Um, yeah... because breaking stories like The iPhone 4 happen everyday?
I would think it better to have that splash section available, but hidden until a huge story like the iPhone 4 comes along. (That's what the old MSNBC website used to do anyway- having a special CSS styling for major news stories that might break... and the latest iteration might still do that for all I know.)
Maybe this format really will be better- but until it's executed, I just don't see it working.
The phrase "widescreen imagery and run in full" would make me a little hesitant to visit such a site. I'm not entirely sure what have in mind specifically, but resizing a user's browser is a capital offense as far as I'm concerned.
I tried out http://beta.lifehacker.com/ after Slate wrote about this a few weeks ago, and I have to say I don't like the format. When I read Gawker sites, I skim the stories and open the ones that look interesting in a background tab, and then when I've reached the place I was at last visit, I close the index page and start reading the posts. This doesn't work in the new format; you can only open one post at a time. Maybe I'm just a weirdo but I don't like that.
http://www.publicola.net/
I would think it better to have that splash section available, but hidden until a huge story like the iPhone 4 comes along. (That's what the old MSNBC website used to do anyway- having a special CSS styling for major news stories that might break... and the latest iteration might still do that for all I know.)
Maybe this format really will be better- but until it's executed, I just don't see it working.
*until the next revolutionary idea takes over in, oh... about 12 minutes.