2006 / June 12^th/ I think the noise is taking over

For several years, I’ve been an avid fan of Signal Vs. Noise, a blog run by those great guys in Chicago known as the 37 Singals. When I first started reading the blog, I thought to myself: “Brilliant!” (imagine me as a paper cutout of an Irishman holding a 6-pack of Guinness). Signal vs. Noise was an absolutely perfect name for their business model and the subjects they wrote so passionately about.

To me, SvN (as it is now being called) was what made me realize that blogs had a real value, and weren’t just a bunch of people whining about their parents. At the time, I didn’t think too much of the medium, but here I was anxiously waiting for any sign that there was a new post at SvN. In fact, I would go so far as to say that SvN was the reason I started blogging.

Signal… noise? Huh? I can’t hear you

Unfortunately, between the classified ads to the notifications of new advertisements to come and then the actual advertisements (notice these are 3/4 of the most recent postings at SvN) it’s starting to feel pretty loud around the pastel hallways.

So much that I unsubscribed from their feed today. This may not seem like a big deal with their 3 billion or so subscribers, but I guess it means something to me. Something like when your best friend gets married and can’t go and have beers on Wednesday nights anymore.

Farewell, old friend

So, tonight I raise my glass to one of the greatest blogs of of yesteryear, Signal vs. Noise. May you rest in peace noise.

1. 

   Chris

   June 12^th | #

   Yeah, I hear you on this one. It’s almost as if somehow they blog just because they have to, and not for the love of telling people about their craft or frankly, whatever is on their mind. I think it needs a shot of personality, honestly.

2. 

   Jim Whimpey

   June 12^th | #

   I completely agree. I’ve been reading it for about a year now, once reading every word of every post. Different to most people, I use Firefox’s open in tabs for my daily reads instead of using a feed reader. For the last month of so, even if I see a new post I haven’t read I just continue straight past, on my X clicking way.

   With other sites I let this happen for about three months, giving them a chance to re-prove themselves to me, if they don’t the bookmark’s deleted, Signal vs. Noise is well on it’s way.

3. 

   Andy

   June 12^th | #

   LOL very nicely written post Kyle, great humour!

   I couldn’t agree more with you on the decline in quality on SvN… I unsubscribed about 3-4 months ago for the same reasons as you. After a few weeks of sifting through crap posts for the occasional diamond in the rough I’d had enough.

4. 

   Jakob S

   June 13^th | #

   Funny thing, I briefly thought about unsubscribing from SvN but decided against for old times sake, and the next entry to show in my reader was this one.

5. 

   Olav

   June 13^th | #

   Good point, they seem to be working against their own teachings. I’ll consider the wame move you did…

6. 

   Colin D. Devroe

   June 13^th | #

   It is a strange thing, because technically they are leveraging their popularity to earn a few extra dollars. I am not saying that I wouldn’t do exactly the same thing, or have in the past, or won’t in the future. But I do agree. I think that simply putting advertising on their blog, or opening up a job board itself as a service would be cool. - But somehow just the way they went about pulling these things off seems, I don’t know, out of place.

   Hats off to them for making money left and right, but they may have done it at the sacrifice of those that truly believed in some of the things they pioneered…

7. 

   Programmers don’t have girlfriends? — at jonathanish

   June 13^th | #

   [...] Jun 13th 2006 Programmers don’t have girlfriends?Kyle Neath: For several years, I’ve been an avid fan of Signal Vs. Noise, a blog run by those great guys in Chicago known as the 37 Singals. [...]

8. 

   Justin Perkins

   June 13^th | #

   I agree. If I wanted to see job listings I’d subscribe to the jobs feed.

   I unsubscribed from them a while back, but then resubscribed within a few weeks. I just had this panging feeling that I was missing some hype and needed it in my life again.

9. 

   Ben Lilley

   June 17^th | #

   The funny thing is, I have been thinking this recently. I keep opening the site expecting to read another gem, only to find another short post or just an image/advertisement.

   And to think, it was probably the best blog around :(

10. 

    Fightingfriends » How My Links List Works

    July 21^st | #

    [...] Kyle Neath at Warpspire feels the same way and points out where they went wrong. Ironically, Warpspire is on the path to list addition and this is how that works. [...]

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