GrodsCorp

The Vine not very Kwerky at all

Tuesday 22 April 2008, 2:50 pm

The Editor

Categories: Corporate stupidity, The Age

Tags: Farfax, TheVine

Remember Fairfax’s plans for a totally gnarly website (codenamed Kwerky) aimed at “free-spending hedonists desperate to have their say”? Well it’s here and it’s even worse than I thought.

What those groundbreaking and envelope-pushing folk at Fairfax have done with The Vine is simply take the website template used for The Age and the SMH, change the background image, remove the political stories and replace them with more advertising masquerading as content.

“How is this going to attract those hedonists?” I hear you ask. Well, the uberfunky writers at The Vine say crazy and zany things like “Adelaide: so much more than murder and churches.” Oooooh, dark satire, mang!

And what’s a mainstream media outlet’s attempt at Web2.0 without a Web1.3 outcome? The Vine’s interactive interface starts and ends with a chance for readers to comment and some news stories presented as “blogs” (even though they’re clearly not blogs.)

Basically the whole site stinks of try-hard and pathetic. It’s a poorly built and conceived attempt to attract younger people to existing Fairfax advertising using pissweak graphic design and by paying lip service to social networking. It will decompose faster than a turd in the hot summer sun.

(Thanks to Damian for discovering the rebranded Kwerky that I’d spent weeks looking for.)

11 Comments

Bron (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 2:53 pm) #

Gnarly, dude. I’m so gonna read The Vine.
Bron (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 2:56 pm) #

But wait, what if it should happen that one day I thought I was reading the Vine but I’m really reading the Daily Tele? What’s the difference?

Second big question: Would the Vine post pictures of Krystal Forscutt’s sizeable assets and pass it off as news, a la the Tele?
Damian (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 3:12 pm) #

Hilarious. I feel so hedonistic all of a sudden. Sadly, I’m not all that free-spending.
Ant Rogenous (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 3:42 pm) #

All the retards in Fairfux management — like David “Captain” Kirk, Ron Wanlker, Don Churchill, Colin “Tucker’s Daughter” Moss and their numbnutted underlings — should concentrate on producing decent newspapers and mags before they even bother with websites.

If they can’t get the former right (note: outrageous and never-ending cost-cutting does not constitute effective management), they’ve got fuck-all chance of getting the latter right.

Gits.
krypto (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 3:47 pm) #

man, I feel like I need a shower after following that putrid link.

F*ckin’ died on the vine more like. I’ve seen compost more pallatable.
Wah (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 6:02 pm) #

I reckon all they’ve done here is, when some webmonkey inserts web sites into the news web sites they tag it with the word “youth” and it automatically goes into TheVine, which must be cool because there is no space between The and Vine.
The Editor (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 6:07 pm) #

“which must be cool because there is no space between The and Vine”

Careful, Wah. GrodsCorp is waaaaay cool.
John Surname (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 6:17 pm) #

The name is totally wicked because it’s a shortened version (or ver.) of “The Grape Vine”.

Freaky deaky, yo.
Dave from Albury (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 6:19 pm) #

How will ‘tha kidz’ resist this awesome new web presence?
John Surname (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 6:20 pm) #

I’m sure we’ll manage.
Wah (Tuesday 22 April 2008, 8:45 pm) #

Newscorp shopuld do MX online and blow this shit out of the water.
Ant, you forgot David “Businessborg” Skelton.