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The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

smashingmagazine.com

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Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#31

Post by pavs »

foulmouthboy wrote: post #28

I'm surprised that people would be so dismissive of this. Good design should obviously result in something usable, but there's nothing wrong with presenting it in such a way so as to take advantage of the medium. The best way to present information is not always text on plain background. This should be obvious for anybody who has had to visualize data to make it understandable. The blogazine idea carries data visuali…

I don't think people are being dismissive of the concept of cool visualization but the idea that it will replace typical blogpost (The death of blogpost). I can consume this once in a while - but if they this every single post or frequently I will be quite turned off to read the content.

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#32

Post by anigbrowl »

mkinsella wrote: post #18

This article fails to mention one of the best magazines on the market: The Economist. It is always the same: simple title, one picture, and lots of columized text. In addition, they also forget the newspapers. They are always identical from day-to-day. Just because it might be easier to style a "Top X" list doesn't mean it still isn't a useless "Top X" list.

Absolutely. I posted a rant recently on how Scientific American lost me as a subscriber (and an evangelist) when they switched away from the 'journal' format, going so far as to increase the size of the body text to put out the same number of pages with about 10% less content.

I like and admire good graphic design. But not as much as I like and admire good writing. Does anyone think sites like Metafilter or HN would benefit from an orgy of visual style?

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#33

Post by trillwaukee »

unalone wrote: post #10
allenp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? What is content? Is it possible for the appearance to "mingle" with the content in a way that enhances or creates greater content? At that point is the appearance part of the content? Or is it more like a "content additive" ?

In this case, content is material that I the consumer am interested in. I'm potentially interested in writing. I'm less interested in design. I don't read blogs to look at the design, I read blogs to read blogs. So if you're capable of creating logical, readable designs time and time again, go for it. But that's not happening. This article was not very readable: It broke itself up into fractious chunks, highlighted w…

Creating a magazine is very similar to creating a web site in that you need to think ahead in organizing content logically before creating multiple layouts that comprise the whole document (itself a collection of smaller documents).

Within a magazine these multiple different layouts must be arranged such that the information can be readily digested while keeping the presentation dynamic. This principle of balancing the tensions between the dynamic and the uniform is the very heart of crafting publications. You see it at work in very conservative publications as it is in very edgy publications.

Certain articles (typically featured articles) get a much stronger visual treatment than others in order to create a visual hierarchy of importance. That's where this "blogazine" (whatever the hell that means) approach to designing content becomes yet another tool and asset in your skillset.

Layout and content design are not ideological positions of one wav vs. another. A competent designer balances and plays with these tensions to present information appropriate to the audience with regard to the topic at hand.

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#34

Post by xiaoma »

edw519 wrote: post #5

These guys aren’t using standard WordPress themes or cutting corners to make their lives easier. Rather, they are challenging themselves and producing some fantastic content. appearance != content

"appearance != content"

appearance ∈ content

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#35

Post by sjs382 »

cruise02 wrote: post #26
rudd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that Smashing Magazine is not normally a full-on blogazine; only this particular article was like this. Their previous post was much more in the format of a normal blog: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/18/designing-css-but...

They have "magazine" right in their name.

You seem to have missed the point of the article and instead fixated on the "azine" part. Unfortunate.

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#36

Post by jamesbritt »

pavs wrote: post #29

This is why some of us use bookmarklets like readability http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ to get rid of the visualization crap so that we can concentrate on the things that matters most: Content

Funny thing is that when I went to read the posted article, I realized I did not have that bookmarklet on the particular browser I was using and immediately went to get it.

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#37

Post by cruise02 »

sjs382 wrote: post #35
cruise02 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have "magazine" right in their name.

You seem to have missed the point of the article and instead fixated on the "azine" part. Unfortunate.

How is that unfortunate? Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the next Earth-shattering blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this article? Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any insight of your own?

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#38

Post by sjs382 »

cruise02 wrote: post #37
sjs382 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to have missed the point of the article and instead fixated on the "azine" part. Unfortunate.

How is that unfortunate? Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the next Earth-shattering blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this article? Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any insight of your own?

> How is that unfortunate?

Because your comments may dissuade people from reading the article who may otherwise enjoy it.

> Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the next Earth-shattering blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this article?

No.

> Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any insight of your own?

No.

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#39

Post by cruise02 »

sjs382 wrote: post #38
cruise02 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that unfortunate? Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the next Earth-shattering blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this article? Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any insight of your own?

> How is that unfortunate? Because your comments may dissuade people from reading the article who may otherwise enjoy it. > Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the next Earth-shattering blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this article? No. > Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any insight of your own? No.

My initial comment was only intended to remind people that it was in fact a blogazine that was declaring the death of blogs and the rise of blogazines. I don't mean to dissuade anyone from actually reading the article for themselves, we just need to be aware of whose opinions we're listening to.

If you're going to criticize someone for "missing the point" you should at a minimum explain what it is they don't get, that way you demonstrate that it is not you who has missed the point

Re: The death of the blog post (and rise of the blogazine)

#40

Post by sjs382 »

cruise02 wrote: post #39
sjs382 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is that unfortunate? Because your comments may dissuade people from reading the article who may otherwise enjoy it. > Do you really think that I'd be poised to launch the next Earth-shattering blogazine, if only I understood the subtle point of this article? No. > Or were you just trying to be clever, without demonstrating any insight of your own? No.

My initial comment was only intended to remind people that it was in fact a blogazine that was declaring the death of blogs and the rise of blogazines. I don't mean to dissuade anyone from actually reading the article for themselves, we just need to be aware of whose opinions we're listening to. If you're going to criticize someone for "missing the point" you should at a minimum explain what it is they don't get, tha…

smashingmagazine.com is NOT a "blogazine" as defined by the article. This one post is the exception.
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