New Site Launch: MacBytes.com

[MacRumors]

MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com) has launched today.

MacBytes.com is a news and headline site which provides links to interesting news articles and other notable topics for Macintosh enthusiasts. User commentary and discussion for individual articles will be provided by MacRumors' forums (http://forums.macrumors.com) -- in a familiar format to current MacRumors readers.

Readers are encouraged to visit MacBytes (http://www.macbytes.com) and to submit links (http://www.macbytes.com/submit.php) they feel are of interest to other readers. The registration system on the new site uses the MacRumors' Forum database -- so forum users need not register again.

MacBytes' focus will be on non-rumor content, and should be an excellent companion site to MacRumors.com.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by Macrumors
MacBytes' focus will be on non-rumor content, and should be an excellent companion site to MacRumors.com.

I love being able to go right there and see all the new news - then click a link and go comment on it and see all of the same topics. Great organization and Nice job arn! :D

D

[MacManDan]

After taking a quick, preliminary look through the MacBytes site, I would definately give it a thumbs up. I really like the ability to use my current MacRumors membership to access the boards, and the centralized display of news, reviews, and other links is a great and welcome idea. Kudos to a great new site launch!

[Flowbee]

Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
I love being able to go right there and see all the new news - then click a link and go comment on it and see all of the same topics. Great organization and Nice job arn! :D

D

So does Arn run both sites? If so, when does he sleep?

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by Flowbee
So does Arn run both sites? If so, when does he sleep?

He does......and you'd have to wonder about when he does sleep, eh? :D

[Foxer]

Very cool. Now I have to find a link to post.

[GroundLoop]

I definitely like the organization of the MacBytes site. Easy to follow, minimalistic, and full of information. Yet another Mac site that I need to frequent.

Hickman

[Veldek]

The riddle is solved! What was yet to be announced now is.

[digital1]

I like the nice layout. Pretty decent site content and fast loading. I have added to my list of mac sites. :)

[maradong]

cool
a greater community means eventually more rumors ;-)
therefore i hope a better job.

[bennetsaysargh]

i like it. it's cool. helpful. i'll frequent it a lot:-D
good job arn.

get some sleep! lol:p

[Jerry Spoon]

Very cool site Arn. Now I've got two Mac sites to visit every morning.

[jelloshotsrule]

looks pretty sweet.


2 big websites and doing your residency at once??? hmm...

no wonder you haven't gotten around to getting a new contributor item yet... hah

[aaronvegh]

Lookin' good, Arn.

Is there an RSS feed for this site? Seems like the perfect thing to have, so I'm just guessing it's not visible on the home page.

Cheers!
Aaron.

[Mr. Anderson]

What I want to know is who would rate this as negative?!?

If you did, I'd like to hear why......

D

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
What I want to know is who would rate this as negative?!?

If you did, I'd like to hear why...... so we can ban you!

this is pretty cool arn. a fun logo, too. who made it?

[Goekeli]

Dude! Nice! I like the setup. Kind of maccentralish but modern. Good job Arn!

Joe

[eyelikeart]

I'll most definitely be checking it daily for news & such.

Glad to see it's running nicely. :D

[Mudbug]

looks a lot like www.fark.com or similar sites - might I suggest a "totalMacBytes" type of front page for DemiGods/Contributors who can see all submissions unedited and earlier, while the rest of the site gets content filtered down?

[evil]

good stuff.
the sites nice.

[pretentious]

Looks pretty slick, I'll put it on my daily list of sites I go to.
But which should I go to first now??

Loads quickly and has good navigation, just what I've been wishing for, a well made Mac news link site, MacSurfer and Macnewz can eat their heart out.

Arn, are you going to integrate the forums more deeply onto MacBytes? Like with what you did on the right-hand side of MR, w/ all the links to the recent discussions. I think that would be great.

[Mudbug]

and hey - since we're a community of relatively creative people - we should do photoshop contest with a provided source pic for us all to choose from. Just 1 a day would be enough, and have voting enabled on them. No prizes - just for fun.

Please?

[arn]

Originally posted by Mudbug
and hey - since we're a community of relatively creative people - we should do photoshop contest with a provided source pic for us all to choose from. Just 1 a day would be enough, and have voting enabled on them. No prizes - just for fun.

Please?

I think having the new site opens up these sort things.

I've tried to keep macrumors itself focused on -- well - Mac Rumors. That's why people are here.

On the flip side, though - there are a lot of creative people... and there are also people with a lot of experience/knowledge.

I had also thought that a 'Ask MacRumors' sort of thing might be useful -- but didn't want to dilude the site. I think MacBytes will go farther with that.

arn

[rjstanford]

How would people feel if the macbytes site didn't do "open in new window" everywhere? This is, to me, one of the more frustrating defaults -- especially since its a lot easier and more natural to hit "back" than it is to go and close off a window, especially when reading several linked articles in a row. After all, its not like MR where links are just adjunct to the main discussion board -- links are what the new site does!

Or is it just me?

[arn]

Originally posted by rjstanford
How would people feel if the macbytes site didn't do "open in new window" everywhere? This is, to me, one of the more frustrating defaults -- especially since its a lot easier and more natural to hit "back" than it is to go and close off a window, especially when reading several linked articles in a row. After all, its not like MR where links are just adjunct to the main discussion board -- links are what the new site does!

Or is it just me?

nah... you're right. Sorry. I reverted back to non-new-window spawnage.

arn

[redAPPLE]

Originally posted by Mr. Anderson
What I want to know is who would rate this as negative?!?

If you did, I'd like to hear why......

D

uh... i would not say its bad... so would i get the same news and rumors i crave in macbytes?

i heard one can post there too... so... why should i still come here, esp. if i get the same news and stuff there?

i guess some of us do not have enough time to scroll thru 2 sites...

nevertheless, i like the site... the fonts seem too small, although that's maybe because i am used to the macrumors large fonts. :p

will macrumors someday eventually evolve to macbytes.com?

[Jesus on OSX]

Yep. Just like fark, only with less funny headlines.

Good job

[MacFan25]

I think it look great. I've added it to my list of sites that I go to everyday. ;)

Great job! :D

[arn]

Originally posted by redAPPLE
uh... i would not say its bad... so would i get the same news and rumors i crave in macbytes?

MacRumors => Mac Rumors and News related to Apple's/Industry health,future.

MacBytes => No Rumors. But pretty much everything else.

They are very much sister sites.. and compliement each other.

arn

[jacka55]

Originally posted by arn
MacBytes => No Rumors. But pretty much everything else.

...except for those stories that are in the "Rumors" category. :D

[arn]

Originally posted by jacka55
...except for those stories that are in the "Rumors" category. :D

er... that was during testing... :)

arn

[medea]

hey I'm glad to see you branching out and I'll definitely make my way to the forums there, but honestly I think it could be easier to read, maybe a slightly larger black font instead of blue or perhaps a slightly darker shade in the background than pure white, like a very light gray or cream even.....just my 2 cents. Thanks for putting so much work into the Mac community arn.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by medea
I'll definitely make my way to the forums there,

The forums are hosted on MacRumors, same as MacPolls. So all you're getting is a link and catagorizing of the news bits associated with Macdom :D

Its a great way to see what's happening and if you click the number in parens at the end of the title it takes to you the discussions thread here in the news forum.

D

[clonenode]

Am I missing the easy way to jump back to the main MacBytes page after I've posted a comment?

[arn]

Originally posted by clonenode
Am I missing the easy way to jump back to the main MacBytes page after I've posted a comment?

In the default theme, there is both a MacRumors and MacBytes link at the top of each page (in the parens).

I'll work on a better way. Maybe links at the bottom.

arn

[arn]

Originally posted by clonenode
Am I missing the easy way to jump back to the main MacBytes page after I've posted a comment?

I've added MacRumors and MacBytes links to the bottom of each thread.

arn

[Longey Nowze]

great job looks nice! hopefully we'll be bigger than slashdot! well... apple.slashdot.org :) great job!

Thank you
MaT

[Steradian]

this is truely Great Arn. looks fantastic, I can't wait to see what you cook up next :D

For he's a jolly Good Fellow

[suneun]

Hey. I think it would be nicer to have the different news headlines separated by category. At least it would be nice to be able to choose that style view.

The column on the right with the different categories seems a little large compared to the actual Important Information on the page. I'd try to cut down on some of the border on it, and make it level with the first date/headlines instead of starting where the Title is.

Maybe icons for the Categories that lead the headlines would be faster to mentally process. But I'd prefer separate columns.

I'm amused you keep thinking up new things to do. I really like the idea of creative play contests every day or every week. I'm sure you could get different online companies like thinkgeek to sponsor a contest once in a while. But wasn't there something complicated with offering prizes when it's not randomly chosen?

-clara

[Java]

Looks good to me.

<offTopic>
Anyone going to the Walnut Creek grand opening this weekend in California?
</offTopic>

[diamondlte]

Originally posted by aaronvegh
Lookin' good, Arn.

Is there an RSS feed for this site? Seems like the perfect thing to have, so I'm just guessing it's not visible on the home page.

Cheers!
Aaron. I'll second the request...and if he has it up, it isn't the obvious /macbytes.xml...:D

[topicolo]

No offense Arn, but Mac Bytes? There could've been better names. Windowsbites.com anyone?

[themadchemist]

Excellent site, arn. Great layout, great content.

[themadchemist]

Originally posted by topicolo
No offense Arn, but Mac Bytes? There could've been better names. Windowsbites.com anyone?

sounds too much like the hate sites. they are fun, but I always get the feeling that they are more about Windows than Macintosh. Macrumors, Macbytes, feel more about the mac community and our interest in macs as opposed to our hatred of pcs...despite the fact that we DO hate PCs a great deal.