How can BrainFuel improve?
How can BrainFuel be better? What do you come here for? Is it the community? The content? The fact that we have caption contests? Or is it something different? What should the future hold for BrainFuel?
BrainFuel
Anything is possible… with brainfuel!
© 2009 Tornado Design, LLC
I was looking back at some blogs in the web archive not too long ago to see what they were like in the beginning. Back in the days before anybody was worried about blog design or being a member of this that or the other. Back before everyone was trying to target the right keywords in order to make a dime a month from ad programs, and coming up with lame posts instead of true feelings.
Back in the day when everyone was keeping it real. Back in the day when everyone started becoming attracted to the geniuness of it. Back in the day before we started to get fat on the perceived power of our words. Back in the day when we didn’t care about whether we got 1 comment or 200, and treasured the one comment over 200 empty thoughts. Back in the day before comment spam and troll hats. Back in the day before what someone did with their blog didn’t get nearly as much “airplay” as world events. Back in the day when it was 1 man and 9 sites.
It was nice. It was real. It was refreshing.
Keep it real, man.
I read Brainfuel because I found you through 9rules, and I’ve stuck around because you’re laid back, diverse, funny, and a pleasant balance of design/web/real stuff. As Mark writes above, you really are “keeping it real,” and it’s a refreshing voice in my RSS reader. I also find myself clicking through to the site itself more often than almost any other blog because you have a wonderful core community.
I do often wonder at how Chris is choosing sites to post to the site. I also sometimes feel overwhelmed by how many are coming through the pipe towards the middle of the work week. I think, however, that both those issues would be resolved with just a bit more editorializing on his part: the text of the post is often just what the business does. I want to know (and can improve as a web designer) if he tells me what makes the site distinctive, what does and doesn’t work, and why it’s getting posted to Brainfuel. I know that’s often in there, but I want a few more substantial sentences, you know? It would take a bit longer, but I think could make for (slightly) fewer, more effective posts on site design.
That being said, I’ve been reading for several months now and really enjoy you guys. Looking through NetNewsWire, I’d really say that it’s just you and Kottke that, for me, have found that wonderful sweet spot of being real people writing on the internet while putting out content that is truly worth checking out. And man, no one has more effective link digests: I almost always follow every single one. Keep up the great work.
Add a Google search bar at the top of the site so I can use Brainfuel as my homepage.
Well, I’m not sure about the wat/how to do things differently, but you could decide to add some tutorials on web design related topics…although, you’re venturing into ALA territory,…I think Brainfuel has a uniquness because they choose NOT to do those things, yet touch’s on the principles that they examine.
Man alive, I read the first two comments and that pretty much made my day. Those were some nice words Mark and Steve. Glad you like it here. I’ll try to take your comments to heart.
Steve you totally hit the nail on the head about my poor job writing descriptions of sites. I constantly find myself making screenshots of web sites and by the time I’ve got it all posted I just want to hit the publish button. I realize that people come here for those (some exclusively) and a little more attention to them would certainly pay off.
Some times I look at sites like Unmatched Style which sold for about $12,000 the other day (or something like that) and I say to myself: BrainFuel should be more focused.
But then I say to myself. Whatever you say I could never “sell” this site. Selling a site is like selling a part of yourself. Unless from the outset you had that in mind.
I do however think that if you ever wanted to increase your resell options it really pays to have a highly focused site.
Plus I can’t imagine anybody buying a site like this. With posts about bobsledding and laser etching on the moon mixed in with web site reviews. All in one day.
Sheesh.
Well, thanks for the feedback everybody!
Chris, it’s great that you’re shopping for feedback, and I just want to quickly point out that you’ve just hit the nail on the head as to why we’re all here:
With posts about bobsledding and laser etching on the moon mixed in with web site reviews. All in one day.
That’s the best thing about you guys, and I’m glad you realize it!
My only suggestion would be to have the main poster be less handsome. I mean, it makes the rest of us look bad.