At the behest of retailer Brian Hibbs, here is a chance to sound off on what you LEAST WANT TO SEE here at The Beat, your daily news source for Instant Vietnamese Coffee. Vote for as many as you like! Yesterday we ran a poll on what you DO like, and that poll is still open so if you haven’t voted, please do.
As always if there is something you detest that isn’t listed here, use the comments to warn the world.
[poll id=”3″]
I’d prefer not to see the standard “Big Two” hype that one can get on just about any comics website. Sales analysis is one thing, but I don’t give two shakes about whichever Marvel character is going to be dead for the next six months or what DC characters are making out.
Can we go back to the first Beat website design? This one is not very good.
Nawid, you mean the one before this or the very first one from Comicon.com?
Perry, yes, but he will pursue you with the heat of molten lava.
Can lava not be molten? I though lava that wasn’t molten was just … rock?
I don’t know if it was one person in particular, or a new editorial mandate, but earlier in the year, I found that the Beat was becoming quite snarky. There are plenty of sites on the internet where snark is the raison d’etre, and I’ve always found the Beat’s straightforward style of reporting a refreshing break from the pink touching the lip, am I not clever? style of reporting. So yeah, I don’t want snark.
Anything about how the new52 isn’t as good as the old DCU. So tired of that waste of bandwidth.
I love you just the way you are.
If you could also prevent the deaths of ALL people involved in the industry for this entire year, that would be appreciated. Geez, what a year it was for passings.
Comments quoting Billy Joel songs. Just on principle.
Please disregard the votes against photos of Benny Cummerbund. All those mean is that they would rather see photos of Zachary Quinto experiencing pon farr.
Yes to “multimedia” although only for mainstream movie/tv coverage. It broke my heart that nobody talked about Marjane Satrapi’s new movie but there were multiple posts on the newest Batman movie. It’s fine to report on Hollywood, all the posts on creator’s rights in relation to many if these films were fantastic- but it would be nice if it was balanced with stuff like Chicken with Plums that won’t get reported elsewhere.
The Beat is the best comics news source and has the best balance of news. Other than what’s mentioned above, don’t change the special blend of herbs and spices that make up this blog! Keep up the great work!
I agree with that other Mike guy, I don’t like advent of snark on the Beat in 2012.
I try to avoid mean-sounding snark.
But if I see something ironic, or funny, I’ll make note of it, hopefully in a light-hearted way. Of course, I’ve been on the Internets since 1990, so I may have become less attuned to the perceptions of others.
Heidi, can our inDifference Engine handle sarcasm punctuation?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation
For example:
؟ Boy, Billy Tipton… he was a great pianist!
I think placing some such mark at the beginning of headlines might help our readers to filter or anticipate our double-edged tongues.
Myself, I’m a fan of the interrobang: ‽
I like Benedict Cumberbatch — more photos of him, please! I think folks are clicking the wrong button.
It’s tough to name something I’d rather *not* see on The Beat. Granted there’s a lot of Hollywood news, but a high tide raises all boats — and I have no problem with that. Likewise, I can choose what to read and what not to read. My only desire is that the energy and time is spent across the board and *not* mostly on the bigger fish in the pond. But a news / industry site that completely ignores big news isn’t doing its job, either. Thus, I do have sympathy for Heidi and her crew.
Also, I don’t mind the snark (even if it’s pointed at stuff like me) The Beat is a personal site ran and operated by Heidi and it is subject to her opinion. I’m okay with that.
The poll is broken at the moment (shows results but would not let me vote, sniff) so I will ‘wing it’: Would not like to see such heavy convention coverage. Headlines and a summary is enough for me. And original comics: probably not the right place for those.
Otherwise, I am good, and it is all good. Good good.
I’d just as soon not see reviews of single issues of serials. Unless the reviewer makes an effort to describe the creators’ and the serial’s systemic strengths and weaknesses, the result is like doing a review of a chapter of a book: next to useless.
SRS
I voted against Top Ten lists. I like everything else.
The snark is fine, in an editorial context. The industry needs more formal criticism, though, as opposed to the general nastiness found on message boards and the like. Keep providing that, please.
And who voted “no” to photos of The Cumberbatch?! Scandalous.
The Beat is the comics blog that offends least on this angle, but the one thing that most comics sites do wrong is blithely reprinting press releases without comment–or worse, pretending to invite comment by adding a single “So readers, what do YOU think about this” tag to the end.
The film and tv stuff always annoys me. More often than not the connection to comics or cartoonists is shaky at best, and there are hundreds of other news sites that simply do it better.
And I’d LOVE to see the cut and paste re-postings of corporate press releases come to an end.
If they want to advertise on your site, they should have to pay for it.
I’d like The Beat to cut out the snark and bring in the SNORKS
What Nick Jones said! (Hype or reporting on Marvel and DC story content.)
Also not digging this new layout. Previous layout was better IMHO.
Echoing an above post, the new site format is clunky. everything is listed twice. Once up top, once down low. A format closer to the old the Beat would be great.
thanks,
keep up the good work.
Everyone who doesn’t like the new layout, please be SPECIFIC about what you don’t like.
The duplicate posting is a good one. It’s very easily fixed however. NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS DO NOT CROSS TAG.
Next.
The thing I don’t like about the new layout is that the right half inch is cut off and unreadable on my smartphone.
re: site
Generally, I like the look. The two elements that confound me are the above mentioned double-posting of headline articles and the inability to “view previous posts”. Is there no “see older posts” button? Or am I missing it?
Keep up the great work. My favorite comics site.
I agree, the old layout was charming and roomy, everything is so funneled in this awkward 1/3 column of 2/5 column, whatever its called . I miss color. Everybody does this stuff now.
•Too much white & responsive design stuff
• No one needs a calendar
• Is there any way to get rid of this middle column? Or make the right one bigger to fit ad and all those Facebook likes.
• If I ever do join Facebook, I might hear from bogus energy companies 5 times a day instead of 2 as they sell my info. Or I’ll just wait to be put involuntarily on Google+. There is no winning.
• What happened to month to month sales? The only honest convo on comics out there. Don’t ruin that or it’ll be truly iFanboy lite.
• The only experience close to seeing “Hitchcock” was reading a DC comic. I would have been better off vegetating at the Hobbit.
Also not really a fan of the new site (but I suppose the reason is it’s easier now to see on tablets and phones?).
I don’t know why, but it seems this presentation makes people less open to post comments (could be wrong but it seemed to more people were commenting on the lesser view posts before, non?).
And yeah, the double posting is still a little confusing because it makes you think there is no new posts when there is some, but not very popular so they don’t show up up there (am I right).
Happy New Year to you all all!
I think I fixed the double posts on the front page thing.
I also wish you would return to the website design before this new look.
I now longer come to this site as often as I used to and this purely down to the horrible new look.
Less of the rampant misandry of the last year would be a good start. Most of what is posted here can be found elsewhere or is uninteresting to me. I don’t say that as an insult. You clearly want to stand out, but there’s so little of what constitutes comics news that almost every story is coverered across every other site and nobody cares who reported it first. The only thing covered here that I look forward to is the Indie Sales Charts.
You can’t change the culture of the internet. Conflict and controversy lead to comments, and warm fuzzies lead to crickets. To me, this website is a place for misandry and the shouting down of opposing viewpoints especially those contrary to the ones held by the female contingent. Seems like every website picks a side and if you’re not on it you’re against it. That’s not much different from real life these days. The Beat isn’t the place for good conversation anymore. That place probably doesn’t even exist. You want to be progressive and forward-thinking? Ban the term “troll.” As soon as somebody gets called a troll, there’s no saving the conversation. It’s exclusionary language and basically draws a line in the sand then invites everyone else to pick a side.
Maybe instead of a comment section you need a listen-to-other-opinions section because one major trend of all websites is lots of people talking and nobody being willing to listen…especially not the people running the place.
Good Luck.
I love The Beat. Just the most refreshing comics site out there. A proper comics *reporting* site IMHO. What I’d like to see less of:
Less hanging on Twitter and making that news, e.g. creators publicly leaving DC. People beefing professionally isn’t news – unless you get the other side of the argument. (In both cases, we never got DC’s comment). Hearing creators spat is unpleasant reading.
Also, less articles based on assumption. Like, the DC 52 one about Demon Knights getting cancelled based on some analysis The Beat did on cut-off numbers – when in reality, DC had NOT cancelled the book. But, in the meantime, we got creators being angry – all for a bunch of empty noise. These articles are a waste of time – and don’t do The Beat credit.
I don’t see a choice for what we would like The Beat to do but, one thing I’ve been enjoying the interviews of late.
I’ve always thought of The Beat as in-your-face, asking the hard questions. Would personally love to see The Beat interview the direct market publishers, ask the questions of why no one is trying to proactively get new readers (I’m talking kids here) – to REALLY ask. Because nobody else is doing it. The market’s shrinking and nobody’s got the balls to think outside the box.
The Beat is all about journalism. Use it.
I love The Beat. A proper comics *reporting* site IMHO. What I’d like to see less of:
Less hanging on Twitter and making that news, e.g. Creators publicly leaving DC and making noise about it. People beefing professionally isn’t news – unless you get the other side of the argument. (In both cases, we never got DC’s comment). Hearing creators spat is unpleasant reading.
Also, less articles based on assumption. Like, the DC 52 one about Demon Knights getting cancelled based on some analysis The Beat did on cut-off numbers – when in reality, DC had NOT cancelled the book. But, in the meantime, we got creators being angry – all for a bunch of empty. These articles are a waste of time – and don’t do The Beat credit.
I don’t see a choice for what we would like The Beat to do but, one thing I’ve been enjoying the interviews of late.
I’ve always thought of The Beat as in-your-face, asking the hard questions. Would personally love to see The Beat interview the direct market publishers, ask the questions of why no one is trying to proactively get new readers (I’m talking kids here) – to REALLY ask. Because nobody else is doing it. The market’s shrinking and nobody’s got the balls to think outside the box.
The Beat is all about journalism. Use it.
@Kard Read the actual article on Demon Knights. Nobody said it was cancelled, just that it was one of several titles in the range where things started to get cancelled. Then compare the next cancellation round to the titles in the range from that article. The creators were the ones being inaccurate claiming I said the title was cancelled.
A heads up that there seems to be a minor issue with breaking news stories disappearing off the front page. Noticed this a couple of times since Christmas but figured I was getting old and confused. However it happened again just now with the first story about the Siegel/Schuster ruling. (‘Warner Bros. wins huge legal decision in Superman case—UPDATED’)
Heres a snapshot of the page :
http://tinyurl.com/auv9hxz
As you can see Jeff Trexler’s follow up is visible but the first story has vanished (and is not in the ‘breaking news’ widget under the headline story).
Last time I noticed it was the Kirby/Lee photo post a couple of days ago but that eventually reappeared.
(FWIW I use firefox on windows – but I fired up opera and chrome and got the same result – don’t think it’s my end).
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