For more than 48 hours I have been watching the news like the rest of you, and I was restless last night for many reasons related to the tragedy at VT.

I *hate* coming off insensitve, and I get very nervous talking about taboo subjects...but I have to say: where lies the level of responsible journalism in the area of VT? I can't go to tech blogs, tech news, regular blogs, the Wall Street Journal, turn on my TV, watch the local/national/global news, check my email, visit Flickr without reading about VT. I know this week's issue of the local University paper came out this morning -it will be sure to talk about VT and what security is in place to prevent or circumvent a local tragedy. It's everywhere...

At what point do we taper it down and focus on key topics? When it's developing/breaking I can see 3-5 different stories being updated throughout the day. Now? The first 10 pages (I stopped at 10) are 90% or more about VT. That's 15 stories per page...150 stories; over 130 highlights/original content. We might be generating lots of traffic...but odds are we are bringing lots of depression into the mix too -for those trying to escape bad news.

I would highly recommend having a story (or a few) that is continually updated with the facts (a la CNN, Wikipedia) along with some editorials, vs. adding another 10-20 stories over the next few days. Starting a story's subject with the word "Developing" or "Updated" -maybe add the time (24 hour format in the local time zone is quick and short). This would drive traffic to those stories and keep people updated -which seems more responsible. Maybe add bullet points to the top with 2-5 things that changed. Just the facts. CNN has been doing this for a little over a year and I love it. You get the update ASAP, and if you have not yet heard the story you get the full story below. This is much more efficient than adding a new story ever time something new comes out. Also LINK to the relevant NP stories e.g., link to a story about the killer at the end of the story about the event and vice versa. Right now it's hard to tell which stories predate/prepost others without searching the text.

I hate to sound negative, but I have become a "skeptical American" in the past few years and I get sensitive to propaganda news -and the lack of equal coverage. There is only this much news on topics when it pertains to North America; and sometimes Britain (I won't include the whole of the EU). Since NP is crowd powered, I get a little hyper-sensitive when I see an overflow of content on one subject.

I think all of you have done a wonderful job collecting the information -I have been following your stories for the past few days, and watching them all tie together. It's a diffucult job to have to read and regugitate the news when it relates to topics like VT. Keep working diligently, but don't hesitate to update current stories vs. open new ones. I think you will see the same traffic and a less bloated site.