Discussion on:

Five handy network apps for your portable toolkit

I do not know what the fascination people on the Internet have with using slideshows like this in place of actually writing an informative article to convey some useful information. The screenshots really add very little to the information and only serve to slow the whole process down.

Instead of an article that can be read in less than a minute, I get to spend 5+ minutes clicking through useless screenshots of useless information just so I can read the one paragraph blurb at the bottom that will actually tell me something about the application you are advocating.

The only possible explanation I see for using these slideshows is to force your reader to click and refresh the page numerous times to drive advertising. Again, extremely annoying, and I will not participate in this blatant attempt to drive revenues through annoying your readership.

... you'd see there's text that says "NOTE: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog." And you could just click the link for reading as a blog... gosh forbid you were 100% pleased.

How did you miss that?

I appreciate that TR gives the blog option, instead of having to view the slides. I believe it is one of the few sites to do so.

And as such, most users won't notice it unless they're sufficiently interested and determined to look for it. If they're already put off by the format initially presented to them, they're unlikely to go looking for it.

Attempt to read the descriptions. The link to the blog is almost always part of the description of the first slide. In this case, the link is between the title and the description. I don't see how that can be described as "below the fold",

Did you even read it, or did you just start complaining?
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-must-have-portable-networking-tools/1530?tag=content;siu-container

I actually opened one of the slideshows at lunch one day without knowing I had another TR peer looking over my shoulder. He asked what it was, then started to say something about hating the slide shows when the page changed to the corresponding blog. When he asked how I had done that, I told him and he admitted he had never noticed the link.

Failure to pay attention happens all the time; we're all guilty of it at one time or another. And naturally, if we see something that sets us off, we never see anything other than that, no matter how obvious it may be.

You have no idea how much I want to reach for the Delete Account Button when I see complaints like this.

The only post so far in relation to the Blog Post on this Article isn't even linked to the Blog but was started in the Discussion Forum totally unrelated.

Of course I do think that their complaint about not including Windows in the Title is quite valid but these really make me want to throw up and start Deleting User Accounts.

http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-394659

Col

First, yes, when the complaint is nothing more than "I HATE SLIDESHOWS," it is easy to stop there and conclude the user has not bothered to hit the blog link. I can see that. Admittedly, it took more than a few instant-close responses on my part before I stumbled over the link to the alternate article format. These days, my first reaction is to hunt for that link. If the link is absent (still happens sometimes), I still close and move on - maybe after giving a + vote to one of the criticisms of the format just for weight. Let me come back to that in a second.

Despite the fact that I am grateful for the link to the alternative format, I have a couple of observations to make about the split article option (besides the fact that people miss the link) that still count against it. 1. The link pops to a new tab/window (personal opinion is that this is wasteful unless jumping to a new site) and then 2. the comment section on the blog option is not tied to the original; you have two threads. Granted, the original thread is nearly always filled with "I hate slideshows" arguments and doesn't really support the content of the original article. I would, however, prefer that both articles tie to the same discussion (if that is even possible).

Back to my opinion on the format, itself. Yes, I'm on the other side of that fence and that's just my feeling on the format. I have never authored a slideshow and can't speak for why an author chooses that format over the other. But, there is some value to the fact that the slideshow is consistent in drumming up negative responses. I rarely hear praise for the multi-click format in these discussions. If changing the slide didn't reload the entire page (I agree this seems like "click bait"), the complaints might drop, but there'd still be opposition. I compare the dislike for this format to the same reason why we dislike other articles that have a second page with two closing sentences as its only content. Readers are smart enough to understand that ad revenue is important to the continuing success of the site; we get that. We don't like to feel "tricked" into providing an extra dose of traffic for piecemeal content. It seems... dirty.

If I may offer a suggestion, the option to view one format over another should show up side-by-side in the email notifications. Let a user see there's an option and jump straight to the blog format they prefer and they'll likely jump in, read the content, and maybe provide useful feedback in the discussion. There will always, of course, be critics, but it would be nice to see the dialog filled with something other than debate over formatting. What do you say? "View Slideshow" living next to "View Blog format" in our email alert - not too difficult.

And now, to contribute to the discussion regarding the article:
Thank you, Jack, for gathering some data on useful tools for our ninja pouch. I am always glad to learn a better way to get the job done and often share these with my coworkers. I must agree with the comment that the ConnectionMonitoring tool is less useful than the others, but I do like the rest of this list. I think the Sysinternals TCPview trumps the netstat-ish ConnectionMonitoring and renders it superfluous.

Here now, we can't have that!

All joking aside, I agree with you on the slide shows. I much prefer to see images in line with text and usually avoid the slide shows because of that.

On your suggestion to have the blog and slide show link to the same discussion, I don't know if the forum software will allow two different articles to call one discussion thread, but I could be wrong. I do like your idea of the side-by-side links for the slide show and blog in the email announcements. I've passed the link to your post on up the chain so the PTB can consider your suggestions.

If you would pay attention, there is a link at the bottom of the first screen shot that takes you directly to the blog .... JEEZ people like you ANNOY me! The blog link looks like this below ....
Introduction
NOTE: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-must-have-portable-networking-tools/1530?tag=content;siu-container

Tech Republic is getting less and less usable and more add rich which as far a I am concerned worthless.

Tech Republic is getting less and less usable

You are complaining about what has always been and completely dismissing the ability to view as a Blog as well as a Slide Show. Long before there where Blog Posts on TR there where Slide Shows and TR has kept them as many want them.

Although I suppose you are really complaining that TR has introduced the Blog Posts as well which is what you are implying is making TR less usable and More Add Rich which as far as I'm concerned is just stupid.

Col

I dont know what happened to TR. They seem to be getting held by technology so much that they are too lazy to write up a nice article?. You are supposed to embrace technology in an interesting way so your readers keep coming back for more. I do not see that happening. I stopped reading TR annoying articles for a long time now. I still get emails about them, thus, this is why I'm here reading replying and, it will be my last post. Either hire better people to write your articles or find another niche.
And Yes, the slideshow is annoying.

Worst is their recommendations are full of adware!

Making this article into a slideshow makes about as much sense as putting oatmeal in a squeeze bottle

It is a pain. Too many sites think it's coool, but a regular column is a lot easir and faster for readers. Save the slide shows for powerpoint presentations

Very nice, clicking on the link for ConnectionMonitoring, Mcafee SiteAdvisor display a pretty big Red X with the word.... When we visited this site, we found it exhibited one or more risky behaviors.

I understand some tools can be falsely detected for their behavior but a whole website.

The slideshows (if that is what they are) are just a pain and so s-l-o-w so I opt for the view as a blog option, which takes a fraction of the time to read. TR is becoming like the trend for flash intros on websites and those sites that you look for information on that has it hidden somewhere amongst the adverts for crapware and toolbars. Tedious.

Come on TR. Isn't a republic for the people, by the people of the people? Shape-up or you will loose the people.

Click "View in Blog" Duh!! Saves you those precious 4 minutes...

I logged on just to comment that there seemed to be no direct delivery of the content from the email link. And a few IE object errors.