Shift Magazine Turns 10

September 5, 2002 8:14 AM

Shift Magazine Turns 10 They've got a fine commemorative Collector's Issue out, which fittingly includes various Top 10 lists. Among them: Reasons Weblogs Exist, Sites Wil Wheaton Quite Enjoys, and Top Heavyweights On The Web (which lists our beloved Matt Haughey at No. 8, two places above the ubiquitous Evan Williams). A damn good read.
posted by susanlucci (13 comments total)

Excuse the snarky question--but is that considered a well designed site? Ow, my eyes! Also, you'd think that they could have caught that EXERPT pronto. No spel chek for headlines, I suppose, but don't they have prufereeders anymore? Thank you for the link, just the same.
posted by y2karl at 8:26 AM on September 5, 2002

Finally online! The top ten sites are here.

Oh, and my challenge from the long-dead MetaTalk thread to match the heavyweights to the sites still stands.
posted by maudlin at 8:30 AM on September 5, 2002

Did like this:

"The Internet Is Going to Be Our Generation's Vietnam"

Winter 1996 - Comment made by me after noting that everyone I knew was flocking to new media jobs. For years, the options-holding class mocked my pessimism. Well guys, it's 2002, and you were right. How was I to know that Afghanistan would be our generation's Vietnam?
posted by y2karl at 8:35 AM on September 5, 2002

Yes, great link and it didn't really hurt my eyes, although I've always preferred Shift.
posted by poopy at 8:54 AM on September 5, 2002

Shift is much easier to read.

Tiny tiny light text on a dark background is my least favorite thing. *glares at disinfo*

The Simpsons article was great until it went off the tracks:

Eventually, the story of a few crazy, obsessive kids spinning their favourite hobby into a free-wheeling, world-beating company with a multi-million-dollar ipo would become an archetype, and then a cliché, and finally -- after the bubble burst -- a cautionary tale.

Oh, it's about the Simpsons Generation, I realize but that's a clunker of a segue and a sentence. I'll go scratch my head now.
posted by y2karl at 9:05 AM on September 5, 2002

er, that japanese Shift is easier to read...
posted by y2karl at 9:15 AM on September 5, 2002

Tiny tiny light text on a dark background is my least favorite thing.

Yeah, i agree tiny text can be annoying on content-based sites but I think it can look damn fine with design sites like praystation and rinzen.
posted by poopy at 9:29 AM on September 5, 2002

I love how the anniversary issue has conveniently forgotten the mag started out as a literary journal dedicated to finding and promoting new and innovative Canadian writers.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:47 AM on September 5, 2002

I came across Shift a few years ago, liked it alot, and promptly subscribed. About 3 months after I sent in my check, I got three issues in the mail on the same day. About six months later I got one more issue. Then I got a letter saying my subscription would be terminated because I never paid.... even though I paid for a year in advance. Sheesh... hard to believe they've stayed in business for 10 years!
posted by spilon at 9:49 AM on September 5, 2002

Wil Wheaton, Moby

We've highlighted their mad blogging skills before in Shift, so we don't want to waste more of your time or our space on them. But their journals are good, so check them out.

Laugh, cry, laugh, cry. Can't decide.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 10:32 AM on September 5, 2002

They have barely survived all that time, spilon. They've made it from bail-out to bail-out, essentially, from new-investor-dictated-identity to new-investor-dictated-identity.

I went to university with the founders and knew most if not all of the writers tapped in the first three or four issues - it really was no more than a zine made by a bunch of friends back then. But put out a zine in Canada for 4 issues with a glossy cover and it's pretty much guaranteed - or it was 10 years ago - that someone would imagine a media empire from coast to coast to coast - that really was all it took to garner notice.

But though the original Shift gang (Evan Solomon, Andy Heintzman, et al.) gets a lot of crap, I think they did a good job under very constrained conditions. Some incarnations of the mag were simply wonderful, featuring fantastic writing and a more forward-looking attitude than Wired or some of the others.
posted by mikel at 12:26 PM on September 5, 2002

Excuse the snarky question--but is that considered a well designed site?

Yeah, it's rather difficult to navigate.

I was already reaching into the cupboard for the syrup, but a few of the lists were online, although none that were mentioned.

Grrr!!
posted by aflores at 2:10 AM on September 6, 2002

Their online features are great as well. Like "THE DIGITAL DARK AGE" about risks of having all of the world's total information on hard drives with one-year limited warranties by David Emberton, and "BRINGING THE MOUNTAIN TO MOHAMMED" about why weblogs have become so popular in Iran and how can it change the face of Islam by Geoff Girvitz
posted by hoder at 8:33 PM on September 6, 2002