The BBC Homepage Remembers The London Bombings

It's funny how events can overtake you. Last week we were confidently announcing on the Points of View message board that:

We do not currently have plans for any more of these special pages.

Less than 7 days on from that posting this morning the BBC has launched a special version of the homepage in rememberance of the victims of the bombings in London last Thursday. The main promo area of the page has been expanded, and rotates through various quotes from our users about the events. The plan is to update the quotes during the day as they arrive at either BBC News or BBC London, but the first five were:

Paul Wright, London: "We all feel bound by the fact that any one of us could have been the victim - just one hour later, a meeting cancelled...My heart goes out to those who have been killed or maimed and their families"

Antonio Garcia Martin, Madrid: "Our thoughts are with you. people from Madrid know very well what you are suffering"

Ifzal Khan, Brierfield, Lancashire: "I am a Muslim born and raised in England and watched with horror the scenes from London. My prayers are with the families of those whose loved ones have passed away or are injured"

Lisa Lynch, Clacton, Essex: "I would just like to say a spectacular 'well done' to our Emergency Services...Please pass on my sympathy to all those involved."

Natalie Goddard, Chichester: "My heart is with anyone who has suffered...but especially to those who have lost close friends or family, in this horrendous act of terror."

One thing we haven't done this time is ask users for feedback specifically on the layout of page, like we have with the previous Doctor Who and Live8 special pages. I thought about it yesterday, but on both the previous occasions we have received a significant proportion of emails about the subject matter of the main promo, not about the changes to the page itself. I didn't want to potentially confuse users by having two calls-to-action to send messages to the BBC on the same page, and end up with a mailbox full of comments intended for publication about the London Bombings, which then languished in our feedback mailbox unavailable to the BBC News team putting the 'Have Your Say' pages together.

I presented an analysis of user reaction to one of the special BBC homepages at the Open Tech 2005 conference.
You can read an article based on the presentation on currybetdotnet:
Putting A F__k Off Dalek on the BBC Homepage Isn't Big or Clever

Posted by Martin Belam, July 14, 2005
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