First, Syp needs to check his damn spam filter and get my account out of it over at Biobreak!
As for the site, three simple request:
1: The majority of the main content should never require me to click once I’m at the main page of the site.
2: The main content should take up 50% or more of the screen at all times.
3: Nothing should ever auto-play, ever.
Someone from the new Massively confirm the above three will happen and you get my money.
Edit: Think if I drop 250, I can do an editorial mocking the Massively comments section? I might be worth paying for…
I threw them some money, the genre needs a site that doesn’t take money and access for good previews and reviews.
I’m not sure why anyone would invest in a product made by people who have already failed to run a successful product of the same type.
Massively *was* successful, though. They had more traffic every year, and apparently were profitable until AOL laid off their advertising department and replaced them with an automated system.
AOL didn’t shut Massively down because they weren’t successful. AOL shut them down because management diesn’t know what they are doing. In a flailing attempt to lower costs, they shuttered a small line-item while continuing to pay “Shingy” millions to doodle on napkins.
If Massively or any of AOL’s other “enthusiast blogs” were making lots of money and successful then they wouldn’t have shut it down. AOL is in the business of making money. To assert that AOL executives don’t know what they are doing is laughable. They look at everything in red and black ink. If it’s read, it’s dead.
Um… as I said, it was apparently profitable until AOL decided to save a few bucks by laying off the advertising team and replacing them with an automated system. If it was in the red, it was because of bad management decisions.
https://biobreak.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/goodbye-massively/
…and I do, in fact, assert that AOL’s executives do not know what they are doing.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/17/crystal-ball-3
@Syncaine: Your requirements are all based around the UX design. That’s great and all, but how about the content? Wouldn’t you like original thought and quality from people who actually know what they are talking about?
Honestly? Don’t care about that; that’s what blog are for. All I expect out of Massively is a clean ‘feed’ for MMO news, and enough dummies in the comment section to make me laugh on occasion. If they have a few people who can write something of real interest sometimes, that IMO is a bonus.