10 Reasons I Don’t Like Smashing Magazine

1st March 2009

Ok, so the title may be smothered in irony, but I just couldn’t help myself!

Smashing Magazine seems to have thrown itself into the limelight as design and development’s ‘must-read’ web magazine. But, it’s time for a change, because it really could do better.

Before you jump right to the bottom and call me a heathen for not liking smashing magazine, read the rest of this post.

The first thing that really annoys me about Smashing Magazine is illustrated in the title of this blog post. Almost all of their articles are in list format. There’s nothing wrong with that, I’ve written posts in list format. It’s a simple and effective way to communicate. But does almost EVERY article have to begin:

10 Awesome Examples…..
15 Ways To…
20 Reasons…
10 Great Wordpress…

I’m already bored of the article before I begin reading it. There’s another, quite practical reason these titles are annoying. You can never remember if you’ve already read the article. Because the titles are so similar, it’s difficult to scan-read and remember where you last were during your last visit.
Very annoying.

There is also a dearth of truly ‘original’, high-quality content at Smashing Magazine. Almost every article is a ‘Google, copy, paste’ job. Whilst I do agree that this can be quite time-consuming, there’s nothing that can replace the quality of brilliant original intellectual content. It’s one of the reasons I spend my sunday afternoon reading the ‘Observer’ (The Guardian). Sometimes we don’t want the straight and boring BBC account of the news, we long for both objective reporting, and a selection of opinion columns.

So why should the web development industry be any different?

We already have services like digg, stumbleupon, twitter, delicious etc for finding content. What I think we need is more of a magazine, and less of a link-database.

Web developers aren’t fickle consumers who are simply interested in crap-loads of free stuff. We’re usually self-taught intellectuals who appreciate fine debate, opinion, comment, and thought. With the status smashing magazine has right now, they could really benefit from such content. – Stop treating us like idiots, and give us some more substance!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that there are some fantastic articles over at Smashing Magazine, but recently the site is getting worse and worse.

Please Smashing Magazine, bring back the old ways! Release some more substantial content, and maybe your comments content will no longer be: ‘cool’, ‘wow’, ’sexy’, ‘beautiful’, and ‘thanks’… But instead filled with the debate of some of the brightest and dimmest minds from around the world.
When you do that once more, I will again subscribe to your RSS feed. I will read every new article, I will tell my friends, family, my dog (CSS Guru). But until then, I’m saying goodbye for a while.

Feel free to tell me I’m wrong. But that’s the idea of opinion, right?

Edit: I know there are not 10 reasons why I don’t like smashing magazine. I just wanted some irony in the title.

My Pocket Guide To Blogging

Yorick Peterse

I can haz youtube ?

Anyways, I agree. A lot of blogs that are related to inspiration (or whatever they're doing) tend to use the list-way of blogging. "10 Awesome....", "Amazing....". Instead of articles that actually matter.

Jestep

Couldn't be better defined. Smashing has become a gross regurgitation of others' hard work, culminating in a directory of top ten (whatever's) at best. As if they aren't making enough money on the massive amount of advertising, recently they went so far as to remove author comment links.

It's blatantly apparent that their only purpose is to make money. Not that that's inherently evil or anything, but the never ending obsession that people have with the site is simply ridiculous.

A Portly Fellow

I would like to disagree with you completely in the most polite fashion possible. I don't think one of your points was actually valid, most of which being little nit picky points that made you sound like a whiny pseudo intellectual that typed this blog post at Starbucks.

You're missing the big picture of the website. The fact that it gives you an intro to a holistic design concept (IE dynamic lighting in webdesign), breaks down the concept further and then presents a barrage of anywhere from 30 to 99 examples is as simple and to the point as possible. When I'm starting a new page design that's all I want, a couple of pages with a shitload of content that increase the chances of inspiration before I dive into my project.

If you don't like because it doesn't talk about authoring jQuery scripts upside down with the keyboard tied behind your back with one eye closed, then find something else. For the surfs of wed-design town I think it's a damn good website to inspire us common folk to keep at it and remain innovative.

David

At first I wasn't sure if I would share your sentiment, but after reading your post here I definitely agree with your thoughts on how it seems they are (or have been) changing. That isn't to say we should completely write them off, but it seems they certainly are given a lot more credit than they deserve.

Justin

It would make more sense for them to instead of posting these articles in a blog fashion.. perhaps just a library? I can't stand looking through one of those lists and realizing "I've just seen about half of these on someone else's aggregate post.."

George Campos

I like Smashing Magazine. The site is a big resource tips, design, icons, tutorials... But today my comment has banned or moderated, because I send comment answer if the post http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/24/desi... is a coincidence whit this http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mega-dropdown-men...
love coincidence :)

Mahbub

Looks like you're mostly annoyed with the titles and the pattern of the articles. But you know what, however they are collecting those so called cool, awesome, beautiful, original bla blah, they are in fact giving users quality tools and resources within a nutshell. Just think about the collection of AJAX scripts they came up with, and the PSD tutorials, all are very resourceful. I agree that the titles could become more appealing for our reading and to remember. SM is a huge quality resource hub. Before seeing their Photoshop effects i never got interested to learn photoshop and play with brushes. I realized some of the possibilities. And it all came in a nutshell from SM.

Vitaly Friedman

We are listening to you, Elliot. Point taken.

marcus neto

Interesting but I never thought of the "Magazine" aspect to SM. I think of it as a resource that I can go to to download icons and get ideas for the latest grunge designs. If I want actual thinking content then I head on over to NetTuts or SixRevisions. They seem to have actual articles that show you how to do something.

Michael

Elliot, I have to agree with the points you have made, but I think that Smashing Magazine as a "link database" might still have a place. I already suffer from a tragic case of information overload but with the ability to J-J-J-J through posts in google reader, I can take the site for what it is. While I might take the time to read your posts, I often find myself tagging a post on Smashing to del.icio.us as "resource icons" etc.

That being said, there really isn't a good reason that they can't do both -- as you mentioned, it's not like the lists they have require no time to assemble. Posts in the past have shown us that they have the intelligence and ability to write. So in the end, I think I'm on board with you. I'd rather have the a mix of lists, links and written content -- but if I'd rather have just the lists than nothing at all.

Casey

Smashing Magazine serves as a good tool to quickly find free stuff (icons, templates, fonts, etc.) and to view work other people have done (I like Smashing better than CSSMania for example). Maybe it shouldn't be called a "magazine" though, because the word magazine does imply original content. But, then, what do you call an ADD-driven, list crazy collection resource collections?

www.Alistapart.com is where I go to find thoughtful, provocative, and informative articles about web development.

Chris

Elliot, you bring up some good points. I subscribe to the Smashing RSS feed but rarely find anything worth reading. Seems like I always come across posts full of photography and free icon sets. Yeah, they are nice but I don't get anything out of them. I would prefer some more substance and technical articles.

I'm starting to think that Smashing is strictly a resource for designers and no so much for developers/programmers.

Elliot Haughin