[NewsPoster]

As you have all likely seen, we've contracted a bit again here at MacNN, and have shut down Electronista. Not to fear, the 'NN team isn't going anyplace anytime soon -- we're just refocusing our efforts on the Apple side of the fence a bit. Keeping that in mind, I have some updates from the manifesto I posted a few months ago, and I'd like to take a minute to discuss it with you, our readers.

What the heck happened with Electronista?

MacNN was founded nearly two decades ago, an eternity in web years. Electronista came along about 10 years after that. Since then, the industry has changed a lot. We didn't like shutting it down either, but we have come to realize that we're good at tech reporting, but we're outstanding at pulling the hype away from Apple news and waiting a few minutes to let sources catch their breath. This all means you have to read a story from us once in a day, and not ten times through multiple updates and revisions. So, that's what we're going to focus on.

Can't you do both?

We still are, mostly, just under a single banner now. MacNN doesn't have to be the voice of the underdog anymore. Haven't you heard? Apple won this round, and several others since 2000. Just about everything is iOS or OS X compatible now. We're still going to talk about mass layoffs at Microsoft, and Samsung's falling profit, and other things that should be relevant to everyone who follows tech. We'll just do that under the MacNN banner.

What now?

The same as yesterday, the year before that, and the decade before that. News. Reviews. Opinions. Interesting columns. Special features. We've got a voice and a site tone that can be counted on to cut through the echo chamber that is the Apple newsscape sometimes.

And on other topics...

On adblockers

It is certainly your right to use them. However ... they come with a cost. You may have noticed that a lot of tech sites have kind of ... gone away. Let us make that connection for you as plain as possible: if you like a site and want it to stick around, whitelist it in your ad blocker. The Internet is expected to deliver content for free, to all that can read. The thing is, this production comes at a cost.

Believe it or not, we're not getting rich here. We don't have anywhere near the assets of Gawker or Vox. There is no MacNN HQ main office per se -- we live all over the globe to keep costs and ads to a minimum. Please consider buying stuff from our deal partners, through an advertisement, through our deals posts, or putting MacNN on your ad blocker whitelist. Maybe all four?

Hey, about your ads...

Yes, I know. I was going to write about this today, and then I saw iMore's piece on it, which is an outstanding read, and you should got look at it, since I know you go there anyway. All of Rene's observations apply to us here as well.

Believe it or not, we do listen, and we do eradicate nasty ads when we can hunt them down, which is really quite difficult. We do need to be told when you see something, because what you see and what I see are entirely different. My MacNN today has an advertisement for the high-end therapy system I talked about on Monday, and one for Next Day Dumpsters, all harvested from my search history. I bet yours has neither of these.

So. Bad ad? Take a screenshot, and let us know. Please realize we don't generally choose what we're hosting -- the ads are coming from your search history, or what Google thinks you're interested in, peripherally related to your own search terms. Tell us about it, and I will pass everything on to our ad team.

You guys test some weird crap, like the ongoing iTunes and Trim testing. How do you choose?

See above regarding limited resources. There is literally always something we can beat to within an inch of its life to see what makes it tick, or what's going on. There are hot-buttons, and Apple Music mangling libraries is a good example.

We do what we can, because we must. Yeah, borrowed, but that is literally our decision-making process on some of the things we run through the wringer. If you've got something you want tested, tell us about it. We love to get suggestions.

Is MacNN from the fifties or something? What's with the design?

Be patient, grasshopper. Changes are still afoot. It's not that easy to migrate nearly 20 years of reviews, let alone other news articles.

Hey, I like/dislike x and I love/hate you!

Good. We've got opinions, and you should too. Tell us about it. There's a trend here, maybe you can see it -- "tell us about it." If you ever wanted an Apple news outlet to be responsive to what you, the reader wants, now's your chance.

In regards to the question in the subhead? I've been in the Navy. Lets try to be a pirate.

-Mike Wuerthele
Managing Editor
MacNN.com

[macdude22]

I like the design. But I'm an old grognard.

/me runs and hides from the mob.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Honestly, I do too, but its not that mobile friendly. I love all you devoted readers, but we need to bring in more.

[Raman]

1) Dislike the UI on mobile. Enough that I never read macnn on mobile. Ever.

2) I use adblock because I don't click on ads. Ever. If I'm remotely interested in an ad, I'll goto the site myself instead of worrying if this ad is malware because its so poorly executed. Funny thing is that I have a product that depends on ad clicks and guess what? No one else clicks them either. Showing them the ad makes me $0.00. So if no one is going to click them, I don't care if they block the ad in the first place.

3) I disliked the sister sites. It was annoying to click on an article and then be whisked away to finish reading it on another site. It wasn't marked as "this article is from another site and we're going to show it to you because you don't visit said site but we want your eyeballs, too, but we don't want to show you the entire content here".

Maybe I've been hanging around too long, as well :/
/hides with macdude22

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by Raman 

1) Dislike the UI on mobile. Enough that I never read macnn on mobile. Ever.

Good news! This is changing too. Stand by. Old sites are really hard to migrate and keep content, and we've run into that in spades.

2) I use adblock because I don't click on ads. Ever. If I'm remotely interested in an ad, I'll goto the site myself instead of worrying if this ad is malware because its so poorly executed. Funny thing is that I have a product that depends on ad clicks and guess what? No one else clicks them either. Showing them the ad makes me $0.00. So if no one is going to click them, I don't care if they block the ad in the first place.

I did say that it was certainly your right to use them! We don't necessarily rely on clicks, but more impressions, so ad blockers are actually a significant problem for us in the long run. Singly, a user with an ad blocker isn't a big problem, but when a giant percentage of your audience uses them, then it really adds up fast.

tl;dr Do what you have to do for sure, but realize that there is an impact.

3) I disliked the sister sites. It was annoying to click on an article and then be whisked away to finish reading it on another site. It wasn't marked as "this article is from another site and we're going to show it to you because you don't visit said site but we want your eyeballs, too, but we don't want to show you the entire content here".

Good news, then. They're gone!

[AureliusVerus]

I like the current design too, so I don't think there is any need to rush to update it, just take your time. I read MacNN every morning during breakfast on my iPad (with Safari), and then in the evening on my iMac.

I don't use ad blockers because most of the sites I visit seem to be reasonable about ads. The current trend of video ads suddenly appearing in the middle of content I am reading is super annoying, so please MacNN don't do something like that.

Also, when I am on my iPad (using Safari) a floating banner will sometimes appear at the bottom of the page (I am guessing it is a Google ad), but the problem is that the close button on the banner ad is the about the size of a comma (I'm exaggerating, but it is very small). If MacNN does decide to use floating banner ads on the updated site, please at least make the ad close button something that can be pressed on.

[coffeetime]

On my iPhone I use Safari to read MaCNN. MaCNN app is OK but don't like the comment section layout. Today the differences between electronics and computer tech is getting blur. It makes sense to close down Electronista.

[just a poster]

Have you looked into selling and serving your own ads using revive adserver? It would be like building your very own ad network. At the very minimum, you can generate/sell/serve partner deal ads. It's more work, but it's honest work.