Comments on: Review: Whitesoap.com, Alternative News

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:57:30 +0000

Thanks for the ideas Andrew, but I’m just a moderator and don’t have control over things like that. I’ll let Ben know though.

By: Andrew Swihart

Andrew Swihart — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:51:12 +0000

Paul, you might consider using Slimbox rather than Lightbox for this site. It works even when the page isn’t done loading (Lightbox aborts and you just get a link to the image, taking you away from the page), it conforms to web standards better and has a much smaller footprint. I’ve found it’s pretty much equivalent to Lightbox and I switched to it for the gallery on my own site.

By: Andrew Swihart

Andrew Swihart — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:42:34 +0000

The site was crawling to load on my first visit, perhaps getting the article images, not sure. Cool idea, but I personally don’t see myself going there for stories, it’s easy enough to do an RSS check of the typical sites from which you are pulling all of your headlines. Looks like it was a lot of fun to make though! And I’m sure with time it will carve out its own niche.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:00:23 +0000

Sorry Paul, typical of me I didn’t read to the end. With that disclosure I take back what I said. Thanks for your transparent reviewing.

By: Koen Van der Auwera

Koen Van der Auwera — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:32:24 +0000

“Users may click â€œSend toâ€ to save the story to the service of their choice.”

That is exactly the reason why we build Shareomatic!, keep your page clean with only one link and let the users decide which service(s) they want to use.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:01:34 +0000

Although it seems that the items on the frontpage of ratingo are a month old and that users need accounts.

By: P.S.

P.S. — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:53:32 +0000

Almost exact idea is behind ratingo.com: except moderation and it’s online for almost a year.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:17:22 +0000

Thanks for letting me know Stewart. I am not sure if you saw the very last line w/ the disclosure. I always disclose whether I affiliated with a company or compensated for a post. Whitesoap did not pay for the graphic in my sidebar, but I do get paid for my work as a moderator. Hope that clears things up. This review was my own idea for trying to get the word out about this.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:06:01 +0000

I often read your blog and often find lots of very useful information. Reading this latest entry concerns me. It all seems very honest and non bias as usual but seeing an advert on the left, under your sponsors, for what your reviewing is kid of concerning for the honesty of your review.

By: cooper

cooper — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:49:29 +0000

I arrived here from nine rules and just looked at Whitesoap, it looks nice to and the content is varied – is nice for people who do not want to hear a lot of tech jabber, nice not to have to sign up as well.

Is everyone who moderates it a kid basically? It should do well with sixteen to twenty year olds who are not interested in original content, and prefer a guide to what is already out there.

By: Laurence Anderson

Laurence Anderson — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 23:37:17 +0000

Paul: Quick tidbit, Ben bought the Whitesoap.com domain from me a while ago cuz he loved the name and I wasn’t using it :).