DISQUS

tiffany · 9 months ago

I need more structure. Visually, it's like a magazine layout. Doesn't work so well on screen. The content looks VERY promising, but it's lagging a little with the tech. Incomplete footer links? That's something that could have been removed if the content wasn't there. And I saw some comments that were black on black.

I'll be watching this one though. I loved the *ORIGINAL* Honey in print, and it seems like some of that voice is back in the online version.

Nokware Knight · 9 months ago

Honey's lack of syndication tools may not be an oversight at all. If they limited syndication and put walls around where shared content can go on purpose, that may actually be a very smart move. Fans who want to view the content are more likely to visit honeymag.com to do so. It ensures that the community is initially built around the website content originated from.

Liz · 9 months ago

I agree with Nokware, it probably was a deliberate decision to not have any feeds, however, it's a very misinformed strategy. It's clear Honey mag is on the hunt to get registered users ASAP. Forcing people to log in to do any activity on the site is a sign of that. Hopefully they will go hard on whatever launch plan they have because that's going to be their biggest push for users if they plan to keep their content locked up on their domain as it is right now. Otherwise they better hope people stumble across their site, and feel highly compelled to register. A slow slippery slope that is.

Visually the site is very pretty, though flash heavy with lotsa extra white space.

Jennifer J · 9 months ago

The design is nice, but right now the content is lacking. There are too many broken links and they definitely need a syndication strategy. Plus too many "coming soon"messages.

Dede @ Clutch · 9 months ago

For what I know the site is not officially launched yet, so I think that is the reasoning for broken links and lack of content. It's a very cute site and eye catching - and I am excited they are back online. I think they are launching fashion week this month. I am sure it will have more content then.

Lynne d Johnson · 9 months ago

I'm rooting for them too. Always have. And the new EIC is one of my mentees so I'm definitely watching this one. But I notice a few technical challenges ahead besides the lack of syndication. URL structure for one -- having cleaner, shorter, title-based URLs that also work good for SEO. Any SEO in particular would help as well. For instance, some of the titles look like their actually images and not in H1 or H2 tags.

Other key things if you just look at the source code could present real real challenges ahead. But I won't go on, cuz I'm not bashing. I really want to celebrate this beta, and besides, I'd rather get paid for my advice.

Angela Benton · 9 months ago

You beat me to the punch, lol!!! I have a major issue w/ some of the content being in images even though they are in beta. In general I think the site is pretty however w/o it being syndicated or blocking content in order to get people to register (I totally understand the thought process behind this)...just don't know if that will work well, I guess we'll all see especially as new (and old) business models start to emerge during this recession. There were some interesting reads on there, I checked out a few that were open but I am not sure I'd register just to read it when I can get similar (though not exact) content from a wide range of sites, better yet I can read them in my feed reader. I know I am probably in the minority though of their audience though. This will be interesting to follow!