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Published on October 10th,2005 at 8:52 AM
By >Daimaou - G.G-B

A new Akiba

 Category: Misc - Tags:

Hi everybody. As you have noticed, Akiba has been re-designed, and we hope you like the new look. there are quite a lot of changes, and we listened to your wishes and desires (thanks for the emails and comments), and from all this input we distilled this new layout. It’s not easy to please everyone, but believe us that we tried to do the best for everyone. There are some bugs (like the RSS feeds, no possibility to comment on a news snippet, no links to the source, …) but it’s just a matter of time before we get rid of them. The speed isn’t there either, but we’re looking into that. so as you see, a lot of work for us, but if you have any comments or help, please don’t hesitate to contact us at akihabara.news[at]gmail.com . Thanks in advance for your help and understanding.

31 Comments
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  • Anonymous

    Do the adds and links have to take up so much room, the news is sort of way to small. It would be nice if the news was bigger so I didn’t have to click on everyone just to get enough info.

  • Anonymous

    all i can say is the new design sucks. if you want more clicks on the ads, just say so, i will give you a hand whenever i can, but if you make the news so hard to read just for sake of getting more space for the ads, sorry, i am not gonna coming here any more. so long.

  • Anonymous

    Sorry guys… The new design does really suck… If i really wanted to click on every story to seeall the information I’d read MSN! Sorry but this is now off the regular reading schedule.

  • Daimaou

    I will make it simple for you

    I can no longer run Akihabara for Free, it takes me 4-6h minimum per day to maintain the site, I need to increase the PageView and put advertisement, so you have 2 choices

    1) We close Akiba, no money no news
    2) We increase PV and put advertisment and we keep going

    Look around but all major web are doing this nowadays, sure I will increase the texte seize on the front page, and sure this web site is not the final one, we have a MAJOR flaw on speed, but if you have a better idea which will help me go ahead ! I am looking for your help

  • Anonymous

    I actually sort of like the new design. You will probably want to increase the amount of text on the main page, though…just one sentence is too short.

    But if you can’t make the site work with your current revenue stream, you’re doing a bad job managing it. Nobody here asks you to put in “4-6h minimum per day” — if you cannot afford to put so much time into the site, you shouldn’t be putting so much time into the site. Never ever put your burden, financial or otherwise, on the visitors.

    Your two options demonstrate this. You’re saying that you have to close the site unless you make more money from it, but you aren’t saying what your motivations are. Will visitors be seeing more features? Are you now putting in 4-6 hours per day, instead of 2-4 hours? You “can no longer run Akihabara for Free,” but why? You’re implying that at one point you did run Akihabara for free, and now something is making you want more money. You didn’t tell us what the “something” is.

  • Daimaou

    The something is

    1.2 Million Unique visitors per month, that generate a HUGE amount of DATA and I almost need a sever for my personal use, but since I have imitated knowledge to this matter I need to be hosted and share BW.

    I do not put my burden on the visitors did I ever complain that I hate what I am doing? Never, but it’s hurt when you try to improve things, this is NEVER an easy task to implement advertisement on a Web and to keep it as much as readable as possible.

    I do not want advert between news, I do not want advert in the body of a news, I just want advert around the news, and if people do not like advert you can use Maxthon (which is a great soft) and you will get ride of them…

    And well if I can get some money left for my personal usage, it could be nice don’t you think so?

  • Anonymous

    I want to say that I have got an immense amount of enjoyment from this site over the past year AND I know that I will continue to get a great amount of enjoyment from it. What’s more its free and acts as a one-stop shop!!!

  • Anonymous
    Akiba Team said:
    Hi everybody. As you have noticed, Akiba has been re-designed, and we hope you like the new look. there are quite a lot of changes, and we listened to your wishes and desires (thanks for the emails and comments), and from all this input we distilled this new layout. It’s not easy to please everyone, but believe us that we tried to do the best for everyone. There are some bugs (like the RSS feeds, no possibility to comment on a news snippet, no links to the source, …) but it’s just a matter of time before we get rid of them. The speed isn’t there either, but we’re looking into that. so as you see, a lot of work for us, but if you have any comments or help, please don’t hesitate to contact us at akihabara.news[at]gmail.com . Thanks in advance for your help and understanding.&lt;br&gt;
    &lt;a href=”/news/A+new+Akiba.html” target=_blank&gt;La news sur le site&lt;/a&gt;

    The New Layout is a disaster… If you wanto to increase page views put less news on the front page but put them either with full text or with a lead big enough to ‘get’ it. The main advantage of Akihabaranews was to get a glimpse of what was going on on a very short span of time. with the new layout to get the same amount of info as before one spends a lot more time… not good.

    Anyway, Congrats for your great service.

    António

  • Anonymous

    Can you at least fix it so Page 2 through whatever is actually readable? Page 1 is in English, yet anything greater than Page 1 links to French…

  • Daimaou
    Gridneo said:
    Can you at least fix it so Page 2 through whatever is actually readable? Page 1 is in English, yet anything greater than Page 1 links to French…

    Yes we will do this ASAP

    Thanks

  • Anonymous

    I really preferred the old design; big pictures on page no clickingl; very usable and simple. Made it really easy and entertaining to check out all the news.

    No other blog ever had as nice and big pictures… Now; not that good. The balance of the site is much more on the ui rather than on the actual content (where way used to be, and should be).

    For me reading akihabranews is all about inspiration and the new design makes the whole user experience very uninspiring…

  • Anonymous
    Daimaou said:
    The something is 1.2 Million Unique visitors per month, that generate a HUGE amount of DATA and I almost need a sever for my personal use, but since I have imitated knowledge to this matter I need to be hosted and share BW.

    Bandwidth?

    Bandwidth is the cheapest part of running a website, and your old layout easily generated enough advertising revenue to cover the costs. 1.2M uniques per month is 40K per day — a medium sized website.

    I can only assume there is something you’re not telling us.

    Daimaou said:
    I do not put my burden on the visitors did I ever complain that I hate what I am doing? Never, but it’s hurt when you try to improve things, this is NEVER an easy task to implement advertisement on a Web and to keep it as much as readable as possible.

    You are putting a burden on your users by changing the layout to something less user-friendly. Try reading this thread and you will see plenty of examples of people who don’t like the new layout; as far as we can tell, the only reason you did the new layout is because you will get more advertising revenue. We are the ones who are suffering now.

    I know it’s not easy to implement advertising on a website, but you haven’t reached a solution until you’ve found something that the users can tolerate. Judging by this thread, the users can’t tolerate your results so far.

    Daimaou said:
    I do not want advert between news, I do not want advert in the body of a news, I just want advert around the news, and if people do not like advert you can use Maxthon (which is a great soft) and you will get ride of them…

    Now you’re telling people to use advertisement blocking software? Didn’t you say earlier that you weren’t putting a burden on visitors?

    Sorry, but telling people to use software to block advertisements on your own site is very unprofessional. That’s like someone coming into my store, complaining about high prices, and I respond to them with “so don’t buy anything.”

    Your customers (visitors) are trying to help you out and tell you what is wrong with your store (website) — but you just ignore them and tell them to not buy anything (use adblock software).

    Daimaou said:
    And well if I can get some money left for my personal usage, it could be nice don’t you think so?

    Finally, the truth comes out. You should have just said this in the first place. There’s nothing wrong with wanting income from your website.

  • Laurent

    I’ll post this in here too, just in case..

    Overall looks great :b:

    The only thing I’m missing is the way you could see the whole stories on an instant. You could get a fast view of everything cool. Now you see only the first few lines of the story and have to click each story open individually. In terms of harmonious lay-out I understand this but its still a bit pain…

    just my 2 yen

    -Lauri

  • Anonymous

    I think the margins could be smaller thiers no point in not using them its space wasted. Also maby you could put some of the ads in between the news

    news
    news
    news
    news
    add
    news

  • Anonymous

    You may have more space for ads, but you will loose visitors as this new layout is so unattractive and unclear. I don’t think you’ve thought it thru really.
    You’r killing yourself, slowly.

  • Daimaou
    s11 said:
    You may have more space for ads, but you will loose visitors as this new layout is so unattractive and unclear. I don’t think you’ve thought it thru really.
    You’r killing yourself, slowly.

    Last week we had around 44 to 47 000 visitors per days, Since monday we are over 50 000, I do not believe that the new designed helped, but I believe that our news are appreciated, and people enjoy them and whatever the design will be, if our news are good and enjoyable, people will still come.

    But we are working in order to get you more contents on the Home (texte)

  • Anonymous

    Whatever the design will be? If this is the way to go, I think you can do much better. Ubergizmo.com can do it.

  • Anonymous

    The new design sucks.

    You want more revenue? Here’s an idea, START SELLING THE STUFF YOU WRITE ABOUT. And make it easy.

    Most people that come to this site are probably impulse buyers, and early adopters. So offer people a one-click-purchase option for all the new asian gadgets that America has to wait an extra few months for. Sure the prices will be outrageous (early adopters will pay) but only one or two sales a day will be way more than what the ad revenue brings in.

    Next, don’t stop writing about the stuff that isn’t out. Sure it seems like more work writing about gadgets that you can’t sell, but that brings people to the site, to pay for stuff that catches their eye.

    And bring back the old design, because also brings people here. Don’t listen to some overpaid web developer that wouldn’t know customer service if it fucked him and made him pregnant.

  • Daimaou

    We are working on a new function thay you will LOVE !

    We will keep the same design but, we will include a new function where you will have everything in 1 page, it will take time be patient, meanwhile… click… and musce me this lazy fat finger

  • Anonymous

    I liked the old site. The new site looks similar to http://www.14u.com. However, 14u has bigger pictures and gives you more info. on the articles.

    What I liked about the old site was that you guys had the all the pictures on one screen. Really nice big pictures!

    With the new site, the ads and the article icons on the front page are the same size, the columns between the ads and the articles look the same. There’s little difference between the two columns.

    Well, I have a 21″ LCD monitor, maybe that has something to do with it.

    I like coming to Akiha because you guys usually post pictures of things I’ll never see in the States, which other tech sites like gizmodo, engadget, etc normally don’t post. Unless it’s a referal to your site.

    Maybe if you a darker border between the ad section and the content section. Added a couple of teaser pictures to the articles, and made the article text bigger.

    Think that would help a lot.

    -Gil

  • Daimaou

    Pictures before were 500pix large, now they are at 525 large

    don’t tell me that this
    http://www.akihabaranews.com/news-10389-Copiez+vos+CD+sur+SD+sans+PC.html

    Is not big enough for you

    Now as I said… and said, and SAID, and SAID we are working on a new feature where in one click you will have everything lik in the past, it takes time but we will just be patient.

    Also we are going to increase the seize of the home page but this cannot be done in one a day

  • Anonymous

    Wow. Those are big pictures.

    Guess I’m used to the old one page format where that linked article would have been on the front page. I usually would spend a few minutes looking at the pictures, and then I would look at the description/news.

    With the new format, I take a look at the articles – first the icon and then read 1 or 2 lines of the description. If either one doesn’t look interesting, or looks like something I’ve seen I move on to another site.

    The old site layed out all these nice techy/gadget pictures on the main page. Whether you were interested in the gadget or not, it was in front of you. Guess I have something against clicking on links to get to the article…. lazy American.

    Still won’t stop me from checking out the site everyday.

  • Anonymous

    i can’t see the english version of aki only the french

    the language icon would be handy

    cheers
    and keep on good work

  • Daimaou
    flogg said:
    i can’t see the english version of aki only the french

    the language icon would be handy

    cheers
    and keep on good work

    http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/

    The Britishi flag is just below the Green Pig title next to NEWS

  • Daimaou
    Gil said:
    Wow. Those are big pictures.

    Guess I’m used to the old one page format where that linked article would have been on the front page. I usually would spend a few minutes looking at the pictures, and then I would look at the description/news.

    With the new format, I take a look at the articles – first the icon and then read 1 or 2 lines of the description. If either one doesn’t look interesting, or looks like something I’ve seen I move on to another site.

    The old site layed out all these nice techy/gadget pictures on the main page. Whether you were interested in the gadget or not, it was in front of you. Guess I have something against clicking on links to get to the article…. lazy American.

    Still won’t stop me from checking out the site everyday.

    Hehehe,

    We are working on a solution where you will have EACH day an option to have access to ALL the news of the day in 1 single page full screen… this will come soon, but you will have some advert… (between news)

  • Anonymous

    thanks

    i didnt see it due to my ad blocker

  • Anonymous
    Daimaou said:
    Gil said:
    Wow. Those are big pictures.

    Guess I’m used to the old one page format where that linked article would have been on the front page. I usually would spend a few minutes looking at the pictures, and then I would look at the description/news.

    With the new format, I take a look at the articles – first the icon and then read 1 or 2 lines of the description. If either one doesn’t look interesting, or looks like something I’ve seen I move on to another site.

    The old site layed out all these nice techy/gadget pictures on the main page. Whether you were interested in the gadget or not, it was in front of you. Guess I have something against clicking on links to get to the article…. lazy American.

    Still won’t stop me from checking out the site everyday.

    Hehehe,

    We are working on a solution where you will have EACH day an option to have access to ALL the news of the day in 1 single page full screen… this will come soon, but you will have some advert… (between news)

    I don’t mind the adverts as long as there between articles, as long as I see all the pics on one page. Thanks for listening to some constructive criticism of your site.

  • Anonymous

    How does one get back to the main news/article page from the forums? I can’t find the link. Can’t you replace the phpbb icon/link with your own icon that links to your main site?

  • Daimaou
    Gil said:
    How does one get back to the main news/article page from the forums? I can’t find the link. Can’t you replace the phpbb icon/link with your own icon that links to your main site?

    Hmmm ok we will try to make it work…. I will be at the Tokyo Motor Show for several days news will still be posted, but this will be done soon I hope

  • Anonymous

    can you sell stuff from japan to ppl in the us or does it have to fcc aproved first i know ppl sell stuff like that on ebay it seems that it does have to be fcc aproved or something or geekstuff4u wouldnt suck so much. it would be sick if we could get some of thier mp3 players over here dont really need to be able to speak japanese to operate a mp3player right? so oculd you sell phones pmps mp3 and other gadgets over here?

  • Xandrex

    Okay I’m a bit late but here I come, with my (dry as the sands of Nevada) comments.[list:ec71d52294][*:ec71d52294]the previous layout was fine, the new one seems cluttered. It’s maybe just a feeling. I guess the width of the site is a bit small (but I’ve read it will be fixed soon). Usually on a website with news, there is a main column, and one or two small ones on each side. I think the column on the right of the mainpage should be much smaller than the main one (same thing, should be fixed soon).
    [*:ec71d52294]concerning the menus : the country flags are fine. I’m not used to seeing that small flags, but it’s better that way (they don’t take too much space). Concerning the other menu : News / Tests / Forum / i-mode, there are things to say : (for the english part at least) : “test” is not very common, people rather use “review”. “forum” can’t be understood by a non-european user. i-mode : watch out, it’s very different from WAP. i-Mode is only for Docomo and Bouygues subscribers ain’t it ?
    [*:ec71d52294]I like the small boxes each containing a part of the webpage.
    [*:ec71d52294]I think you could use more HTML tooltips.
    [*:ec71d52294]the “menu” window : IMHO the title could be changed to something else.
    [*:ec71d52294]you should validate your site with W3C’s validators : XHTML &amp; CSS.
    [*:ec71d52294]in the footer : some links do not work yet. The copyright thing : there is the “registered trademark” character, I guess you meant the “copyright” one ?
    [*:ec71d52294]apart from that, I don’t really care about the layout, the most important thing for me is to continue reading excellent news about excellent (or not) products. I guess that is not going to change, so thumbs up to all Akihabara News team. Anyway, I read them through the newsgroup, and very rarely from the website.[/list:u:ec71d52294]

 

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