Topic awaiting preservation: F magazine

A new online magazine has been launched - interesting idea but I'm not sure if it'll actually work.

Article: http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,1011615,00.html

Site: www.fmagazine.com

One good quote:

quote:

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We don't like text and try to use as little as possible.

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And it can be a bit difficult trying to work out what is going on (there seem to be numerous ways of interacting with each section).

It is interesting to see 'full page' internet ads like they have in magazines and it has allowed them to play with things a bit.

Interesting that they have a sort of page turning interface but they never went the whole hog as discussed here:
http://development.gurusnetwork.com/discussion/thread/2045/

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Very cool idea.

I tried to access the site of the magazine and I received the message that "your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page... bla bla bla" and the site refused to enter. Well, my settings indeed make IE not to accept ActiveX controls. So, bye bye website, if you can't live without ActiveX controls, I can live without visiting you.

I just clicked around this a little bit, and holy god. This is what the Internet was supposed to be. You screw around and get a soundtrack, you click to that Xelibri.com ad (or whatever) and a TV is playing the commercial as real-time video in a little window, you click stuff and get musical samples advertising things... look, I love words, and I can't actually prefer this to something with more words, but god damn. It's awesome.

Cell 1250 :: alanmacdougall.com :: Illustrator tips

This doesn't really interest me too much. I suppose the concept is kind of neat, but pointless.

Jestah

Good find, Emps.
It`s classic, it`s new , it`s easy to use.
But the music sucks, and it`s a bit slow on my *snailnet* connection, but I like it.

Hey, I thought we all agreed a while ago that the web isn't print. Whose idea was this?


It's a concept, and that's all it'll ever be...

the idea is quite good, but i think thats not nice for 56kers. still some nice work on the page and the whole concept, maybe we will see some more of them quite soon.

PORTFOLIO0

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't want the entire web to be this, but it's awesome that they're finally putting into practice things that used to be near-future sci-fi. A "magazine" that plays music and video at you, even if it's just a big Flash thing on the Web, is still damned cool to see. And as for whether the music sucks, obviously that's a matter of preference. One person's "god this sucks" is another person's "hey, cool!" I was playing around with the jukebox, and came up with some good Wu-Tang tracks, so they're all right in my book.

Cell 1250 :: alanmacdougall.com :: Illustrator tips

I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE Book Metaphors being used in new media.

It's not new; it's old, very old, so old it's painful. It's older than leet abstract 3D art and a lot more annoying. Sure, it's kinda fun for a few seconds... hey look, the page curls a little, that's cute... but for christs sake, how many times have we seen someone use a "book" as a website before?... In fact, think I saw one in the site reviews forum just the other day.

If you ask me, using a book metaphor only put rules and restrictions on the interaction. The fixed linear navigation, content presented page after page after page.

Although, that's not to say that all sites that do this are bad. There are a few really well done examples of this around ( http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/msg/corp/flashdreamworks.html ) But it when you try and merge the metaphor with things that just don't fit well into that kind of structure (like a whole media website with audio and video), you have to start bastardizing the rules of the metaphor and that usualy fails horribly.

*sigh* What a fantastic waste of interactive technology.



[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 08-05-2003).]

I totally agree with Drac on this. This is nothing new, there has been simliar stuff done before. And why put the constraints from the book metaphor on a web page, where you don't have to think about them?

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

I think it 's done well, but as stated in the review^ it is not aimed at 56k modemers. It is aimed at broadband people, and is a very good show case about modern technologies.
I have to say i don't like the methaphor much but it's rather simpel to navigate. Also there is enough to see while the pages are loading.
I think the book form is not a methaphor or should not be seen that way, it's just the next generation. First books were written by monks with too much time on their hands. Then we invented a press with small letters made from lead. After a long way we now have fully automized computer controlled four colour presses...but still the medium has not changed that much. This site however is different: a glossy with moving pictures. And they want to let other people make content.... This could be a fun thing to instead off a those "cartoonesque" flash movies we all love to hate.
Imagine you get four blanc "pages" and all you have to do is show off with style.
Now let your creative brain take over.
Did you guys see the ads? They are real and payed for.
No popups, no banners, no flashy things and a happy creative director. And a lot of people like to see them....
And yes it's all flash, and yes searchengines can not index it, and oh yes it cannot be translated to a braille ruler for the blind people, and yes it has al the disadvantages we know from flash.
But it doesn't matter does it?
Though it's a concept and build for a niche market i think it can work in the market they are aiming at.
Remember it's a magazine, not a website.


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"Art has to be forgotten. Beauty must be realized."
Piet Mondriaan

[This message has been edited by Rinswind 2th (edited 08-05-2003).]