Making a sharp political website

[MarxSchmarx]

What are some bang-up leftist websites out there - from a presentation point of view. Marxist Archive, indymedia etc.. are an awesome resource but they are kind of 1986 in terms of interaction, technique, etc... Revleft is fun and all, but can we expand beyond the forum genre? And blogs are pretty formulaic, it's hard to be creative with the layout (but the content is cool)

I came across this bourgie propaganda site that's interesting:
http://www.americanrevolutioncenter.org/

Now, why can't we have something kickass like this for, say, the SPanish revolution? Or even an ongoing thing like a strike somewhere. If you know of any technically sharp leftist websites, share them!

[DecDoom]

In terms of a modern looking interface, I'd say the websites for the WPA and the IMT are contenders. Socialistworker.org also has a clean, easy to use interface.

[The Idler]

If you have good layout ideas, there is plenty of left content presented badly. On the other hand, left content should be accessible to all which means even those on slow connections.

In the US; some of the worst websites are;
Internationalist Perspective (http://internationalist-perspective.org/)
Spartacist League (http://www.icl-fi.org/)
Socialist Action (http://socialistaction.org/)
Socialist Alternative (http://socialistalternative.org/)
Socialist Labor Party of America (http://www.slp.org/)
US Marxist Leninist Organization (http://www.usmlo.org/)
Socialist Workers (US) (http://www.themilitant.com/)
International Bolshevik Tendency (http://www.bolshevik.org/)
SP USA (http://www.socialistparty-usa.org/)


In the UK; some of the worst websites are;
Revolutionary Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist Leninist Tendency) (http://www.rcpbml.org.uk/)
Socialist Equality Party (http://www.socialequality.org.uk/)
New Communist Party (http://www.newworker.org/)
United Socialist Party (http://www.tusp.org.uk/)
Socialist Studies (http://www.socialiststudies.org.uk/)
Lalkar (http://www.lalkar.org/)
Alliance for Green Socialism (http://www.greensocialist.org.uk/)

[Q]

If you have good layout ideas, there is plenty of left content presented badly. On the other hand, left content should be accessible to all which means even those on slow connections.
I can see what is wrong with many of those sites. Basically a universal problem is navigation: there is no real thought put into how a site should be build up and if that model is scalable to hundreds and thousands of articles over time.

But you also list sites of which I think are pretty strong in this regard, the Socialist Alternative site for example. So could you elaborate more on what you think constitutes a "bad" site? Also, could you give some "good" examples and why you think they're good?

[The Idler]

Some examples of my design pet hates;


Manual selection of language/mixed language
No feed
No CMS on a large site
No widescreen
Articles spread over multiple pages or ordered by journal issue number
No PDF of party literature
No effort at layout, more like a text document
Navigational buttons as photos, big pictures or "click here" buttons

Good sites tend to be simple (front page full of just articles) and easy to use (consistent with few navigational hierarchies) but attractive and well-featured (rss, pdf, cms etc.)
libcom.org, wsws.org, socialistunity.com, cpgb.org.uk, permanentrevolution.net, socialistworker.org, crimethinc.com, zmag.org, workersliberty.org all spring to mind

[Q]

Some examples of my design pet hates;


Manual selection of language/mixed language
No feed
No CMS on a large site
No widescreen
Articles spread over multiple pages or ordered by journal issue number
No PDF of party literature
No effort at layout, more like a text document
Navigational buttons as photos, big pictures or "click here" buttons

Good sites tend to be simple (front page full of just articles) and easy to use (consistent with few navigational hierarchies) but attractive and well-featured (rss, pdf, cms etc.)
libcom.org, wsws.org, socialistunity.com, cpgb.org.uk, permanentrevolution.net, socialistworker.org, crimethinc.com, zmag.org, workersliberty.org all spring to mind

Ah, all good points and I agree. I'm happy the site I administrate (http://offensief.socialisten.net) passes most of those points (and we are working on brochures/pdf's too) :p

I'm always willing to learn a bit more and make our site better still though, so if you still have some pointers... ;)

What do you think of the "block layout" of this union site (http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/) by the way? I think it is a very interesting setup myself.

[LeninistKing]

http://www.socialistviewpoint.org
http://www.socialistworld.net
http://www.marxist.net
http://www.socialistaction.org
http://www.bobavakian.net
http://www.rwor.org
http://www.socialist.net
http://www.socialistworker.org
http://www.workers.org
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.trotsky.net
http://www.marxists.org
http://www.socialisappeal.org
http://www.marxist.com
http://www.wsws.org
http://www.socialistalternative.org
http://www.permanent-revolution.org/






What are some bang-up leftist websites out there - from a presentation point of view. Marxist Archive, indymedia etc.. are an awesome resource but they are kind of 1986 in terms of interaction, technique, etc... Revleft is fun and all, but can we expand beyond the forum genre? And blogs are pretty formulaic, it's hard to be creative with the layout (but the content is cool)

I came across this bourgie propaganda site that's interesting:
http://www.americanrevolutioncenter.org/

Now, why can't we have something kickass like this for, say, the SPanish revolution? Or even an ongoing thing like a strike somewhere. If you know of any technically sharp leftist websites, share them!

[The Idler]

What is the point of posting an unordered list of links without comments (which is a repost from another topic), in a topic about design, some websites of which are awfully designed? Do you think your list of links is comprehensive?
Are you new to socialism, as your other posts seem to suggest?

The union site block layout in the previous post looks fine.