Friday, January 30, 2015

Come on, SFGate, get it together

SFGate is the San Francisco Chronicle's presence on the World Wide Web.  The San Francisco Chronicle is an august daily newspaper that has been publishing for over a thousand years and actually has some great people on staff and still does some good journalism.

Why, then, does SFGate look like it was made by a Desoxyn-addled 13-year-old?


Oh my God, calm down.  There is shit EVERYWHERE.  Where is the fucking NEWS?  It's a news site, right?  Oh, there's a little box with "Latest News."  And I guess the Wise Sons Deli thing is news - but why is there a picture of Popeye's? (I actually know the answer, but will people who don't frequent the Mission know?)  What the hell does this Mill Valley 2-bdrm have to do with anything?

[LET ME INTERJECT with a little non-SFGate-related side note.  As my associate Olu pointed out yesterday, isn't it odd how little people have been talking about the Popeye's getting destroyed?  Especially given Popeye's cult status among certain internetati?  And back to SFGate, isn't it so fucking typical that even though Popeye's is in the fucking picture, and Popeye's, a place where most people can actually afford to eat, was also destroyed, the story is about $14 sandwich place Wise Sons? I mean, it's too bad about what happened to Wise Sons, and I wish them nothing but a speedy recovery, but it's just interesting is all.]

BUT WAIT IT GETS WORSE.


Just rando shit everywhere.  Here's a Buzzfeed list of the 25 Best Cities for Football Fans, complete with a satanic cheerleader!  Here's some party recipes!  Here's Home Tours!  How about Social Scene!  Wait, bond money missing?  That seems like Actual News!  Why is it buried in here with lifestyle crap?

Here's another screenshot from a week or so ago:


See what I'm talking about?  Zero fucking organization.  Just throw shit at the screen randomly and CLICK CLICK CLICK WE HOPE!!!! King of Saudi Arabia died! Curry to All Star Game! Some footbridge something or other!  ZOOOOOM MORE COFFEE!!!!!!

I'm sure there's some 26-year-old who's behind all this and knows about Monetizing Eyeballs and Click Ratios and shit like that.  But on behalf of the rest of the population of fucking Earth, SFGate, I am begging you, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER.  At least in the old layout I knew what the fuck I was looking at.

3 comments:

GG said...

Just a little alternate perspective on Popeye's: It's the place that we stop at every year before Hardly Strictly to get a shitload of picnic food and then bike it over to GG Park and eat buttermilk biscuits all day long (and, for the meat-eaters, multiple boxes of fried chicken). It is an important part of our tradition and my friends and I were so focused on it yesterday that I was like, "Hey we can probably get fried chicken from somewhere else so we're jerks for even having this conversation because, you know, SOMEONE DIED and a lot of people lost their homes."

So, Popeye's, RIP. I CARE, TK.

Also, RIP to the actual news organization that the Chronicle used to be.

TK said...

I get where you're coming from, but I don't necessarily think we have to forego talking about anything else in the building because someone lost his life. It's tragic, and I've already made a donation to the Gofundme, but there are a lot of stories in that building. Including Popeye's. I hope that doesn't make me an asshole.

Rachel said...

Ugh yes! I can't find anything on SFGate anymore. I used to actually get news from it before... Not anymore! This was funny. You can always get a laugh out of me...