Kotaku, a question [ December 10th, 2008 ] Posted in » PC
Is it me, or has anyone else noticed that the number of posts on Kotaku’s pages seem to be decreasing at an alarming rate. I’ve noticed this pattern over the last couple of weeks. But before I said anything, and potentially looked like an idiot (or is that more of an idiot?) I wanted to make sure. And now I am.
Kotaku, as with all Gawker Network, sites use “more” button you have to click to read the rest of the article. Can we all just agree this is a stupid idea? The main reason for having a design like that is to track what articles are “viewed”. It certainly doesn’t help the reader any by having to click a link 1 paragraph into a story. Especially when Kotaku stories are very short to begin with.
Gawker Network recently announced it was cutting back staff, despite making a profit. They sited “troubling economic times” as the reason. So who did they cut? They cut employees from The Consummerist - a website devoted to helping people with financial issues. So their most (socially) important website they cut when it’s “needed” most.
And that’s exactly what worries me - Kotaku, and the rest of the Gawker Network, are making a lot of “bottom line” decisions instead of thinking of the consumer. I think companies should be allowed to do whatever they want in order to make money. But as a consumer, and as one of their customers, I don’t like the direction they are going. I’ve left websites (Eurogamer) and stores (I’m looking at you Circuit City) because of poor value/customer experience. Kotaku is no different. I find myself going there less and less, and I don’t even bother to check out Gizmodo anymore (for the same reasons as listed above).
Kotaku, while a little heavy on the nerd snark at times has always had valuable news. But if I have to click additional links to read something, and sift through more advertisements with less content, then I’ll just find another place to read about games.
I suspect any day now they’ll just have one post, and it will be a link to an advertiser.
