37 signals, and nothing’s on
No wonder they disabled comments on 37signals’ blog Signal vs. Noise. For “a design and usability blog,” their content sure has been… uh… noisy, lately.
Some highlights:
- How to fix your gutter problem. You do have a gutter problem, right?
- Recommending fussiness as a design strategy. We’re not sure what you should be fussy about, but… y’know… be fussy.
- Ignoring their users. Tired of hearing about how your content is sub-par? Turn off the comments! If only there was as easy a solution for my damn gutters…
- Shampoo bottles. Cutting edge design and usability here.
- Nostalgic for “tightly cut” 80s action movies. Extended versions are wasteful.
- Bitching about their bank. Yup. Citibank, you’re on notice.
- Wishing they’d get more press. Because apparently they recently invented being a “small” business.
- Not understanding modern art. It’s like Jakob Neilsen in high school.
- Still kind of groggy from Thanksgiving. Next up: why do they call it Thanksgiving, anyway?
- Remaining oblivious to sweatshops. Wow! A logo mashup! Witty!
- Remaining firm on intellectual property rights. Unless they’re witty logo mashups, of course. Then brand dilution is fun!
- Not understanding programming. You can’t have a meaningful progress bar for an operation with no upper bound, or with an upper bound which is several orders of magnitude greater than the mean operation complexity. In other words, you should have used ReiserFS.
- Burning bridges when they get to them. Well, your abortive Basecamp upgrade sure seemed like it was a problem. Maybe some forethought would have been a good idea.
- Getting self-conscious. Yes. You have jumped the shark. I eagerly await their new CD, entitled “37signals Gets Real With Christmas.”
Maybe the transition from a consulting company to a branded services company is a rough one. I wouldn’t be surprised. Thanks for Rails, guys. Now go work on Getting Real, or Finding Where The Beef Is, or Establishing What Willis Is Talking About, or some other catchphrase which indicates not only your proprietary relationship with reality but also your affinity for incorporating elements from 80s slang into Edgy Business Lingo.
Hmm… maybe it’s time to start floating that business book treatment I’ve been working on–Partying On: Constructing Bodacious Brands With Gerundial Phrases.
Until the interns stop posting LiveJournal-worthy material, SvN gets the boot from the blogroll. Buhweeted!
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