Sploid fills a void 07 Apr 2005
18 comments Latest by GO77
I think Drudge is good at picking an interesting assortment of news stories but he’s just a bit too HYSTERICAL!!!! (not to mention right-leaning) for my tastes. Into the void comes Sploid, Gawker Media’s latest launch. “Sploid is a news site with a tabloid mentality — top stories up top, played big, as fast as they break,” according to publisher Nick Denton. “If there’s a political line, it’s anarcho-capitalist: sniffing out hypocrisy and absurdity, whether from salon left or religious right.”
I’m down with the concept but still iffy on the all-caps headlines (which echo the front page of the NY Post or another tabloid). All-caps works well on a Post cover since there’s only one headline there. Printing dozens of headlines in all-caps on one page, a la Sploid, makes it tough to scan though.
Meanwhile, Bloggorhea, in the New York Observer, has a fun little quote battle between Denton and Drudge.
Denton on Drudge: “…he has some blind spots. Occasionally, there’s a story that takes on the Bush administration that’s a good story. Occasionally there’s a funny, interesting, scandalous story that he won’t touch because it offends his audience. And he won’t take on the churches.” [Denton] described Mr. Drudge’s recent lead story featuring the Pope lying in state above the word “Peace” as the “same reverential coverage of every newspaper across the planet.”
Drudge on Denton: “Oh, he would put ‘Hell’?” he asked. “I mean, c’mon, this is small-time. How do I take seriously ‘Sploid,’ ‘Gawker,’ ‘Wonkette’? How do you begin to take this seriously? It’s like ‘Supercalifragalisticexpialadocious: This is just in!’…Too cute by half.”
Too cute by half!? I’m gonna have to start using that one.
18 comments (comments are closed)
Dan Boland 07 Apr 05
Matt, you’re right, those all caps headlines are atrocious. It makes it look like a supermarket tabloid.
Dr_God 07 Apr 05
Yeah. Those headlines have to go. You have to scroll down 6 or 7 pages just to see all the headlines. My scrolling finger gets cramps on that site. Everything on Drudge (usually) fits on one page. No contest in the usability dept.
brian 07 Apr 05
Don’t know if it’s the all caps per se, but certainly the size of the headlines makes it hard to read. Interesting technique to achieve the drop shadow on the lead headline though.
N. 07 Apr 05
I think the all caps headlines are hillarious. Since I tend not to lean either to the left or to the right, I find both websites horrendously laughable at times.
Dale Cruse 07 Apr 05
Everyone keeps talking about the use of all caps as bad - or that it looks “like a supermarket tabloid.” I think that’s the point.
Jamie 07 Apr 05
The headlines fit because it’s supposed to be a tabloid. My problem with it is that it’s just a listing of outward links. There isn’t really any commentary except for the words in title.
waa 07 Apr 05
Gawker sites make me want to cry.
Haywood 07 Apr 05
“I find both websites horrendously laughable at times.”
At times? At times!? Didn’t ‘sploid launch today???
Clark 07 Apr 05
It hurts my eyes.
me 07 Apr 05
Gawker Media is an oxymoron.
Steven Andrew Miller 08 Apr 05
The all caps headlines are hilarious! But that is about it. I have to scroll through a whole page of ads to read the headlines. If this is the competition, Drudge has nothing to worry about.
Joshua Kaufman 08 Apr 05
Dale Cruse:
I agree with Dale here, but I think they could have accomplished the same feel without sacrificing readability as they have. It’s a neat concept but it’s a half ass design.
Kim Siever 08 Apr 05
I like the headlines, but I think that using them for every story is a bit much. It’s effective at grabbing my attention, but it loses my attention by the 12th one.
Tory 08 Apr 05
I think that the design sucks but the content isn’t terrible. There’s nothing wrong with linking to other websites, it’s not any different than reading Google News. But people read Drudge because he breaks (and sometimes makes up) the news. Unless Sploid can do the same I doubt that they’ll be very successful.
N. 13 Apr 05
“At times? At times!? Didn�t �sploid launch today???”
Haha, I suppose you’re right! Surely you can forgive the silly mistake; what I meant was fairly obvious.