become much more regular, too, and we want to improve the size and quality of photos on the site. Also, readers will have the chance to get to know the editors of The DM through our blogs and upcoming podcasts, hopefully gaining an understanding of our methods, thought processes and what goes in to putting out the paper every day.

So know that we’re out there, moving through uncharted territory and attempting to find the perfect place to prosper. As with any journey, there will be ups and downs, but I have faith that we’ll find what we’re seeking: a better TheDMOnline.com. And sooner than you think.

An inside look

If you're at all personally familiar with anyone who has been a member of The DM editorial staff over the past 96 years, you've probably heard them complain that people don't understand what they go through to put out the newspaper.

Daily posting on the InsideTheDM blog will give readers a glimpse behind the scenes and allow them a much more in-depth, personal view of life at The DM. Each day will include a new entry from a different staffer about what is up-and-coming in their area, things they're having trouble with or things for which they'd like a little reader input.

As with anything we do at The DM, the main goal of our blogs is to provide a valuable reader service. Your participation, input, thoughts and criticisms matter to us. Have ideas or comments about the new blogs? Send them our way at editor@thedmonline.com.