Instructables
January 26, 2008
Am I the only person who really doesn’t care for Instructables?
I mean, the concept is good (sharing project ideas step by step), but the execution is rotten. It’s a mishmash of external ads, ads for other pages on the site, comments, hard to save / reference photos (which are often too low res), and YouTube-ish comments.
Uggh.
It’s not the best, but IMHO it’s a nice idea. There are all levels of people showing their stuff up there. I can easily ignore the comments.
I think it’s cool that it’s more of an unmoderated, blog type format, and that you get everything from how to knit to how to build your own CNC machine. It’s very enabling that anyone can do howtos on anything regardless of how “technical” it is.
I guess I never really noticed the ads. I’m running Adblock, which perhaps blocks a few of them, but everything I see is in a band on the right hand side. I’m so used to mentally blocking out ads that I didn’t even notice them until you said something here and I went to look.
I think it’s a nice idea, but way overdone… And something like a project as complex as building a CNC really needs a format for better communicating it. (That said, I think the Reprap site is a little clunky too, but at least it’s purpose is clear.)
What I was referring to with ads is intra-site links. The actual pay ads are there, but there really aren’t too many of them. I actually don’t run Adblock, particularly because my own site and photo gallery has ads on it. If you want to take a look, the ads are actually just plain text ads, similar in color to the site, inserted into what was already whitespace at the top and right of the page. If you’ve looked at my site before, that’s probably why you don’t notice them; the site looks normal without them.
Without my doing anything to promote them, and no more promotion of the site than occasional linking in discussions and whatnot, they earn enough to pay my colocation fees, which covers hosting sites for myself and a large handful of friends (25 – 30 sites, if I remember right).
I think ads are useful if done tastefully, but not when they take up most of the page or interrupt the flow of the text.
it always seemed way too cumbersome to use for me.
You’ve summed it up much better than I did. I think it tries to automate too much.
I was really excited about the concept and it is just… disappointing.
I agree about the YouTube-ishness that drives me crazy. It just could be executed in a much prettier, sleeker manner.
I had never visited the site until you mentioned it. It does have a cumbersome interface and cheesy content. I likely won’t be headed back.
Personally, I think you have the right idea with starting your own wiki.