Comments on: Announcing: Appnews.net

By: MCHAL

MCHAL — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:13:53 +0000

Hi, Samer:

Just passed by to let you about some cool apps I guess you might get an interest into for listing/reviewing. Here are the links:

http://www.mosaizer.com/index.htm (ASCii Art creation related stuff)

http://thd.dyndns.org/forum.php (the same as above – take a look at their forum also)

Hope you like these.

aLL tHe bEsT frOM bRaZiL.

By: Rarst

Rarst — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:38:06 +0000

@Kane

Sorry, I didn’t get what part of “FUGLY” was constructive first time.

For the clarification Freeeware Genius, gHacks and Rarst.net are three different blogs with three different owners (of which Rarst.net obviously belongs to me). And Appnews is joint project between us, with me handling technical part.

The point of Appnews site itself is really to provide official “face” of the service. Core of it is RSS feed with updates (which only few days after launch already has over 800 subscribers).

The goals stated are to provide our readership with information about updates on software we write about. Appnews won’t be software repository, it is notification service where reviews from participating blogs act as additional information and natural filter of software titles.

On design in general – believe me, every blogger heards how ugly his blog is all the time. Problem is such opinions are usually extremely subjective and coming from people who disregard how insanely expensive good design is.

You are saying that you don’t need labels, but if I remove them – next day someone would say that he needs them. Who takes priority?

Is Appnews design wonderful? Probably not. Is it easy to use? Sure. Does it perform main function (displaying of latest updates plus easy to use and visible subscription options). Sure.

Is it wise and economical decision to gather finances in margin of hundreds (if not over thousand) dollars to equip Appnews with high-end custom design? You tell me.

By: Kane

Kane — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:16:47 +0000

That was just my opinion. I’m not a designer and couldn’t tell you how to go about it. If someone told me my sites were ugly, I’d view it as a constructive comment and see if others agree. I can tell you to get rid of the text labels for twitter etc…. they just clutter the screen and everyone knows their icons. I don’t thank that would still make it look good. Your other sites (ghacks and freewaregeniuos) are more attractive. They’re not perfect but I like the info there and visit them almost daily. I’ll check out rarst soon also. If you really want my opinion, I don’t see the point in this site at least as your goals are stated. What content would you really be adding? Your other sites give good info, and if I’m interested I go to the developers site. I suppose I could see a need for a file repository that isn’t full of all the crap files that snapfiles, freewarefiles or betanews have…. just the good stuff I mean. For me to use it, it would have to be concise and provide some other… maybe links to other apps that do the same thing. Anyway, thanks for all the info provided in your other sites!

By: Rarst

Rarst — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:20:59 +0000

@Kane

If you are willing to provide or arrange free design services (of high quality of course) to make it less “FUGLY” – I am listening.

By: Kane

Kane — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:48:17 +0000

You guys will do a great job once it get’s rolling… does it have to be so FUGLY?

By: Rarst

Rarst — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:32:55 +0000

@Tobey

Thanks for encouragment, we will definitely explore and implement more ways to bring cool stuff to our readers in the future. It’s good and important to progress.

By: Tobey

Tobey — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:37:51 +0000

It’s sweet to witness such a wonderful kind of cooperation between you, Rarst, Martin and others. Wonderful job, keep up guys.

By: Rarst

Rarst — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:24:59 +0000

@Toni

That’s by design. Core function is to provide fast and hassle-free access to software, link to reviews come as item content in RSS.

Glad you like the idea.

By: Toni

Toni — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:14:36 +0000

That’s a fantastic idea!
Only thing is, it isn’t working properly yet. Instead of pointing to the article the rss feed directly links to the downloadpages of the mentioned apps.
Or is that on purpose?

By: Rarst

Rarst — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:08:30 +0000

@Slartibartfarst, @macobex

Glad you like it. More good freeware is always good idea, isn’t it?

By: Latest Important News On The Web : Week April, 27 - May 03 2009 | 4 Free On Internet

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:35:40 +0000

[...] FreewareGenius.com – Announcing: Appnews.net ( thanks Marty [...]

By: macobex

macobex — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:14:22 +0000

Nice to hear this. 3 websites collaboration, really sounds helpful and useful. Appnews will be a good application resource indeed. Congrats

By: Slartibartfarst

Slartibartfarst — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:57:19 +0000

Now that looks like a really useful/interesting site. Thankyou!
I have just now put http://appnews.net/ into my Google Reader subscription list – alongside the subscription to this (freewaregenius.com) site.