I’ve noticed that when viewing the site in blog view (https://boingboing.net/blog), that many/most actual articles are shortened with a “read more” link.
But Boing Boing Shop “articles” are not.
That made this a right pain to scroll past on my phone.
If this were an actual article of “40 of the coolest things” assembled by the writers, it would have been worth the time to me. Of course, then it would have also been truncated with a “read more” link.
This seems like a reasonable criticism. I’ve moved it to its own topic to make sure it’s not lost.
I thoroughly agree with Pensketch’s position. But I suspect it is a feature (not a bug) resulting from whatever terms the contract with StackCommerce dictate. ‘All on front page - no abbreviating/linking’.
As a side note, some of the newer/guest bloggers often seem to evade the ‘headline, teaser, link’ format, too, and the result is sometimes also endless scrolling.
I use the blog view as my primary entry point, but it’s very well hidden to new users…
I suspect it’s been mostly forgotten it exists, and these full posts in the feed are a result…
If so, can you please give a reasoning for the immense effort to not present a post view ordered by date?.. (This baffled me to start with, and i’ve never seen a reason given that makes sense…)
Having different orders by default, okay, actively hiding the chronological view seems odd though… Props for keeping it alive in the background though, even if neglected…
Meh. Whatevs…
I stopped scrolling past this shop post when I saw those lovely Belgravia ceramic knives.
Had to buy them!
Call me a sucker if you will. I will now own a beautiful set of knives (at 58% off!). w00t!
I switched to blog view when the “new” front page appeared and I’ve since switched to the bbs exclusively, but I suspect it may have something to do with the advertising deals? Ads get buried quickly if multiple posts are made a day, while they can stay immediately visible in main page view.
Bunch of junk
I should probably just stay out of this, but it makes sense that you wouldn’t shorten, then place a “(more…)” link in a “BB Shop” post. If you want to sell stuff, you want to get it out in front of people’s eyes. Who’s going to click on a link to view what’s essentially an ad? Some people would, but (reading how many gripes there are about ads) not very many. It actually makes sense to use the in-line posts, since they can’t be hidden using ad blockers.
I use the “boingboing.net/blog” view also, but usually on a desktop monitor, not my phone. I have my own issues with BoingBoing’s ads, but not the in-line ones – I just scroll past those if I’m not interested. Call it the price for getting BoingBoing for free.
And with today’s additions (drones and the gig economy blurbs) above the ‘40 crap things’ post, I had to scroll fully two thirds of my browser window before I reached a legitimate blog post.
True, but if the ad-articles need to stand out from the actual-articles, there are ways to do that so it’s less intrusive. Not all advertising has to be in-your-face, despite all the examples of advertising on Boing Boing.
But the truth is, they would rather have them blend in with the articles; not stand out. If they were held to print standards of advertising – which of course they aren’t since it’s a blog, same as they aren’t held to standards of journalism – every one of these BB Shop posts that are created to look like an actual post would have to lead with:
––– ADVERTISEMENT –––
But they don’t, and occasionally – not often – I won’t know it was an ad and not an actual writer recommendation until I reach the bottom to see who posted it.
And you are correct, doing it this way means more people may have to see the entire thing depending on how they enter the site, but how many people who have been annoyed by something then follow through and buy it?
The one time recently when I found myself tempted by an ad-article, I reminded myself, “This is a BB Shop ad… better check elsewhere…” and found the same thing for $5 less than the claimed “sale” price. In that case I didn’t buy it from that site either, but it was interesting to get another price to compare against.
I’ve noticed that over the weekend it’s predominantly Shop ads now. I don’t know why they’re scaling back actual posts on the weekends, but these days it’s rare when I come back to the site on Monday and see anything other than Shop ads with a posting date of Saturday or Sunday.
Here’s what annoys me even more than the BB Shop ads that pose as blog content. Since the IT department where I work doesn’t want me to install any “non-blessed” software, including browser extensions, I have to set what Firefox calls its “Enhanced Tracking Protection” to “Strict” in order to nuke ads. The problem with the setting is that it also makes tweets and Instagram posts display incorrectly.
So when I turn off “Enhanced Tracking Protection” in order to see the tweets, I get two huge ads at the top of the screen, one of which can sometimes be “turned off” by clicking an X. I also get two ads at the bottom of the screen, one of which is actually plastered right on top of the other, that can also sometimes be “turned off” by clicking an X. And there’s a bunch of ads in the body of the blog posts. Aargh.
They never did post much content on the weekends.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
