Comments on: Planning OSNews Version 4

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:12:28 +0000

I started coming to the site back in '99 and it was great. There were great articles and good posters. Up until recently, OSNews still had good stories, but now when Thom posts some Novell/Microsoft article, it's like throwing red meat to deranged, rabid dogs. OSNews has now become a haven for GPL jihadists and linux distro fanboys. Hell, there's not even anybody left with technical skills. Look at the tech articles comments. 0,1,2 comments. The problem seemed to have started when a couple of Eugenia's articles got posted to Slashdot. Then we got those rejects starting to trickle in, but it wasn't too bad. At least with Eugenia moderating, we still had a little bit of sanity in the comments, but now it's just a disaster. It's like rubbernecking at a car accident when you read the comments.

Look at arstechnica, which actually started after OSNews. Look at their subscription base. Look at how they set up their site. I doubt an extreme makeover can change the numbskull clientelle of OSNews, but who knows.

David Adams, do you read the comments?

By: Adam S

Adam S — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 03:09:42 +0000

it won't be as effective for things like IE3 or NS2.

Like Gmail, there will be a link that allows any browser to permanently force the mobile/lite mode.

By: Eugenia

Eugenia — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 21:32:39 +0000

Not really. Especially for Netscape, it is very difficult to autodetect it correctly, because many browsers are immitating its user agent. While our autodetection works for unique browsers, it won’t be as effective for things like IE3 or NS2.

By: David Adams

David Adams — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 19:09:32 +0000

We have an ace in our sleeve when it comes to old, nonstandard, or just plain strange browsers: We have our most excellent autodetecting capabilities and our mobile-friendly site. The new OSNews looks like crap on Netscape 2? Shazam! Netscape 2 goes on the list and Net Luddites enjoy the refreshing clean taste of the mobile OSNews design. Problem solved.

By: Adam S

Adam S — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 15:49:06 +0000

...to what extent are you going to raise the bar for browser sophistication? Are people still going to be able to browse OSNews on their Amiga etc?

I don't know yet. Obviously, we don't want to completely knock out large sections of our audience. I guess we'll have two sites: a mobile site and a main site, and there must be a way on the main site to allow people to degrade from the main site to the less-featured mobile site.

Obviously, I'm in the earliest planning stages. But this is exactly the kind of thing I need to architect out.

By: rhyder

rhyder — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 15:28:15 +0000

Oh, and in addition to my other point…

…to what extent are you going to raise the bar for browser sophistication? Are people still going to be able to browse OSNews on their Amiga etc?

By: rhyder

rhyder — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 15:22:42 +0000

I for one wish that there was more use made of nesting/threading on comments. For example, when I contributed a story, one person emailed a comment to me as they didn’t think that it was worth adding a new thread to the comments at such a late stage. Also, note that there is very little scoring on comments that are made after the first 50.

By: Adam S

Adam S — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:38:00 +0000

As long as mobile is set on mobile.osnews.com and autodetection still happens on your side and redirects to mobile site, sounds good.

It will.

By: Eugenia

Eugenia — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:48:56 +0000

As long as mobile is set on mobile.osnews.com and autodetection still happens on your side and redirects to mobile site, sounds good.