Recently, we changed the way that our Reviews Index worked. It’s now designed in such a way that will give our readers the most balanced experience they can get their hands on. The Reviews Index is far simpler now, and is designed for people to simply just browse through the reviews at will. But there’s more news beyond that. You can read more of our insights below.
First off, you should know that running this website is pretty taxing on me. I’m one guy with a few freelancers, a handful of fantastic allies, and trying to manage all this with some very strict ethics using not a lot of money. I’m not rich — and I surely didn’t move my business to Puerto Rico to not pay US taxes and take advantage of the local population the way colonizers did several years ago. So I didn’t even know that the previous index was broken until a few readers told us via email. As several of you know, I don’t really read the comments here. They’re for you, the readers, to have conversations. If I sat there and paid attention to all the comments, I’d want to quit this business. Several of you are very nice, but you never comment.
That’s why emails are still best for us. And after we were notified of the problem, I spent a day on a weekend figuring out an alternative.
The new Reviews Index links you to specific categories on the website and then displays them in chronological order starting from the latest ones and going to the earliest ones. It should go without saying, but the Reviews Index really applies to the site’s actual reviews of products. Some of you may call a news post a review, but it’s not a review. Our reviews follow a specific format. And in the future, we’ll be rolling out revamps to the site’s review structure that hammers in our authenticity even more.
If you’re looking for a specific review, you can use our search bar — which has been available on mobile and desktop for a while now since our redesign a few years ago. The search bar is something that’s next on my list to tackle. It was great when we launched it. But it needs refinement, and I’m well aware of this. After that, we’ll be rolling out the new search to our app.
All of this is being done with a few costly upgrades. Traffic has been increasing again after one of the weirdest DDoS-like attacks we’ve faced. And we’re not necessarily gaining traffic from the same sources anymore.
These changes are part of a new mentality that I’ve taken on. I want the site to start tackling journalism with a fervency that isn’t really seen these days because of how Google and social media algorithms work. I want us to be producing much more serious stories. Some of you might find interest in these. Some of you won’t. But the truth is that they’re important. You should know about how some companies are misleading you through marketing tactics. And you should also be very aware of some of the crazy things that happen in the art world.
Overall, we want to bring balance to the journalism world. But more importantly, I’m of the mentality these days that the Phoblographer isn’t a blog or a website anymore. We’re an online magazine. We don’t publish stories with the fervency of other online publications, and we’re not the clickbait that you find on YouTube. The Phoblographer is an accredited publication that publishes deals, roundups, spotlight features on artists, thought pieces, reviews, and tutorials. And in several ways, we see the app as the site’s future. So if you haven’t downloaded it and subscribed for $24.99/year yet, you’re crazy not to. It’s one of the best deals in the photo industry.
Please be sure to check out the site’s new Reviews Index for sure.