ReMag

[surayahamdan]

I noticed that most of the threads here are at least 5-6 years of age. Also I noticed that Remag has had several lives before. Has it been dead then reincarnated then went dead again, or that's just how it is supposed to be?

Actually I have a few words/suggestion/unsolicited advice to improve Remag but I'm not sure if anyone is paying attention in this sub-forum at all.

[capablanca]

There used to be a ReMag a couple years ago, but it went dead. Now, it's a new version of it, spearheaded by a dedicated team.

Just post ahead. If the idea's good, people will take notice.

[ayjiahui]

Surayahamdan: You are also free to email me at adelynyeoh@<hidden> or the other Editors as well :)

[cycycy]

We are in to make it last this time round :) Yayy.
:confetti

[surayahamdan]

Hey guys! Thanks for noticing the thread and replying.

OK I have a few things in mind, but I'll try to be brief..

1. Images in featured slider are too big (example (http://recom.org/remagv2/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/steal_henry_sxc.jpg)). 3MB for a single image? Yikes! These images are not cached for most browsers because of the size so users will end up having tremendously slow loading speed when viewing the front page each single time.

Try use something like timthumb to automatically resize & crop the images. It's pretty easy to implement with a little PHP coding.

Alternatively, resize them first to desirable size before posting - make sure to use "save for web" in Photoshop.

2. Have you considered making Remag the frontpage for Recom? Ditch the portal, it provides no advantage that can't be achieved by Wordpress (except single sign in perhaps, but that's not really that important anyway).

This is to cater for both existing users and potential readers. The latter are usually the more picky ones, they won't bother digging through your subdomain to find the articles on Remag.

3. Remag feels like you're on a completely different website. The theme just don't blend well with the overall theme of Remag. There's no link to go back to Recom from Remag either.

Let me know if you need a design that looks completely similar with the current Recom.

4. Reading articles on Remag feels like reading high-school yearly book. I don't mean that in bad way. It's good that we have highly talented writers with capability to write complex articles. But ultimately you want more people to read your articles instead of trying to impress only a small crop of people that appreciates some of the fancy words/phrases you used.

Just look at how little the number of responses each article gets.

Maybe try to write topics that people can relate to like political issues, latest gadgets, some random rants perhaps, student politics maybe - it's not wrong to be sensational. Also you should really look into using simpler structures/phrases/wordings when writing. Think huffpost.

5. What's with the "April Issue" thingy? Is it supposed to be a monthly basis magazine? Well that'd defeat the whole purpose of having a dynamic online mag would it?

6. Your WP Super Cache plugin is broken, look into the source code
<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->

7. Sidebar is generally a huge mess.

8. No categories? Tags? Related Articles? FB fan page?

I have a few more to add actually but I'll stop here first.

Overall Remag is slow to load, inefficient, and the content may not interest Recom's targeted readers so much. The good news is these can mostly get fixed easily. I can help of course :)

[ayjiahui]

Thank you surayahamdan for your invaluable feedback. Like i have mentioned above, you are free to email us regarding other suggestions you might have. You will be hearing from the Editors and I shortly.

Also I'd like to make note that we've been long aware of these technical kinks and will look into that soon. We are in the midst of restructuring ourselves and we only ask for your patience. I hope that this will not deter you from reading us. :)

[surayahamdan]

Thanks. Glad if I helped in any way. Cheers for ReMag!

Oh BTW I finished reading all articles on there so far. When are the new ones coming?

[henry_yew]

In due time. We have a publishing schedule where we aim to publish a few articles every week, except for a pseudo-fifth week of the month.

[CelineD]

4. Reading articles on Remag feels like reading high-school yearly book. I don't mean that in bad way. It's good that we have highly talented writers with capability to write complex articles. But ultimately you want more people to read your articles instead of trying to impress only a small crop of people that appreciates some of the fancy words/phrases you used.

PS: If Remag were anything like a school magazine...Personally I find that statement a little funny because as a writer myself, when I write for Remag I'd try to break away from the typical high school essay structure and be more free and individual -- even though ironically I'm still in high school, doing upper 6 xD What say the other writers?

[surayahamdan]

Youths and adults, aged 15 to 40.

[CelineD]

Haha, thanks. just realized that the age range was stated in the Vision and Mission section of Remag, I must have overlooked it ~

[Dominic]

Is there an way to get a 'next page' button up? Now we can't access the older articles, only the few that have been recently posted.