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[scotia]

Has anyone figured out how to customize the new BBC website so that the front page shows interesting things, rather than who is the front-runner for the Sunderland managers position? I really could not care less about premiership soccer, but now I have to hunt to find things that interest me (technology news, education news, being able to glance at the page and watch what the world share markets are doing. If I have to have sport, I would prefer to know what is happening in cycling and rugby, not have soccer rammed down my throat). I don't care when Match of the Day is on, I want to know what is on Radio 4, but instead I have Sport or Radio 6 to the fore.

The page seems to have been designed to pander to English soccer fans, with a male London-centric bias (and yes, I know that there are female soccer fans, and that not all men are soccer fans, but if the BBC is going to generalize its audience, I can too). The old front page was customisable to my interests. Unless the new page is customisable in a way I have not figured out, the changes seem to be a big step backward.

Harumph!

[fourhats]

I looked at it earlier this morning, and saw that there are arrows on each side of the main news item, so you can scroll through the stories.  Sunderland was on the far right for me.

[wegie]

Ewww. Let's take away the customisable widgets and pander to the lowest common denominator.

It reminds me of their awful iPhone app, which is equally uncustomisable.

It also reminds me of why, the 6Nations and and the occasional outburst of intellectually meaningful content on BBC4 apart, WH and I no longer watch the Beeb.
 

[scotia]

I looked at it earlier this morning, and saw that there are arrows on each side of the main news item, so you can scroll through the stories.  Sunderland was on the far right for me.

You still have to hope that what you are looking for is in the scroll list. I used to have Technology, Education and other things that interested me on my front page. Now when I first enter the site, or if I click on the logo to refresh I am automatically sent to 'BBC online today' where soccer dominates. Even when I click on the 'News and Sport' tab (and why News and Sport? What is wrong with just 'News'?) I still have to dig around to find interesting stuff. Plus, I am in that portion of the UK population who lives some distance from London and would like to know what is going on not just in my very local region but in the broader region I inhabit. I used to have those headlines on the front page. Now I have to click through two pages, scrolling around in order to find the relevant bits, which are buried towards the bottom of pages.

I want a serious news site. Looks like I will have to look elsewhere (though where is not clear to me - all suggestions gratefully received: it has to be free, clearly related to the UK, and not assuming that everything important happens in London).

[neutralname]

What about the newspaper websites?  Guardian and Independent sites are good.  I don't know about the Times or Telegraph, but I imagine they are probably ok. 

[wegie]

Times is subscription only, so is out. Grauniad is still OK, but is ironically becoming ever more London-centric -- but does have Eddie Butler writing on rugby and William Fotheringham covering cycling. The Torygraph is a nice site in many ways, but the political slant is just a tad obvious, and the comments on some of the articles make the Daily Mail look liberal.

Personally, I dropped the main bbc.co.uk site down a hole some years ago, and I only tend to use it when I want to find a recipe (sigh, no recipe link on the main page any more as well, grrrrr). I personally use the News site www.bbc.co.uk/news as my main news feed -- much less obtrusive sports stuff, and even has news reports from places that aren't London! The cycling coverage is awful, mind you, but that's what www.cyclingnews.com is for.