Brain Candy? (WebActive - Magazine)

Member Name: Theeagle

Product:	WebActive - Magazine
Date:	30/06/01 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to understand

Disadvantages: Patronising

Billed as the friendly guide to the internet, Web Active is another new web magazine. Before this one came along all we had were rude, sociopathic magazines that would spit in your drink when you weren`t looking.

It begins with four pages of net news, all in bitesize pieces. There`s a jargon buster, giving definitions of words such as beta and MP3. This is followed by the top ten sites, this month spooky ones, each with a short description but no rating. It includes sites on aliens, myths, the occult and conspiracy theories, X-files stuff rather than just horror.

Surf`s up is a regular piece profiling a couple of readers and their favourite bookmarks. It breaks up the usual formula of website reviews, but I don`t think it adds anything much. Perhaps this is what they mean by being friendly, by involving readers and making it more personal.

The site-seeing section is large and really comprehensive. There is certainly no lack of website reviews in this mag. Divided into ten parts each with three websites reviewed, the sites are star-rated to indicate how good they are. A few of the domains featured are ones I had already heard of, although most were new to me. I`ve been surfing the web regularly for around six months so maybe I`m not a beginner, and the impression I get is that Web Active is pitched at new users. Most of the the places featured shouldn`t be too hard to find for anyone who knows how to use a search engine. I came across several typos in this section. This may seem like I am nit-picking, but when there are so many URLs I think a magazine should be properly proof-read.

"Search Engine" is the name of another regular feature in which they pick a specific topic and review about twenty sites on the subject. Yes, yet more site reviews. In July`s they dealt with DIY, which is fine if that`s your passion.

The centre spread is taken up by a feedback survey, and apparently this is also a regular. I can`t
see much mileage in that idea. Bizarrely for a web magazine there is no way of filling in this form online. Instead you have to tear it out of the magazine and post it by snail mail if you want the chance to win some software. It`s a little intrusive as well so if you`re defensive about your personal details you won`t want to fill it in.

The cyber celeb section is what really betrays the roots of this little mag. It`s an excuse for plenty of pictures of the star and a few daft sounding sites. If ever there could be such a thing, this is the Hello! or the Bella of internet magazines.

I`ve already mentioned the jargon buster, and this crops up next to several of the articles. Words explained are highlighted in red. Unless you`ve been living with a bag over your head in recent years you will know most of these words already, and it repeats itself a lot. I found the articles themselves to be a touch waffly and unafraid to point out the obvious. In a long piece on health care, the advice to always consult your GP is repeated no less than five times. Patronising or what? Most half-decent health sites point this out anyway.

This is not to say that the articles are useless, they are informative and relevant to general users. The text is spaced out with large margins and plenty of illustrations, so there`s never too much for our tiny minds to take in at once.

The letters page is a shambles, one of the worst I have ever read. It stretches to three pages, most of which concerns readers who have had problems getting hold of Web Active. Some editing is in order. This suggests to me that they have had trouble finding enough copy to fill this issue. Perhaps this will improve if the magazine establishes itself and more people write in.

The workshops are very basic indeed: adding favourites, using instant messages, putting pictures in emails, that sort of thing. The "Build your own website" is a little more advanced but no
where near as daunting as it may sound.

At 75p this is one of the cheapest mag of this type on the newsstands, and one of the least substantial. It`s about 84 pages, without too many adverts, but due to the layout there is very little actual text. I found it too basic, repetitive and patronising to enjoy reading.

A marshmallow could understand it.

If you want an internet magazine suitable for beginners, but you don`t fancy being talked down to, try Web User.

Summary: