I shall ignore neither!

Duncan dropped a point because at the time of the review (I haven’t looked since), video was being exclusively used on some sub-pages to communicate core parts of his ‘message’ as a candidate, so the video wasn’t just an optional bolt-on / added extra. I agree though, it was good to see some good use of video.

R

Rob’s point on subtitling is very validly made – I will ensure if I do this again that I add them.

Oh, and I declare an interest as his wife….

I hate insomnia

Grace

But well spotted Al.

The SW London seat was the first to hold it’s selection. The rest of the seats should start the selection procedures after May 3rd.

But in a Selection contest it’s all Lib Dems voting – and a good number will be looking at different candidates’ sites. In that context, I’d have thought it pays to have something that stands out rather than looking like every other Lib Dem website you’ve ever seen – and most other GLA candidates’ sites.

Extraordinary way to start a design course!

Whilst Prater-Raines sites do look a bit samey how many people outside the party regularly look at a number of Lib Dem websites.

What they do give you is a simple system whereby web updating can be put in the hands of a number of basically computer literate people. That way you avoid the “great website that stops being updated when the web person moves/gets a new job/goes to University etc” scenario.

Websites are important campaigning tools. Non-accessible ones fail to maximise their potential for gathering support and votes. Therefore people who build non-accessible sites are proving they are less effective campaigners than rivals who build accessible ones. It’s like comparing a candidate whose press release are spelled wrong and whose leaflets smear in the rain with one who gets it right.

On a separate note, I haven’t received a jot or whistle to do with this selection but have had the London SW constituency mailing, which includes Knight, Butt, Ambache and Norsheen Bhatti. Ambache lost my vote by failing to reply to a question sent using his online contact form.

I don’t have anything against them per se, I just find them rather dull, samey, and unimaginative – for a second opinion, I went to a friend of mine who studied web design and does it for a living, whose answer was “Well… it reminds me of the start of 1st year, when they showed us a bunch of sites and said ‘Never do this’”.

I have to say, I was very impressed by Pidgeon’s on message different text with photos for every borough, looks like a lot of effort, which impresses me a *lot* more than a PR clone – shame about the white links at the top, I had actually closed the site without even seeing they were there before I read here that the eye ‘wasn’t naturally drawn to them’.

Don’t like that Nasser Butt’s already impersonal contact form reminds us “this is provided for a convenience, please do not abuse it”. Just seems rather cold-shoulderesque.

For me, it was a case of seeing a load of sites that looked pretty much the same and then a couple (Masroor, Pidgeon) that actually had a different feel to them & hence attracted more of my attention.

Not sure how much any of it will do to sway my vote – at the end of the day I’ll vote for the person who strikes me as the mostly likely to be an active campaigner.

5 new Lynne Featherstones (spread geographically across London) would go down very well indeed!

R