9rules - The best content from the independent web.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I love new site launches up until the day we are going to launch. Why? Because when you are working on something it always seems like the greatest idea in the world and if you must be this excited about it, how can everyone else not be as excited as you? When we launched the new 9rules (codename: Phoenix), I sat back and waited to read what people were saying. Surprisingly nothing overly negative was said (publicly) and all feedback given was highly constructive and useful.

So either we have gotten to the point of obscurity where no one cares about what we do or we are actually heading down the right path with this release. I’m sure you can guess which way we like to think. I’ve collected a few of the opinions that the public shared on their own websites (showing some link love) last week and wanted to highlight them here. I purposefully left out Member feedback because I’m sure many people would think that they are supposed to say nice things to us, which trust me, if you read the forums isn’t always the case .

The New 9rules is genius. Smartest thing they ever did. Video Post coming next week from me about why I think this is so freaking genius.

David Krug

If you know my history with Mr. Krug at all you can understand why this comment does nothing but provide a huge grin across my face.

Empowerment is a wonderful gift. In the right hands it can have a massive impact. In the wrong it can be dreadful. Instead visit 9rules to see some of the better blogs available for your consumption and see what empowerment really can deliver.

Ian D.

This wasn’t necessarily due to Phoenix launching, but I included it due to the impact it had on me. It shows the the main purpose of 9rules from day one is being served. We always had every intention in helping any and all sites that deserved to get attention, get it.

Perennial redesigners 9rules have done it again. Gone are the Web 2.0ey light blues and yellows that were SO 2nd half of ’05/1st half of ’06, replaced by a dark green and grey look that’s part-Starbucks, part afterhours VIP-lounge, and all sexy.

Kyle Bunch

9rules secret: Mike Rundle is a very fickle designer. He gets tired of his designs very quickly and when discussing the design direction of 9rules I knew what I wanted, but never told Mike and then he showed me the comps for this design and it matched perfectly with what I was thinking. We didn’t want Web 2.0 branding, because we don’t plan on being associated with an era of the Web. We plan to be around beyond that era and therefore we want our own identity.

This version of 9rules have more features but readability of the page content didn’t suffer – it increased and now it is easy to find something and easy to navigate through the page.

Maris

Nothing really to say here besides that we did our job then.

I think that this update is not revolutionary; I still think that we might see some surprises down the road. However, I do think that 9rules is on the right track because connecting the blogger and the reader is a good thing. More exposure is given to the communities, and it’s easier for the user to navigate the sight. I like what the 9rules team have done, I really do.

Pierre Lourens

If you read my comments on Pierre’s site you will see I share his sentiment about nothing that we added was revolutionary. In today’s web, how often do you come across something that is revolutionary? Instead, we take ideas that fit our model and remix them into our own style.

Overall, this change has been good, although the main focus should still be on the content, and is. 9Rules will keep on dishing out the best bloggers content on the Web.

Robert Day

Straight up son.

I am a big fan of 9rules and I was a huge fan of their original release. Now? meh… The new page is broken down into 6 main areas, all of which correspond to features requested by either members or readers.

Anthony Deloso

Now of all the public feedback that we received, this piece by Anthony was the breath of fresh air I was looking for. Anytime you do something, you want someone to disagree with what you put out because it helps to add balance to your perspective. We are always knee deep in 9rules so it can be difficult to understand how others see us and Anthony definitely provided his viewpoints on what 9rules should be. Make sure to read my comments on his site to get an idea of why we did what we did.

To everyone else that either left comments on our site, our Notes section or on another site we thank you. We have received a lot of feedback on how to make things even better and that’s our task for the next couple of weeks along with a couple more new releases coming out the door.