Idaho Falls City Website Overdue for Overhaul

I recently visited with the mayor and they are currently working on the updates for the city web page. You should see changes within the next few months.

Q - you are funny!

agwriter, I see no relationship between your shameless plug and this discussion.

Since you threw it out, I see very few registrants and about five posts over there. A successful name brand in print does not always translate into a successful online venture. Is this really your “hope”?

Back to the original discussion, I got an email back in March that the city was redoing their website. Now the word is another few months. It really should not take that long for a redesign. Are they using another non-local design firm again? Does anyone over there know how to manage this type of project?

I suspect the city’s new website will debut right after the legendary graffiti-cleaning machine finally appears.

Ehhh, I just read this all as a discussion of the city website, and you took a sharp turn there that I didn’t see the connection.

Given that the sharp turn was to a for-profit company’s website, I saw it as shameless.

I hope it works for them, also. I would like to see our online local community grow stronger.

Ummmm, I thought about it a few days, and no, I don’t see how anyone could possibly think the city is “for profit” also.

The city is a government entity, quite distinct from a business entity, and the differences between the way government entities and businesses run are extremely vivid to those (like myself) who have worked in both environments.

If the city takes in too much money, they have to start dropping fees or taxes.

If the aforementioned Idaho Falls Magazine takes in too much money, do they refund their advertisers?

There is a stark contrast.

Thanks for your response Joe… and I agree with you, a city should not be for-profit, nor should any government entity… my point was to discuss a curiousity that I am trying to understand due to definitions of terminology…it seems that often we discuss things believing that we each have the same definition and that is not always the case, discussions can lead to heated arguments due to the differences in definitions of terms… if the definition is the same for each participant in the argument then the discussion could be much more productive.
Does this make sense?

OK4NOW… I believe the Idaho Falls Magazine has always had a website or rather a webpage, and they just wanted to expand, I don’t think their site is a copy of this website, how could it be a copy of this website? Do the folks at Idaho Falls Magazine even know this site exists? in fact I wanted to ask you Joe… isn’t this website considered a blog, and isn’t a blog a specific individual or organization’s own territory…?

And also, is it a bad thing to have another website with an interactive forum?

I’ve got news for you, Joe V.

Idaho Falls magazine may be a for-profit endeavor, but until mid-2006, it had yet to make a single penny. Even now, after 5 years in print, it just breaks even after printing and mailing costs for 14,000 copies.

Did you ever notice how it says “FREE” on the cover? Plus, they mail out issues to anyone who requests it in Bonneville, Bingham, and Jefferson counties…all on their own dime.

Call it what you want. Whether they know about this site or not, the new IF magazine forum is simply an extension of their outreach effort into the community. And the design is borrowed from their parent company’s hugely successful SnoWest magazine website and forum, which averages nearly 40 million hits per month. They’re simply going with what has been proven to work. Again, all at no cost to us, the citizens of Idaho Falls.

Now, with that said, agwriter’s mention of the new forum admittedly had little to do with your suggestions to improve the city of I.F. website.

News? Perhaps not. It was just an expression, Joe.

But 80% advertising? Better check your math.

And re-read my post. They are making some spare coin now. But for the first 5 years, it cost more money to produce than it made in advertising. You’re just going to have to take the word of someone who knows the facts.

It’s not uncommon, even for a paid-subscription magazine to suffer a loss for the first 5 years.

I agree, it is not a purely philanthropic venture, but you have to give them credit where it’s due. Which, I’ll agree, in part…you have.

Here we are another year later and ye old city website is still the same mess.

On one hand, there are many other more important things for Mayor Fuhriman and our city workers to concern themselves with. I do not want to criticize anyone because the city website is realistically low on the overall priorities list.

On the other hand, that city website serves as the official front door for our city.

I think they should try shorter-term strategies with the city website, with more frequent redesigns.

For instance, every six months, offer a redesign to a local web designer.

Give them 30 days to redesign the site. If it is not liked that well, heck 6 months later do another redesign.

Costs? I think a lot of local web designers would give a redesign for under cost. I know I would do it, if the city would keep an archive page of all the past versions, promoting the previous designers just a little bit.

In this way, the city website would look much better more often, and it would help promote Idaho Falls-area web designers.

The problem with the city’s website is that a lot of information on it is out of date.

I have to agree with you there Guest. Same with GuestHouse’s comments regarding the red flags….if we want this city to grow (which it’s doing) than at least get with the times with the rest of the country, it’s these little things that make all the difference in the world.
Has anyone ever taken the time to do a search on our “sister city” in Japan? I urge you to take a few moments and check it out. Their city is a lot poorer than ours, yet everything about this city is “with the times”, up to date and thinking of their future. Even the cleanliness of their city and the way everything is so well manicured and taken care of, really puts our city to shame. I mean if they can do it, there’s no reason we cant.
But I’m sure somebody will come up with a dozen reasons why we cant, so lets hear them. (& don’t bother with the “money” complaint. the money is there, it’s just not being utilized properly)

I have to ask why they outsource the job of creating the webpage and thus spend a lot more money than necessary. Once you know how to do one its not hard to set it up, it merely requires a little know how and the right software. Chances are many high schoolers can do it. So its a double failure by the city in my book.