The 9 Rules Redesign
10th of February, 2007
9 Rules have called their latest redesign and added functionality “Ali”. Being the hater I am, it doesn’t impress me, it’s taken 9 Rules off my daily reading list.
Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not as if I liked it before this added functionality and now IÂ abruptly dislike it. A long time ago it became one of those sites I’d just skip over, a strong sign it’s about to be taken off my list. These latest changes and additions have pushed me over the edge.
Before I forget, is there a requirement that if you host with Media Temple you have to display their ugly (mt) logo at the very top of your page? Or is it just like a badge of coolness? “I host with Media Temple, I’m so totally cool!”
9 Rules isn’t a high quality blogging network anymore, it’s lost it’s quality and it’s lost it’s blogging network in a huge mess of other stuff. Notes, Communities and now my.9rules. It seems as if the “The Rulers” have thought “9 rules as a blogging network was pretty successful, let’s release a bunch of new stuff under the same, already successful name”.
It hasn’t worked. For me, all it’s done is create clutter. The sole feature I used at 9 rules was the list of latest posts from around the network, this used to be the only feature and I’d always find a couple of good posts in that list each visit. Back then, there were far fewer blogs in the network and the percentage of blogs in the network I actually liked was high. Now, there’s so many blogs that the percentage I like is low enough to render that list useless.
On top of that, the list’s position has been relegated down the page. Below the ads, below a huge list of topics, below the search, below a huge my.9rules link and below a list of categories. It’s even on the right of screen, you could almost say the public notes feature has greater priority.
It bothered me the first time they moved the huge list of communities to the top of the page. I would go to 9 Rules to read some top quality content, I never wanted to read about something in particular. This is the case whenever I feel like reading, I don’t care what the book is about, I just want to read something good. 9 Rules used to provide this beautifully.
I can’t see anyone thinking “I really want to read what 9 rules members are saying about Apple”, for example. And the search? Are they trying to be somewhat of a moderated Technorati? If I want to search for something, I’ll use Google.
As for the design, it’s the previous design, with more distraction. Want a quick way to make the simplest site a little more cluttered? Add rounded corners to everything. Then they’ve added a holy ray of sunshine to the top of every block. With the rainbow of colour, I can barely hold my focus.
A severe case of overdesign.
I also find it strange that for a few months now the only ads on the site have been to do with 9 Rules, for a company run by the runners of 9 Rules or for Text Link ads. What happened to their advertisers? Do they agree with me?
It might look like I’m just being a big negative nancy and I’ve got something huge against 9 Rules. I don’t. I’m annoyed that something I really enjoyed using has turned itself into something I don’t like. What used to be an exclusive, high quality blog network is now a free-for-all, crowded, low quality online community, moderated blog search engine, public forum, a mediocre social network and a popularity contest.
I’ll take the few blogs I found during the early days and be on my way.
