Site news
It seems like it keeps the 10 latest articles there, right ?

The oldest one is dated december 17th, 19 days ago. That's about an article every 2 days.

Wouldn't that tell you that if you visit every week or so you won't miss anything ? I know that's how I'd see it. And the goal is to get repeat visitors, and for that you need interesting content, that renews itself often enough.

Though, looking at Anand's that about the way he does it, and moreover, the 2 sites' design is scaringly similar. More or less the same placement for everything. Being different really makes you stand out well, if it's properly executed.
Anand's
[IMG]www.geocities.com/keltorak/anand.txt[/IMG]
SLCentral
[IMG]www.geocities.com/keltorak/sl.txt[/IMG]

1) The titlebar and options : of course it makes sense at the top ... just included cause there's other ways to do it and it's yet another similarity
2) Tech news : both kinda smallish and on the left side
3) Site News : Both in the middle, kinda big and with an indentation at the top right
4) Featured article : in said indentation

Be careful not to look like a copycat ... at this point, I'd wager Anand has more "followers", hence can claim the design as is, whether it is or not.

Although, I must admit this format works quite well for what its intended purpose is.

Tech news
The latest one is the New Year one, 4 days old. Now, I know this is usually an off-computer period for many, but seeing as how I didn't notice how often posts are made before, I can't really judge on it, but that seems like a great lapse of time between posts.

Disclaimer
I don't mean anything bad by this, just some things I just noticed. I don't visit front pages often anymore, due to my lack of available money.

I know finding decent news is hard, and that you can't create content from nothing, just noting maybe you should try and make it look more active ? Having it look active can be a big plus, and phasing out articles while still keeping them on the front page gives a sense of progression.

Maybe by keeping the latest 5 site news in the current format and the next 5-10 ones in a shortened version with no pictures ? For some reason, I think that would make it seem more active.

I'm really not slamming SL, just trying to point out possible "weaknesses" before somebody does it with less than positive intents. Then again, I'm a perfectionist, so maybe I'm imagining too much of an Utopia. This and Ars are the only tech sites I visit, and the only forums, though I don't post much at Ars.

I like SL and want to see it grow. I don't have many solutions in mind at the mo, I'll let you know if I think of anything.

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I APPRECIATE the criticism and want it, because if you find things wrong, I want to fix them if we and others agree it's an issue.

As for your similarity comparison, just wait By next week we will have an all new format which we've been working on for the frontpage which will make tech news & site news totally different and MUCH more popular. It will also tie into the forums, which means we believe (hope) it will increase forum usage but a GOOD amount.

But the only thing I really only got the idea from Anand's was that featured article box, but that's really about it.

Also note, that there is a TOTALLY new design in the works (you can see a beta here: http://www.slcentral.com/sldbbetatemplate), but that won't be launched for a GOOD amount of time, so don't expect that anytime soon.

If there is anymore issues, I urge you to post them as it definitely helps everything as a whole.

Also, this is the whole reason behind slow tech news Expect a totally new format by next week.

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ActiveTuning - Partner & Director Of Sales & Marketing

I know that probably every possible design concept has been used on one tech site or another, but is it just me or does the new SLCentral template look very much like the design at CNET? As in, VERY MUCH?

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Aaron Dahlen - Gaming Editor
aaron@slcentral.com
SLCentral - Your logical choice for computing and technology
http://www.slcentral.com

Athlon XP 1800+ ... K7V DRAGON Plus ... 256 MB PC2100 ... GeForce3 PowerPack !!! ... Sound Blaster Audigy ... IBM 60GXP 40 GB ... Samsung SyncMaster 950p ... Windows XP Home

Aaron : There are some things that look somewhat alike, but overall, I'd say they're pretty much different. They don't have the same "feel" to them.

Integrating the forum
Just gotta warn you about that one, most of the way I've seen it done fell way short of what it should be.

For example, do not, under any circumstance put the forum in a "normal" SL page, as in, keeping the menus. That is both awful, and will make sure that people that do not run high resolutions will not return. All of that takes up some big screen space width wide. I personally run my IE windows at ~850-950 usually, and I'd expect that width to be ok for most things.

The new design
Empty gray space at the top : ugly, waste of space, either find something useful to put there, or make the search engine fill it up, by adding some options to it, not too many though, don't overcrowd the thing. Or, move the newsletter bit there, it would fit nicely, I think.

The search button looks odd and out of place for some reason. I think I'd get rid of the blue halo and replace it with a darker gray.

Slight graphic glitch at the DSL thing : The GFX aren't aligned, small bug, but still there Put the font at "Largest" to notice it well.

Yellow buttons : they seem to float, and don't take up much space, leaving too much blank IMHO. Some blank space is nice, just don't overdo it. Make them wider somewhat, and maybe tone down the color ? as it is they are the biggest attraction of the page, while the news and articles should be.

Featured article : put some bright color to attract attention, maybe a sharp blue border for the pic ? It's featured, it should attract attention.

Dotted lines : surprisingly nice, never thought of using such things myself, but they blend in nicely.

Text : too much black, include some different color too, as in, use 2 text colors all over, Titles and normal text maybe ?

Menus : The bubbles irk me, though opinions on those will vary wildly. Something about them screams unneeded to me, it's be better as one menu with separations in it IMHO

Page wide ad : fits in better than normal sized one in the design, although, are there many ads of that size out there ? to provide some cycling and all.

SL's motto : "Your logical choice for computing and technology" feels like it's missing a word ... "information" maybe ?

Site Sections logo : doesn't seem to have the same theme as the other logos do. They are mainly blue, gray and black, while that one is blue and yellow.

[ Remember, you asked for comments ]

[EDIT] : Closing the bold tags looks MUCH better

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Keep in mind that with Tom's absense, we lack a dedicated news man. Anand has Brandon Hill, and what he'll do is subscribe to all of the sites so they send him news, he then filters through it every day and posts twice a day, about five or six headlines.

We can do this. We just need a news man. I would love the job, but honestly I have no time. This weekend, I will be writing a blurb from a news story that Dave has provided to show how the new layout could work. With our "extended" news blurbs, we'll only need two or three news posts per day, and not 5 or six HOWEVER we HAVE TO do better than the current one evrey two days.

In the meantime, I will be subscribing to the listbots of different sites and will try to get one news post in a day, but I'm not doing this myself and by all means I am not "the news man".

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

<bows head in shame>

Thanks for the criticism and you are absolutely correct; I have been a little lax in posting news on a ongoing basis. I have a couple of reasons for this but my problems are not yours and are in no way a reason for not keeping the site up to date.

Starting today, I promise to keep the site fresh and apologise for the lack thereof.

I will comment on all your comments later on today, just wanted to let ya know I've read them over

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ActiveTuning - Partner & Director Of Sales & Marketing

I'm not blaming you on the news thing, I tried it for a while and I know it's a total pain in the ass to do decently

Plus, I'm not sure there's that many worthy tech news out there at the mo, then again, I'm pretty much out of it right now ...

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I'm having quite a bit of fun posting a blurb here and there about stuff that I think is worthwhile. At least we don't simply copy 'n' paste stuff from major news sources like a lot of other tech sites do.

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Aaron Dahlen - Gaming Editor
aaron@slcentral.com
SLCentral - Your logical choice for computing and technology
http://www.slcentral.com

Athlon XP 1800+ ... K7V DRAGON Plus ... 256 MB PC2100 ... GeForce3 PowerPack !!! ... Sound Blaster Audigy ... IBM 60GXP 40 GB ... Samsung SyncMaster 950p ... Windows XP Home

Exactly Aaron. Hopefulll, Our "unique take" on the news keeps people coming.

You're doing a good job. You're writing is very professional. I like it.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

I agree with Jonny, Aaron, you picked up on it right away and are doing a great job!

The way that our news is now "unique" will start to KEEP visitors coming back to the site and checking it constantly. We just need to be updating news more often I need to speak with Rob and hopefully he'll get on the bandwagon.

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ActiveTuning - Partner & Director Of Sales & Marketing