Saturday, February 14, 2009

Ugh.

We realize we haven't been reblogging as diligently as we once used to. Now, thanks to Jacy and Russian Girl, we have a little help. Many thanks to these lovely women.

We've had some time to look at the new NS redesign, and we agree: It is hideous. And so, so manipulative. We understand you have to actually click through to each post to see it, and nobody really wants that here. We'll do our best to help you out, bunnies. Starting now.

Out of the three, the Pink Lady is the only one to do a post explaining the new changes. It's because NonSociety is So Revolutionary. Julia Allison is an Internet visionary! She's ahead of her time! And here, she tells you why:


YAY! NonSociety Lifecasting 1.5 is HERE!

Just when you thought that the horizontal scroll couldn’t possibly get any better, we’ve gone and launched Lifecasting 1.5!

What is Lifecasting 1.5? It’s the interim step in a series of many to evolve NonSociety into THE Destination Lifecasting platform for a range of entertaining characters (yeah, right now you’re stuck with just us!). Ultimately, we’re launching this new version to make it a better viewing experience for our readers, simultaneously integrating advertisements without compromising the cutting edge design.

Below are some of the most notable changes:

But … but … but … WHY horizontal scrolling?

Horizontal scrolling is unconventional, but we believe it’s the best foundation for a new kind of fun, light, entertaining, multi-media storytelling we call “lifecasting.”

We chose it for two reasons: 1) Lifecasts are inherently stories told via a timeline - but timelines are not vertical! A horizontal layout is the best way - in our opinion - of viewing a real-time story - made up of text, links, photos and videos - chronologically.

2) We understand that currently, mouse wheels are designed to scroll down the page, as most webpages are organized lengthwise, with almost no horizontal scroll. That, we believe, will not always be the case. We’re already seeing a massive information architecture shift, as designs become more sophisticated and inventive - witness the advent of sites like The Daily Beast and Urban Outfitters blog.

We believe that future of technology lies in computers with touchscreen monitors. Look at the iPhone! It will inevitably change the way we view and interact with online content - one day, all devices, mobile, desktop and tvs, will have this tactile interface and functionality. We may be ahead of the curve on this - but the NonSociety horizontal scroll is the logical design for such a technology.

However, IN THE INTERIM, we’ve fine-tuned our distinctive horizontal design to make it more user-friendly for those of us still stuck with trackpads, mice and (god forbid) the nubs.

What does that mean, exactly?

- NO MORE VERTICAL SCROLLING! The biggest issue of 1.0, we felt, wasn’t so much that you have to scroll horizontally - although, as we said above, we like that - but also vertically, in order to see the bottom of each post. No longer! You’ll be able to easily check the day’s posts by scrolling horizontally with the now-integrated scrollbar, and then clicking on the lightbox to see the posts you’d like to read enlarged.

- WHAT IS THIS LIGHTBOX THING? One of our pet-peeves has always been that it’s difficult to view content on the web without seeing a bunch of other crap you’re not interested in. Although we think it’s important to be able to quickly scan the day’s posts, we also believe that you should be able to focus on one in particular. That’s why we’re introducing a new, super clean interface that allows you to click on the post of your choosing and view the content without distraction.

- LOTS OF LITTLE TWEAKS! Design is extremely important to us at NonSociety, so we painstakingly went over everything. Check out the new tabs, instead of the old, cumbersome menu bar, the search bubble in the upper right hand corner - which is the fastest, easiest way to find anything on a given lifecasting page, the TMI integration button on the lefthand side, and our now more accessible community features, The Question of the Day and Advice Box, displayed “below the fold.” If you want to find out more about us, our schedules or our links, click on Meet Me. It’s easy to add us to your RSS feed, as well.

In the coming months, we’ll be steadily honing these features - and maybe adding a few new ones! - but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new look.

- FINALLY - COUGH COUGH - THE ADS. Yes, in addition to special sponsors (for more info on that, see our ethics statement below), we are now monetizing the site through traditional advertisements. It’s one thing to expose our lives, it’s another thing to go broke doing it! Hence, the new set of ads on the bottom and at the far end of each contributor’s daily lifecast. They’re contextual, which means that they’re based upon the content we write, so they’ll never be static, unless we’re running a particular campaign with a sponsor. We hope they don’t bug you too much. If they do? We’re sorry. We’ve gotta pay our rent somehow!



32 comments:

  1. I believe the above blathering is pretty much the definition of "delusions of grandeur."

    And...yay? That's the mood-setter? I doubt if those light, fluffy bunnikins target readers are gonna slog through this self serving pile of suit-o geek blergh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Big ad on the right hand end of Julias 'scroll up down, round and round babble jumble blog thingee':

    "ThaiLoveLinks.com Find your Thai Beauty Today!"

    So they have no control over the ad content I am guessing?

    ReplyDelete
  3. NonSociety has an ethics statement?

    REALLY?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, but what's brilliant about it is that it's nowhere to be found.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hee hee. The Google ad at the beginning of Mary Rambin's page is "I beat my wrinkles."

    And to all a good night from the central time zone!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've seen a lot of horizontal timelines in my day, most of them in textbooks.

    However...the oldest stuff is on the left, and the newest stuff is on the right. That's the exact opposite of how your poop-scroll works, Buttcakes.

    Instead of Nonsociety, I think they should call themselves Rentgirlz. Has a nice ring to it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jeebus, Jules. Ask your geeky fried Meghan what TL;DR means. That's all I have to say about that flood of BS you just screeded.

    Thanks, NSRB, for falling on the sword. You rock AND roll.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ^that would be RBNS. I blame the vodka I drank in Russian Girl's honor.

    Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovely bunnies and cupcakes!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. ^^fried Meghan?? Okay, now it's really time to sign off.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Okay that's officially it. I am DONE giving them pageviews. From now on, my only nonsociety fix is coming from here. Thank you RBNS for providing this valuable service!!!

    You guys should have a tip jar. Seriously. I would contribute $20 to keep this place up and running and help the cause.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Whoa! Google is body snarking on Jackles.
    "FatLossforIdiots.com"
    Bad Google!

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. umm...but the new site design doesn't even WORK on the iphone. what idiots.

    ReplyDelete
  14. oh! did anyone notice the live page? it has a chat room...i know we're anti giving them page views but i think we should all show up for the live fashion week coverage and give the chat room moderators hell.

    ReplyDelete
  15. "Timelines are not vertical!"

    What the FUCK?

    Does she believe there is a Father Time? Walking around Manhattan shooting Derek Zoolander photos of himself?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Also -- so they are actually SERIOUS about this design? It's not a joke, or something they hit the button on prematurely, by accident.

    Holy mother of God, these girls are stupid/done for. Surely one of them must not like it, and has raised some opposition. I have faith in Mary.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ya'll have just made my Valentine's Day with the crack reporting and the hilarious comments. Thank goodness it's Saturday, so I can laugh with abandon and not scare my co-workers.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The new design is really ugly. It looks cheap and not well thought out. Actually, it looks dated, despite the fact that they are trying to be innovators. The best part is the google ads.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I see someone above noticed what I did:

    Their timeline is reverse
    New to old
    Left to Right

    This would be acceptable BUT the handmaidens frequently post right to left/old to new order when they are attemptin to tell a story (for example: see Mary's brunch posts)...thus the timeline thing is all mixed up. It reads new to old but they post old to new at times.

    I'm having trouble putting what I mean into words but I hope you get what I'm trying to say.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Total Jing:

    you're right, the way they sometimes abandon their supposed timeline order has left me gaping in the past. I don't really think they have a firm grasp on the timeline concept, plus all the backdating and removals of posts makes the concept even sketchier. Storytelling, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  21. What a total fucking mess. The 'contextual' ads at the side could not be more out of left field.

    This thing is falling apart fast!

    And big congratulations to RBNS for outdoing NS proper just using blogspot! This site is amazing and hilarious and I have not laughed out loud this much since Gawker circa 2007.

    Brilliant!

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  22. I feel compelled to post here because, when reading that Lifecasting 1.5 post, I shit-you-not, there are like 5 scroll bars on my screen:

    1.) The horizontal embedded in the timeline page.
    2.) The vertical for my browser window.
    3.) A vertical in the lifecast pop-up window.
    4.) A horizontal in the lifecast pop-up window.
    5.) A vertical on the lifecast post itself.

    I actually had to toggle 4 or these 5 various scrollbars in order to read the content. Maybe it is just my dinky-ass monitor, but this seems a little excessive and kind of unusable.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I posted this in a Russian Girl thread, but it's also good here.

    The usability for the browsers serving the disabled is zero. Great job in living differently.

    Regarding the whole overall design restructure, remember Jankles was quoting bullshit statistics about pageviews using the Tumblr followers as well as the double entry pageviews of the Tumblr frames plus blog posts. RBNS called those numbers into question. Now effectively they may have tripled that phony first number with the amount of forced clicks.

    But, remember, the majority of the numbers still come from the sheep on Tumblr who have them on their follow lists. So the advertisements won't show in the dashboards, and subsequently they won't make their pennies per display.

    On the note of the Google ads, I ran a blog with Google ad placements and unless you have significant traffic, and significant traffic should really be about 250,000 page view per month, those royalties are pretty slim. Not enough to disperse to Hello Kitty, DUM DUM, Jankles and their "staff".

    Oh wait, Hello Kitty Meghan Asha Parikh doesn't need this money, she has daddy's trust fund. DUM DUM Rambin gets a stipend from the Texas Oil divorced dadddy, and I believe that Daddy Baugher (not Mom, she doesn't talk to her daughter) is footing some of this craptastic bill.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I actually tried going to Mary's page and it said Internet explorer can't open this URL. Operation Aborted!

    For all the comments about how this new design will be non existent for the blind or other vieweres with disabilities... you are very correct. Action can be, but probably won't be, taken against sites that don't do anything to comply to the guidelines. Yes, there are actual accessibility guidelines you must or at least try to follow when building a website. If NS were as big and successful as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft or some other big name website, a lawsuit could be implemented if the disabled viewer so felt like it. Just ask Target: http://overlawyered.com/2006/02/target-sued-website-not-accessible-to-blind/.

    Now whether or not these companies are actually fully charged and convicted is another story. There isn't enough written into actual law about these matters just yet. However, it shows that the ability to sue for this is very real and web designers need to be aware of this. It's not just about people who can see and have the best new technology.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Also, anyone notice how when you click one of their lifecasts it opens the new window in another tab?

    Bullshit bogus ways to increase their pageviews.

    What an ugly, retarded, half-ass way to shill your site.

    SELL OUTS. But, they already were.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anyone here use Linkedin? I did a search on the Trio of Banality. This one struck me as very interesting.

    Meghan Asha

    Founder, CEO at NonSociety LLC

    Is Meghan really the boss here? No wonder this shittastic design went through. She's the Rainman of the interwebs!

    The other two are just listed as Founders.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Meghanaise is likely the CEO because she's bankrolling it. It is probably as simple as that.

    So Meggles! Get on it, fire Jackles and get some more, how shall we say it, likable content providers...

    ReplyDelete
  28. It is so difficult to read her writing. I have to slow down when reading her shit since her wording is all sorts of fucked up.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Wow. Just wow.

    The thought of any site relying on scroll bars for navigation is laughable in this day.

    That is simply a horrific site design by every measure possible.

    But I love the Google ad it's currently displaying on the main page:

    Baconnaise - now at QFC
    The Ultimate Bacon-Flavored Spread - now at your local QFC
    www.baconnaise.com

    Mmmmm, bacon.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I guess I will only be reading here now that they are ~advertising~

    Also, I can't really even believe how bad the new site looks. One of the only things NS "1.0" had going for it was how it looked (except for Meghan's page which always seemed to be really wonky with stretched out pictures and no "earlier" button half the time). Now there's 3 or 4 scroll bars, you can't see the main contents all at once, and if Julia thinks people are really going to click "more" to read more words from her she's sorely mistaken. Scrolling through and being able to read quickly is what people want.

    The new design is pretty much laughably terrible and the ads look extremely low budget. I can't believe they have the audacity to act as though it is innovative or clean-looking. Oh wait, yes I can... because they are dellusional.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Also, since my above comment (anon 7:24) was my first comment here I just have to let out something I have wanted to say about these girls for so long...

    OWNING AN IPHONE DOES NOT MAKE YOU A TECHIE!!!!!!!!!!! UGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

    Anyone who has ever said "IP Adresses Never Lie" should NEVER be allowed to even pretend to be a techie.

    Man, that felt good.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Your "timeline" goes the wrong way. Idiot.

    ReplyDelete