Saturday, June 06, 2009

Berkley, Heller and the Internet

Two of Nevada's congressional delegation recently had their online presence looked at.  One made the "Best of" and one, well, the opposite.  We'll start with the opposite.

If you are a congressperson in 2009 then you probably don't want to be featured in an article titled "Members' websites stuck in '70s." Unfortunately for Shelley Berkley (CD-1), her site not only made the cut, but also featured these biting snipes.

“There’s enough fonts for a ransom note.”
"The style is pretty awful.  It’s lost in a ’90s aesthetic. I don’t even know if I should use the word ‘aesthetic.’”
Hey, at least Berkley isn't using that annoying "high heel" pointer icon on her official site.

Dean Heller (CD-2) had a better time of it as he made the Washingtonian's Tweet Beat: The Best Congressional Tweets of the Week for his announcing the winner of his district's congressional art contest. For the record, it was Logan Cratty of Pahrump High.

4 comments:

Local So-and-so said...

It's funny how almost all of them say they are "in the beginning stages" of updating their sites. An obvious CYA line, like when an 8 year old has "started" his homework.

The Anon Guy said...

Yeah, we'll see if any changes do materialize. The funny thing about it is why doesn't Congress just have a standard template that all can use for their official office site. Having 535 different designs, all at taxpayer expense, seems mighty wasteful. Members could still go hog wild on their campaign and personal sites, but an office site should be utilitarian and standard.

Ryan Jerz said...

The sad thing is that she doesn't need to update it. Yeah, it sucks, just like Jill Derby's did when she was running, but to these guys and the system, all that matters is that they raise money and are pretty safe in their districts. Who cares if their sites actually work for anything?

The Anon Guy said...

It would be interesting to see if toss-up district incumbents have more user-friendly sites than those where it seems the congressperson has a lifetime appointment.

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