Being picky with the NY Times online

What a day for online news. I am disturbed and dismayed that there wasn't a set of eyes at the Times that caught the numerous typos in this interview. And not just any interview. A one-on-one Q & A with Florida's very own golden-armed quarterback Tim Tebow!

Copy and pasted (no edits):

A lot don’t have much hope or anything to look at as positive. I said, ‘Eveyrone looks at you all like you’re nothing.

Everything you’re doing for people, standing around and singing autographs. You’re making an impact on people.

Does the new media department not have copy editors? Or heck, even spell check?!? I, like most Florida fans who read the Times, was super excited to read this article! But what a disservice to Tebow. It kills the clip that his mother I'm sure would be cutting out and pasting neatly in his scrapbook.

And the Times isn't alone today in sports news slip-ups at Tebow's expense. The error in this story at ESPN.com is even more cringing:

Gators quarterback Jeff Tebow had seven carries for 29 yards without attempting a pass in the most recent matchup, but has been impressive both on the ground and through the air in his first year as the starter.

What. The. F$%K?! It's a SPORTS Web site!!!! This writer needs to be fired. Right now. He makes not only sports journalists but all journalists look naive, uneducated, careless and unprofessional. And that's just not cool.

When Web works...and when it doesn't

Joe Strupp at Editor & Publisher wants you to learn from other newspapers' mistakes, but he also wants to tell you what they have been doing right in the changing game of online news.

In his special to the journal, Web Editors Reveal Online Flops or Failures, he outlines 12 DON'TS for online newspapers with examples from some pretty heavy hitters.

Editors at the Denver Post learned the hard way that "technology can pop:"

When The Denver Post's Web editors upgraded technology to allow an automatic refresher of the pages every 10 minutes, believing readers wanted the freshest news, they forgot about the die-hard crossword puzzlers. Many fans of the word game called and e-mailed complaints that every time the page refreshed, their work was wiped out.

He goes on with other tips and pointers, which all made perfect sense to me. Online news execs need to realize that just because there is a new feature or way for readers to interact with the paper online doesn't mean that they will WANT to or bother to take the time. I think Strupp gets the point across that it is a trial-and-error type of situation because everything IS so new. Time will tell.

Want awesome pictures of your kids?

This might seem a bit off topic but it is 100% relevant to the skills I'm learning to use in journalism. I promise.
My sister Courtney is launching her children and family photography business, Candids by Courtney. If you live in the tri-county area in South Florida and would love some amazing candid shots of your kids running around and having fun, go here now! She's really found a knack for this, as you can see by the photos on her Web site. She is also keeping a blog. Snag her services before she gets booked up! She's that good!

And that's where the relevance comes in. Her new 100% Flash site was designed by, you guessed it, yours truly! For my first all-Flash site, I'm really pleased with it. But there are a few things I still would like to learn.

Anyone know how to make a Flash photo gallery with scrolling thumbnails? Good tutorials out there? I've been browsing around and all I can find are pay-for software that will build one for you. Not what I want. Especially for a site dealing with basically all photos, I want it to look crisp and professional.

As far as design goes, it's about as basic as you can get. I wanted to keep it simple for my first time, and focus more on working buttons and links, etc. So far everything works!