S'alright I Suppose... (Web User)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Web User
Date:	01/01/03 (50 review reads)
Rating:

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Firstly let me say that I'm not a regular reader of this magazine...in fact, I've read it twice and both times it was a freebie copy which came through my letter box. As such, I'm not going to be offering the most informed of opinions on the subject...then again, there are reasons why I've never been interested in purchasing copies of my own so I'm going to waffle on for a few hundred words anyway...

Firstly, cutting to the chase, this is a fortnightly internet magazine which you'll find just about anywhere which sells magazines once a fortnight for the very attractive price of 99p. Apparently it is the country's best selling internet magazine and with good reason in many respects. Firstly the price is of course great and for a quick skim through it is perfect. Inside you'll find hundreds of new (and old) websites reviewed in brief, some internet products compared and contrasted, internet based news, workshops and special features...erm, basically the kind of thing you'd expect from a computer magazine! I feel no need to elaborate on the 'type' of content, if you've picked up a computer magazine before you'll know exactly what is inside, there are no suprises in that respect.

What perhaps is good and no doubt goes a long way to explain its popularity, is that the magazine is pitched at the level of the average Joe and erm, Joeline, who has nothing more than a very basic level of experience with the net...i.e. those who can log on and surf, whilst everything else is a mystery to them. There is virtually zero jargon here and where confusing terms are used they are explained in layman's terms. This is great for the novice user who would undoubtedly have a problem with some of the more obscure terms which fly around the net constantly. The news section is reasonable if you're interested in what is going on around the net and some of the workshops and 'how tos' are great for novice u
sers. Everything is covered in plain and simple language and generally does little more than give readers the minimum details to get things working so they can start using, doing or whatevering online.

However, whilst in some respects this is great, in others, it does the reader a great dis-service. For example, reading a brief section on file-sharing tells you the difference between KaZaA and Kazaalite is one has pop-ups and the other doesn't...nowhere near even 1/10th of the story! Having read this and visited both sites as a novice I would have no doubt opted for KaZaA which has by far the more attractive, professional looking website and would have subsequently been lumbered with all the intrusive and abusive junk which comes packaged with it...and as a novice user, had no idea it was there or how to get rid of it! Not impressed. Again, looking at their price comparison for online shops where they have apparently scoured the net to find the best deal, we find they've looked at Amazon, 101CD, Play and Choices Direct...hardly 'scouring' the net and certainly not looking beyond the bloody obvious choices! How about a mention of price comparison sites like kelkoo.com which save you 90% of the hard work trawling around for the best prices? Nope, nothing like that here...umm, probably because it would make this section redundant of course...AND kelkoo.com came up with a better price than this magazine's *best* price on the net figure anyway I got the feeling that perhaps fortnightly releases is a great idea in one sense, but in others, it means lack of real attention is paid to the topics covered which isn't great for the reader, novice or otherwise.

The basic problem I have with this magazine is that, yes, it is great as a source of new and *possibly* interesting websites but as it does little more than skim the surface of any topic it touches it is quite useless as anything other than that unless you happen to get lucky a
nd find the answer to some nagging question in one of their workshops. Umm, to be perfectly honest, I read most of what I was interested in reading on a short trip to the loo shortly after opening the mail. The news section was interesting, some of the readers letters and advice was interesting too, whilst the rest was a case of flicking through the headlines of website mini reviews to see if there was anything worth checking out...incidentally there are 229 websites reviewed in this issue(no I didn't count, it tells you on the front page) and I'm yet to visit any of the ones mentioned as a result of reading the mag which probably speaks volumes. The week before Christmas could probably be seen as a bad example to judge the whole magazine by, but then again, I can't remember being impressed by the other freebie copy either.

Verdict? Kinda recommended, kinda not. If I was new to the net I'd probably think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread but as a more experienced user its limitations are rather obvious and the lack of any real depth anywhere at all is off-putting. It's probably worth checking out for a skim through on a train journey or if you are new to the net but I bet you'll soon be moving on to something better.

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