YourHub isn't for you
It's a lofty goal... But one that ultimately fails. Mass media really, really wants to get in the game. From everything I heard at WINstock (read about that here), new parent AOL gets it. They really understand what's going on.
I know there are a lot of smart people at Scripps Howard, but (like Microsoft), they seem to overlook some critical details sometimes. Or maybe it's just all the filters, meetings, committees, or whatever else inhibits innovations at big companies... But whatever the reason, that YourHub thing isn't all that great.
I see how it's supposed to bring communities together. They roll out the "citizen journalist" tag, which is mass-peoplespeak for "blogger." Wouldn't want to freak out the squares, you know? The interface is minimally functional, you can add posts, add images. That's about it. You must register, which is only natural given the ability to post stuff.
The breakdown of communities was acceptable, but perhaps because I saw Fountain City on there. Lumped with Broadway.
Unfortunately, there are glaring issues. One is image viewing and loading. To upload (send) a pic, you have to use a Java applet. Huh? Gang, check out Flickr, the best photo sharing site ever, to see how it's done. Shoot, even Kodak's is better (if a resource hog). To VIEW images there's some image loader app that has to run. WHAT??? OK, here comes the rant...
Image viewing was straightened out when the web was created. Seriously, the WWW was in part structured specifically so images could be viewed in a standardized format across many machines (along with other media). This differed from the old way, where text, images, sounds were all separate files. It's like going from DOS to Windows, ok? Now, Mr. Developer, why did you just break one of the very first cool things about the internet in 30 years, viewing images, a task so simple it boggles my mind HOW YOU EVEN BROKE IT! But there it sits. On a Mac you cannot view images larger than a thumbnail using YourHub. Linux is a no-go either. Wow. Stunned, I am. Image viewing.
You get the idea. Other missing features: summaries of posts. People are terrible at titles because they don't have a context filter. What makes sense to them won't make sense to a complete stranger. Put a little sinppet of the post under the title. Put times, not just dates on posts. Add an RSS feed for those of us currently in the 21st century (see Bloglines for more info).
I'd ask for something cool like AJAX functionality, you know, like that free online word processor, but let's work on that image viewing thing first, OK?
Still, I was privileged enough to read some things around town, and even posted my own lame post (had no good pics, sorry).
Give it a try in your area and see if anything good comes up. Post what you find in the comments!
I know there are a lot of smart people at Scripps Howard, but (like Microsoft), they seem to overlook some critical details sometimes. Or maybe it's just all the filters, meetings, committees, or whatever else inhibits innovations at big companies... But whatever the reason, that YourHub thing isn't all that great.
I see how it's supposed to bring communities together. They roll out the "citizen journalist" tag, which is mass-peoplespeak for "blogger." Wouldn't want to freak out the squares, you know? The interface is minimally functional, you can add posts, add images. That's about it. You must register, which is only natural given the ability to post stuff.
The breakdown of communities was acceptable, but perhaps because I saw Fountain City on there. Lumped with Broadway.
Unfortunately, there are glaring issues. One is image viewing and loading. To upload (send) a pic, you have to use a Java applet. Huh? Gang, check out Flickr, the best photo sharing site ever, to see how it's done. Shoot, even Kodak's is better (if a resource hog). To VIEW images there's some image loader app that has to run. WHAT??? OK, here comes the rant...
Image viewing was straightened out when the web was created. Seriously, the WWW was in part structured specifically so images could be viewed in a standardized format across many machines (along with other media). This differed from the old way, where text, images, sounds were all separate files. It's like going from DOS to Windows, ok? Now, Mr. Developer, why did you just break one of the very first cool things about the internet in 30 years, viewing images, a task so simple it boggles my mind HOW YOU EVEN BROKE IT! But there it sits. On a Mac you cannot view images larger than a thumbnail using YourHub. Linux is a no-go either. Wow. Stunned, I am. Image viewing.
You get the idea. Other missing features: summaries of posts. People are terrible at titles because they don't have a context filter. What makes sense to them won't make sense to a complete stranger. Put a little sinppet of the post under the title. Put times, not just dates on posts. Add an RSS feed for those of us currently in the 21st century (see Bloglines for more info).
I'd ask for something cool like AJAX functionality, you know, like that free online word processor, but let's work on that image viewing thing first, OK?
Still, I was privileged enough to read some things around town, and even posted my own lame post (had no good pics, sorry).
Give it a try in your area and see if anything good comes up. Post what you find in the comments!
posted by Victor Agreda, Jr. at
11:30 PM
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