Okay, this seems to be a pattern I can’t figure out. How come when Friday’s new column comes out, it isn’t listed as “Today’s Question”? We get the new picture on the right and the link through that, but the article title and link at the top of the page is the same one from Thursday.
It seems to me this is absolutely the one article that requires getting linked under “Today’s Question”, as it is the new content delivered today and never before, as opposed to the classic columns run on the other days.
I guess I don’t follow. The column gets loaded to the website, the picture gets updated and includes the link, but the article title and link don’t get updated. Why is it only a partial update, and then later the rest is done? Why aren’t both changes simultaneous?
No, when the column goes “live” (which it does on Thursday night so it’s available for the Straight Dope mailing) the graphic appears on the front page. It’s automatic, we don’t have any control over it – as soon as the column is made visible to the world the front page updates.
So why is the picture automatic but the article title and link manual? Is it because the picture only updates once a week and the article is changed on weekdays, but not weekends?
I’d just assumed it’s because it’s easier to get the picture ahead of time (as long as Slug knows the topic) while Ed can be fixing the article up until he submits it. (Cecil doesn’t edit, remember?)
I am surprised that the archives aren’t automatic, though.
In the beginning there may have been more thoughts of automating the process but I’m still making the changes manually and expect no change in this for the present.
