[ndpatel]

wow...macnn, the biggest and baddest of the mac web, is pretty much a shell of its former self, and the forums have been tainted forever by 'newsfactor response' who has, and i say this objectively, embarked on one of the worst PR nightmares in recent history.

go2mac is being endlessly 'updated' to a new server.

as the apple turns can't seem to get a DSL line, and they haven't updated all day.

maccentral is a press release warehouse with no actual reporting.

macaddict.com is lost in perpetual restructuring because of imagine media--the site has gotten less and less in depth, and now is just a bunch of links to the forums. besides, they clossed down their network of mac-related sites, the macaddict network.

macweek.com--well, you know.

macslash is great, but it's not updated enough.

MOSR will always be flaky but fun.

macfixit, versiontracker, and the rest are all hangin out to dry since th macaddict network shut down--how long can they last without a macnn style sellout?

macobserver, with its 'mac news around the web'--well, if all the other sites are closed, what mac news can there be around the web?

macedition has the naked mole rat, but all the other commentators are sketchy and not funny.

so...is this the end of the mac web? or are there other high quality sites to take the place of these old standbys?

i'm just thinking of the end of mac print media--there used to be macworld, macweek, and macuser, which were all fantastic, and then the mergers came, and macweek became eweek, macworld began to suck, macweek online was brokeass, macuser was just gone, maccentral got purchased, and suddenly all that was left was macaddict (which is still cool) and macworld (which is a total waste). mac home journal and all the rest are around, but not exactly insightful, y'know?

just worried that we're losing something here, and it's all happening at once.

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by ndpatel:
just worried that we're losing something here, and it's all happening at once.

I hear ya... and it's realy sad.

I was so glad to find Macnn a couple of months ago. It was fully of nice, knowedable people, who would help you out. Now, after being gone for a week it feels like a ghost town. It seems that the majority of people posting now are new members. Where has eveyone gone?

it would appear that it is prime time for a new mac site to take the rains and lead mac users into the 21st century, because at this rate Macnn, will be long gone....

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"Imagine the disincentive to software development if after months of work another company could come along and copy your work and market it under its own name...without legal restraints to such copying, companies like Apple could not afford to advance the state of the art."
- Bill Gates, 1983 (New York Times, 25 Sep 1983, p. F2)

[Ian Sammis]

It's going to be tough to start new Mac sites right now--things are really, really ugly right now in the Internet world. Whoever wants to try, here's some unsolicited advice:

1) Keep it on a shoestring. I don't honestly think it's possible to grow your way into profitability right now, so just stay small and eat a small loss for the fun of running a site.

2) Work with existing sites--six small sites can usually provide better coverage than one monster.

3) Have fun with Mac OS X. Now that we've got BSD under the hood, let's show all those Windows guys what it can do!

4) Develop a very, very thick skin. If you've got younger siblings, have them shriek abuse at you for hours at a time--when you can keep smiling and saying "that's nice" right until they run out of breath and collapse, you're ready to run a Web site.

I'm still hopeful that we can keep our site circling the drain--as long as it doesn't go in, I'll be really happy.

Cheers,
Ian Sammis
Senior Editor, MacAddict

[AlbertWu]

How's that iBorg coming along?



AlbertWu = MacAddict Subscriber
Where did Fitzpatrick go in ShutDown?

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My post count was
1638 before they
deleted my account.
Mother****ers.

[Ian Sammis]

Lord, don't ask

Having a robot controllable from the Web site is at the moment a lower priority than keeping our Web site up and in at least halfway reasonable shape. We're working on the latter just now.

Cheers,
Ian

[Mac Write]

Ian, How's that desk? Has it returned to "The Black Hole" again, or is it still clean?

Anyways, with www.macwrite.com I have decided to just work on content, and writng good articles, even if that means onmly 1 a month from me. The site at present, has No ads, and will not have ads or sponsers, until the site is forced onto a dedicated server (which means a good 500,000 pageviews a month).

I have found the best way to get the max traffic to my site for an article, is to post it on Fridays, since MacSurfer will leave it up from 7am Friday morning until 7am Monday morning.

I hope over the next 6 months to make a name for Mac Write. I can afford to pay for the site as long as it doesn't require a dedicated server. The site is ultra lite, as in few graphics, no ads, and is just plain old html (no Database driven site).

[Ian Sammis]

Oh, the desk is back to its usual disastrous shape. It didn't look right clean, somehow.

Have fun with macwrite.com--it's always nice to see another Mac site.

Oh, as to Fitzpatrick--as I recall, the artist's father fell ill, and he ran out of time to draw the comic.

Cheers,
Ian

[Mac Write]

Ian, your quick on the whip. I was seriously thinking of joining The MacAddict Network, once I got the site going, but the network died so to speak.

I am turning Mac Write into a weekly e-zine right now, to help increase traffic.

Ian any suggestions on how to get my site noticed more? I am consentrating on content, and am reading a book entitled "Writing for the Web" which talks about how you need to format text differently on the web, then you would if you were publishing for print.

Another goal of Mac Write, is to ne veable by all, meaning I want to comply with the CPPA (how do you spelll that?), and make the site work on standards. am I making sense? I myself, am a Disabled Mac user. So designing the site is tricky when your legally blind, and need to view the site at max font size. I am also working to keep the users of the site's privacy private, meaning I am working to bring the mailing list internal etc.

Oh and Ian, I have archived your messy desk video in my person Video DB.