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Re: My.Netscape.com Problems
30.04.2001
My.Netscape.com is pants.
Really.
Why, you ask?
Because.
Not only, despite the best efforts of a whole lot of geeks (I can imagine the server admins and programmers in house reading this last bit, nodding vehemently, which they do at frightening intervals) to keep Netscape alive while their product didn't innovate a whole hell of a lot, to be honest, (have they ever gotten off their backs having been put down there by, God help us, Microsoft in 1997 or so) Netscape have also ruined now what was the best thing about them remaining (I'm reminded of Netscape Enterprise Web Server being a nice enough product by one of our admins, though I'm also aware it's now iPlanet Enterprise Server and it's a part of the Sun/Netscape/AOL thing, so I would have to say it doesn't count. Ha, not completely technically incompetent, am I?). My.Netscape.com.
Which is the thing that allowed you to pick from a wide variety of information sources so wildly disparate, from Sane Magazine to Supertart, and did the checking for headlines and new stories for you on reasonable intervals, all based on a lovely XML-based file format called RSS.
All of which is fine and good. Netscape allows anyone, really, to submit content for people to add to their My Netscape page, and we get cheap and easy distribution. Cool. However, we found out about My Netscape being "re-done" from one of our writers (Yes, it was Will, and yes, he possibly needs to get out more...) on Thursday (26.04.01), and not from the fine folks at Netscape. Who have our email address, and the email address of every contributor to their pool of content. We know, they've sent us emails. Lots. Damnit, they have my address. I get lots of mail from them, as well.
"What a load of wankers," you're no doubt saying to yourself, or perhaps others in the internet cafe, or maybe your spouse/live-in lover Gil, "What a bunch of complete idiots."
So Netscape is pants.
For a replacement, you can try News Is Free or My.Userland.com (though, to be honest, it's my opinion that the layout on Dave Winer's Userland isn't all that fab and I can never find my content, but that's all right, I guess). Or you can roll your own, using Q.I. Productions' fine RSS and Sane Magazine Horoscopes Parser. For a demo or to get on our beta-testers list, mail software@sanemagazine.com. (The final release 1.0 is scheduled for the end of May.)
And for a browser, for those of you not brave enough to try the Mozilla crew's efforts (had to throw that one in to keep our programmers happy), you might like to take a look at the Omnigroup's slick browser for Openstep on through to Mac OS X, OmniWeb, as this site (and probably others, as well) don't look too shabby in Omniweb a'tall.
Ah, bless the social contract.
Love and Kisses,
The Head Editor.
disclaimer:
We've kept our link on the side panel of the main issue, as we feel the amount of feedback the yobs at Netscape have gotten (negative, really, I can't imagine anyone thinking them removing content whilst adding the ability to drag boxes around the screen (the same boxes formerly populated by content like Sane Magazine's and Supertart's) they'll be restoring service at some point. We'll wait it out a week or two, at any rate.
Also note, there are external links on this page. The sites they link to may contain pornographic material. Not as far as we could see, and we were looking, but there you have it, you might find differently. Ah, and nor have we been paid for any of the preceding links. Honest. Not one penny.
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