Does anyone else agree that AICN's site looks awful? (2 Viewers)

[TheoGB]

Sorry but having gone there for occasionally movie news now for over a year I still can't believe how absolutely awful the Ain't It Cool site looks.
Am I alone? Does no one else begrudge having to look through this mess? The only sites I've seen worse have been homepages designed by people obviously new to the whole web idea.
Why can't everything look as cool as HTF...or even YENZ!!!

 

[Ben Motley]

I f@#kin' hate that site with a passion for that very reason, and for the fact that you have to read paragraphs of text to figure out just what the hell they're talking about at any given time. ARGH! Don't raise my ire. I know there are many AICN devotees here, and I don't want to start a flame war, so I'll just shut up now.

 

[Nick Sievers]

I always thought it was just a problem with my browser. The text is just way to big on that site. Its an awful site to look at and one of the reasons I don't regulary visit it anymore. Why does the text have to be so freakin' big?

 

[TheoGB]

It's not just the sizes. It's the colours that appear to have been taken from a photo of a 'morning yawn'. Ugh!

 

[Paul_D]

Oh my God! AICN is such a CRAP site. Their only saving grace is that they occasionally have VERY early review/release info. But I agree it looks TERRIBLE. The reviews are consistently rubbish. Unreadable, and filled with so much uninteresting peripheral naval-gazing, that the few times I have visited the site recently, I've been moved to shout expletives at the screen, for my own personal satisfaction alone. And the talkbacks are just pages and pages of meaningless rubbbish.
I know it's been said before, but filling a review with desciptions of how tasty the donut you ate 2 days before seeing the movie (which is the focus or lack-there-of in this case, of the review), along with all the boring, 30-year-old-without-a-proper-job-still-living-with-parents type stuff in between, doesn't constitute a review! Crap site.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Funny, I was just Im'ing with Dan Brecher about this the other day. I think AICN should get a serious redesign, and kill the talkback section.

They were revolutionary in the early days of the net because they were really a unique thing, and the only game in town.

Now- it's another guy with a fanboy website IMHO-- and they coudl really rise to the top of the pile again if they gave 1/2 a shit about design, navigation and the english language.

-Vince

 

[Tony_Faville]

Design is pure crap....I could do a better site in my sleep. And I'm sorry but Harry needs to up his Ritalin before he writes a review. His writing style is crap as well.

And no, this isn't just bitterness because he got to see AOTC before I did, I've felt this way for well over a year. That's why the AOTC review was the first time I have hit that site since 2000.

 

[JasenP]

I think the sight design is a bit for bit representation of the Webmaster and it suits him well.

Am I wrong?

 

[Tom-G]

The problem is not aesthetics, the problem is content. Ain't It Cool should focus more on reporting news, not rumors.

 

[MickeS]

I hate the design, the talkback needs serious restructuring or it should go, but I actually like the content of the site for the most part. Sure, the writing isn't always the best, but it's enthusiastic and informative most of the time. I like that they spread rumours too (as long as there is a little bit of substance to them), everyone else deals too much in facts.
/Mike

 

[MikeAlletto]

AICN was always crap. The guy is such a kiss ass to the studios its not even funny anymore. All he wants is free promo stuff and free advanced tickets. He'll give a movie a good review before it comes out and then everyone else in the world will hate it. The site design is horrible and the writing is absolutely embarrassing.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Well, I don't know, but it looks like this thread is heading in the "bash Harry" direction- and although I'm not a fan of the site, I'd say that is a bit unfair (and a bit too easy).
Harry seems to be a pretty big film lover, like many that hang here. While I can't say I agree with everything he says/does- I can say that I don't really envy his position (another person who was doing what he loved to do and fell ass backwards into fame and notoriety- with it coming public scrutiny and outside pressures).
I can say that despite the perks I'd never want to trade places with him-- heck I'm a fat guy and I don't know if I could handle all the jabs at the weight thing, let alone the criticism of every other move he makes. Harry puts himself out there, for better or worse, and I respect the guy for it.
Now, could AICN as a website and a news source be improved? Yep. And I have to imagine that many people actually do care about the site, since they seem to come out of the woodwork and get pretty passionate about what is wrong with it. It must have a few saving graces or I think many of us would ignore topics like this one. The problem is that it has always (and does now) have the potential to be an amazing site. It's often teetering right at a level where we could all really embrace it- but there are always just a few sharp edges preventing it from happening.
IMHO- they should keep "rumor" postings- but come up with a category system for feature articles (on set reports, etc), for reviews, for rumors, etc. Organize a little, and let people enjoy the site on a level that appeals to them. Get some better layout, maybe get a bunch more of the cartoon drawings for all their "staff" and really go for it.
And most of all, kill talkback. If you want to offer a discussion thing completely seperate, go for it. If you feel you have to have some reply options-- I would reserve the main article and then allow followups posted by select individuals (staff, valued members, industry folks) and delete all the high school kid bullshit.
Just my 2 cents.
But seriously folks, I would say you should keep the Harry bashing to a min. I have a hard time believing he is an evil person- and you never really know a man, until you steal his shoes (or something like that)...
-V

 

[AdrianOC]

Well said Vince!
I agree totally with the need to stop the Harry bashing, instead lets focus on the site design bashing!
Have you ever tried to read that site with a hangover!

 

[Dan Brecher]

There's more to Harry as a person then many will ever know. His book (yeah which I think is a good read and was well written) is a better insight into his points of view, but meeting him in person instantly makes you get what Harry is all about. AICN, the website, does little in giving you an idea of what he's really like, as surprising as that may sound to some...

As far as the site is concerned, he falls a little flat in his articles because he writes the way he talks, or rather, he tries to write the way he talks. When you listen to him speak in person he's buzzing with energy, he'll do voices, act out scenes word for word, it's great. It's impossible to pull this energy of in words on his site as hard as he tries...

I said it in the EpisodeII thread in movies, but I'll say it again here I guess. I have truly never met any single being with such an overwhelming and enthusiastic love of cinema as Harry. He's one of a kind in this respect.

The site...yes, as Vince said he and I were in fact discussing the look of the site just the other evening. It's been like that for about four or five years now and it needs a change. I rarely visit there any more, but do drop in now and again. What drove me away was the birth of Talkback, in a re-design that needs to go because it does nothing but bring the site down to its lowest form. It's repulsive the way they insult Harry (yet they still read the site, go figure) and the majority of these "high school fucks" as Kevin Smith likes to deem them, are just wasting space. They're so incredibly foolish in their beliefs that someone is listening to their endless bitching...

Dan

 

[Scott DeToffol]

In this case, the horrible site design affects the content. Even if something is well written (which is rarely the case at AICN), a bad presentation will detract from the content. There are so many bad elements of the site: it is slow (the cardinal sin), ugly, hard to navigate, and hard to read the text. I bet a redesign and a real webmaster would triple his daily hits.

 

[TheoGB]

Yeah I didn't start this thread to attack the guy. Sounds like he's been through a lot of shit to me and fair play to him.

Personally I have nothing against rumours on the site. If you're going to take it without a large pinch of salt that's your own look out.

I'd just visit it a lot more if they spent some time with PHP or something and made it look nice...*sigh*

 

[DaveF]

I discovered AICN about four years ago, when it was first getting some serious media coverage. I checked it out a for a while, but I couldn't tolerate the truly horrendous "design." I recall big text, center justified, on a busy background; it was very hard to read. And I found a lot of seemingly immature kids posting drivel and rants in the feedback sections.
A pity, because there was some solid information there, if it could be unearthed. But I'm not big for early spoilers, and the appearance was beyond horrendous. I've not been back since.
Is the design still the same from four years ago? (blech :frowning: )

 

[Bac Bradley]

The site design could use some improvement, but its satisfactory for reporting news bits. I find the download times more horrific than the design itself, but that's because of the insane amount of traffic he receives.

 

[Ted Lee]

i could never get into his site...just too cheesy for me and i couldn't handle the way he did his reviews.
i much prefer www.joblo.com - one of my faves.

 

[Bac Bradley]

Joblo seems like a nice site, but I had issues loading that as well, over a dedicated T1 no less.