Convergence Woes: A Story That Could Do More

Dear Richard Pagliaro, give us more content.

With a story as interesting as "Trash to Treasure: Tennis String Bracelets", a writer has the opportunity to combine their verbal prowess with entertaining extras, but sadly, the opportunity was missed.

"Trash to Treasure" (via Tennis.com) tells readers about the creative transformation of tennis string into multicolored friendship bracelets, called Stringlets, but does little more than state the facts. The entire block of text contains one picture, one hyperlink, and no multimedia add-ons. By the third paragraph, I lost focus and wanted to see more and read less.

The answer to this dilemma is simple: incorporate convergence. Add videos of the item's creator, Malcolm Shieh, explaining how he came up with the concept. Give us interview clips and sound bites. How about a slide show of various samples of his work? You say there's a wide variety of styles, but all I see is one  snapshot.

And what about hyperlinks? We get one measly link to the item's website, but I'd prefer a direct route to the site's "purchase" page, or maybe some access to advertisements and/or photos of people wearing the trinket. Give us visuals that make us want to buy the product.

Really, the story is just a dry collection of facts, begging to be something more. So, Richard, make it something more.