Still putting Spoilers on the front page.

[giorgitd]

Spoilers are here to stay

That's a dealbreaker for me. I did like the 'provide a subpage without spoilers that can be reached directly' suggestion. Without that, or another way to avoid seeing race results on the main page, I'm afraid I'll be gone. Hope that you can lure in 1.01 new users for each one you've driven away...

 

[Garry Allen]

Cyclingnews has been my home page since it was owned, written and produced by Bill Mitchell. (I started reading the site in 1995) I have loved the fact that despite a 10 hour delay, I have been able to follow major European races 'live' by reading cyclingnews's live race reports. I have deliberately chosen not to listen to the radio news reports or check the local newspaper websites so that I can read the cyclingnews report to finally discover yet again that Tom Boonen has won Paris Roubaix or Davide Rebellin has won LBL. It has been an authoritive source through this entire time.
Race results in the headers was an ongoing complaint in rec.bicycles.racing. Not putting the results in the headline for the race made cyclingnews unique amongst all the english speaking cycling websites that are on the web. It is a major reason why so many people have preferred it in the past. Losing this distinctive makes you no different to velonews or pezcyclingnews or dailypeloton.

 

[jaylew]

Wow, I thought I was the only one! I can't tell you how many times I've come to CN to read the live report so I could experience the race w/o knowing the result. Plus you could check out other race results without finding out the result of another race if you were going to watch it later. I often avoid the other cycling sites because of that very reason.

Please Daniel, read the feedback and reconsider. We understand most cycling sites do it the new way, but that's one of the reasons we love your site. It wasn't trying to be every other site.

I like many of the changes but this is the one that I absolutely hate.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, from atop the ivory tower where the editor sits and claims to care about its readerships opinions comes this (posted on the LOCKED thread where the editors can post without having to truly engage in a discussion with the readership)....

Spoilers:


While I'm keen to hear opinions on this matter I’m afraid that spoilers, or race headlines, are very much here to stay. I understand that some of you are against this but if you look on the majority of news websites you’ll see exactly the same thing. Whether it’s news, weather or sport, headlines in themselves are there to tell a story and entice people in. There are other factors as well, like search engine optimisation but the main reason is that it fits with real news reporting.

Thanks

Daniel

i just find that post by daniel completely disheartening.. Last night i was angry, this morning i just feel dissapointed by it...

Your readers daniel have asked you for something, you are a commercial business dependant on your customer, the reader, they have repeatedly asked for no spoilers, and to turn round and basically say "tough **** - they are here to stay" just shows that you are willing to lose some of your customers if it is for what you perceive to be the greater good..

You may think its only a handful of people who are upset with spoilers, the ten , maybe twenty, or thirty, or fourty, who have complained about them here, and you can afford to lose those thirty customers... whats the old rule about reading, and responding, 5% bother, the other 95% dont.. im guessing the ones on here are the percent that can be bothered..

The customer admittedly, isnt always right, but when an overwhelming number of your customers ask for something, that you can, simply and easily, with no real detriment, provide, to blatlantly ignore them is very very poor..

There wherent spoilers last week, or last year, or the year before, so does having them now REALLY benefit CN that much, worth losing customers over?

 

[Kazistuta]

Oh yes, one simple question: How many of your "loyal, devoted readers" asked for spoilers in the suggestions taken? Or was it simply just a bright idea from an editor/designer having a metapause/menopause?

 

[ogurantz]

the change is spoilers has really ruined the site

thanks for taking something that worked and breaking it. reading the site since '98 and now I can't stand it. and again, you aren't getting complaints from hicks who don't know how to work a computer. it's just not what cyclingnews fans wanted...

 

[Suttree70]

Spoilers are "here to stay"? This just shows a staggering lack of understanding for what your users want from your site. Like the comment above, it is a deal breaker for me, even though I've followed this site almost exclusively for at least ten years. So disappointing.

 

[Capt_phun]

I have to agree. If spoilers stay, I go.
Listen to your readers & remove the spoilers or you are going to see a large drop in reader usage. Whoever did you research about what your consumers wanted should be beaten with a rubber hose.

 

[toppermost]

oh come on. why would they listen to their consumers? they have advertisers to satisfy first.

 

[harlond]

I have followed this site for a decade and I agree with the others that spoilers should be eliminated. Many a Saturday morning I used to come home from a ride and click on LIVE REPORT before BRIEF RESULTS, so I could "re-live" the race. Now I can't do that, and yesterday after the conclusion of stage 5 of the TdS, I couldn't even find the live report.

This is a site I have visited EVERY DAY for years and years, and now I don't even want to.

 

[stefan]

I have followed this site for a decade and I agree with the others that spoilers should be eliminated. Many a Saturday morning I used to come home from a ride and click on LIVE REPORT before BRIEF RESULTS, so I could "re-live" the race. Now I can't do that, and yesterday after the conclusion of stage 5 of the TdS, I couldn't even find the live report.

This is a site I have visited EVERY DAY for years and years, and now I don't even want to.

http://live.cyclingnews.com

 

[toppermost]

and the previous stage? the one before that? and the Paris Roubaix?

Stefan in the States you have to subsrcibe (pay extra) to see races on satellite tv. Its not available on "regular" cable. If you want Eurosport you have to pay a good deal of money.

I dare say the average, casual fan in the States has no access to race coverage in the US beyond the internet.

We are also what, 10-12 hours behind you. If we are busy one day we miss the live coverage as it happens, we have no way to read the report now without it being spoiled.

 

[Anonymous]

http://live.cyclingnews.com

thank you...

can previous live reports be built into a week text link along the bottom (not menus or anything complicated, just links to previous live reports...

but thank you.. can now bookmark that in my mobile and see if it works...

credit where credit is due.. thank you guys..

 

[FreeEthan]

Spoilers = one less site user

I visit CN about 5 times per day; EVERY day.

I live in the US where the Tour is broadcast live in the morning (when I'm at work) and then again a couple times in the evening. If visiting your site will automatically SPOIL the excitement of watching the race, then I will no longer visit the site.

You can always go back to what you did before: have a half-day quiet period following the end of a stage.

I've got no problem with reading a headline that says "Cavendish wins XYZ race" if it happened yesterday.

Out of curiosity, how many users have taken the time to defend the use of spoilers on the front page?