Wed
Jun 27 2007
09:39 am
By: R. Neal

Michael Silence reported earlier that the KNS will soon be dropping the free registration requirement at their website. It's about time.

Today he reports that GoVolsXtra is dropping paid registrations and becoming a free site. This will be pretty huge news for local sports fans and Volunteer fans around the planet.

He also says the KNS website is rolling out a new look tomorrow. I had heard something about the possibility of a Django project. Wonder if this is it?

Oh, and there's also this. Looks like the KNS is getting more serious about attracting web eyeballs.

Topics:
Sam's picture

That is good news.

Can't wait to see the new lay-out.

WhitesCreek's picture

I had probems

For some reason, KNS can't get my newspaper in the mail in time for it to show up on my rural route on the same day. I complained as did lots of folks. Later on I got a phone call apologizing for the problem and offering to fix it by selling me an internet subscription.

I declined.

Will this be full access?

R. Neal's picture

As far as I know it's full

As far as I know it's full access. The only thing that was paid subscription online was the sports site, I think.

Now everything will be free (except presumably the archives), and apparently won't even require registration.

I didn't know they had any kind of paid internet subscription other than the sports site. Wonder what they were trying to sell you, or if that was it?

JustJohnny's picture

Two other local news sites using the python & django platform

Wow! Great to hear they are easing up on paid news content. Event CNN is changing their pipeline service to free starting next week.

On the DJANGO site notes: the Tennessee Journalist (tnjn.com) is a django based site. Another is the Seymour Herald (seymourherald.com). Django, with the many luxuries of python, is becoming 'the framework' for rapid content development and well suits online papers. Scripps has long been in the process of moving their online papers to this platform using a bought CMS (ellington) that is built to run on django.

Mykhailo's picture

I had heard something about

I had heard something about the possibility of a Django project. Wonder if this is it?

Ooo. I'm envious. Someone's having great fun with that.

Django, with the many luxuries of python, is becoming 'the framework' for rapid content development and well suits online papers

Django seems to be pretty clearly far behind Rails in mindshare right now, so I'm thinking you're a True Believer :). But I've never played around with Djanjo -- what does it bring that Rails doesn't?

R. Neal's picture

what does Django bring that

what does Django bring that Rails doesn't?

JustJohnny is the man to answer that. I haven't played with Django, just looked at some of the specs and sample code and some of the websites using it.

It's more of a developer's tool than a canned CMS like Drupal (which we use here) so I pretty much don't have time to delve in to it. Rails is is the same type of thing, right?

Mykhailo's picture

Rails is is the same type of

Rails is is the same type of thing, right?

Well, the Django bullet points are more or less 1:1 with Rails', except for the "Automatic admin interface", which I presume means Django provides a bunch of pre-built portal stuff.

-----

The Django framework

Object-relational mapper
Define your data models entirely in Python. You get a rich, dynamic database-access API for free — but you can still write SQL if needed.

Automatic admin interface
Save yourself the tedious work of creating interfaces for people to add and update content. Django does that automatically, and it's production-ready.

Elegant URL design
Design pretty, cruft-free URLs with no framework-specific limitations. Be as flexible as you like.

Template system
Use Django's powerful, extensible and designer-friendly template language to separate design, content and Python code.

Cache system
Hook into memcached or other cache frameworks for super performance — caching is as granular as you need.

Internationalization
Django has full support for multi-language applications, letting you specify translation strings and providing hooks for language-specific functionality.

JustJohnny's picture

Django v rails

There is a great comparison of django v rails at (link...)

It is a bit dated, but most of the arguments still hold true.

CBT's picture

I never understood the pay

I never understood the pay requirement for GoVolsXtra, other than the obvious money-grabbing. I always advocated free for subscribers with access by password or something.

Anyway, I look forward to the new site and am VERY glad about the free sports. But, as we all know, this is aimed at being able to charge more for web ads. As is almost always the case, it's money that's driving the change.

Mykhailo's picture

JJ: Thanks for the link.

JJ: Thanks for the link.

There's nothing that those two programming languages do that Perl wasn't doing 10 years ago.

Butterfly: I'm picturing you with a long, stinky beard, as stinky as perl is, stabbing at me from a permanently dark server room..

p.s. feel free to email me pictures of your yard when you get the itch to start digging it up. The beginning of fall is the best time to plant.

Knoxquerious's picture

That's great news. I can

That's great news. I can only tolerate so much of The Tennessean's sports stories about the vols.

redmondkr's picture

Dropping the registration

Dropping the registration requirement, huh? Well I guess I can quit using Abigail Wearybottom as a nom de plume.


Visit us at

Wearybottom Associates

Opinari's picture

It's about time!

"Today he reports that GoVolsXtra is dropping paid registrations and becoming a free site. This will be pretty huge news for local sports fans and Volunteer fans around the planet."

I've been paying for access to Vols' news for a couple of years, and I'm glad to see the requirement go... although it would be kind of cool if they would experiment with the PDF full version paper like the Times Free Press does. I pay for that one, too, and I don't nearly as much feel like I'm getting hosed.

Now, if only they'd add a mobile version, I'd be thrilled.

ultron's picture

"although it would be kind

"although it would be kind of cool if they would experiment with the PDF full version paper like the Times Free Press does."

We (I work at the NS) do have an E-Edition. It's a PDF-style rendition of the whole paper. The link's at the subscription services tag at the top of the page. I think it is a paid service, though. At least it has been in the past.

ultron's picture

"I never understood the pay

"I never understood the pay requirement for GoVolsXtra, other than the obvious money-grabbing. I always advocated free for subscribers with access by password or something.

"Anyway, I look forward to the new site and am VERY glad about the free sports. But, as we all know, this is aimed at being able to charge more for web ads. As is almost always the case, it's money that's driving the change."

***

Yep, it's a terrible thing indeed when businesses try to make $. :)

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