Commentary--Our Readers 'Speak'

Last week we asked our readers to rank the features that we offer on Macs Only! to help us best meet our readers interests as we adjust to changing market conditions. That's marketing speak for surviving while we seek a replacement for our long-time major sponsor who decided to "think different" when it comes to Web site support.

We received 930 usable responses to last week's poll, a surprise in itself, and we thank all of you who took the time to respond. Here are the results in rank order--the average rankings by respondents are in parentheses.

1. Daily News (2.49)
2. Reviews (3.01)
3. Commentary (3.24)
4. Software Updates (3.59)
5. Troubleshooting (3.86)
6. Speed tests (4.76)

The results gave us two surprises. The first is that our daily news was ranked #1 despite many Mac news sites being out there these days with relatively large paid staffs that hit the Internet with news almost as it breaks during the day. When we first started offering news, most press releases came out at the end of the day and, as the Internet equivalent of a morning newspaper, that gave us a jump on the competition. We remain so with only occasional breaking news since most press releases now come out well after we have posted the day's edition--the U.S. Web reader peak is 10 am to noon ET. We have not had the financial means to make the change but maybe that has been good.

The second surprise is how low our "bleeding edge" software update reports were ranked (#4). While almost every Web site announces major software updates, we are the only site we are aware of that immediately applies each update to a variety of Macs and reports on whether or not we have any troubles. Those Web sites that do have reports on updates, usually post only negative reports from readers. We post both positive and negative experiences, though the latter are relatively rare.

We enjoy doing the speed tests that ended up a distant 6th. We expected this result because speed is no longer all that important generally with the Apple current hardware and Mac OS X 10.4.x. It's still important to gamers like us, mainly, but the tests take a lot of time to do right for a small audience.

A few respondents scolded us for our occasional anti-Microsoft rhetoric. But these days we mostly just poke fun at Microsoft or poke holes in its puffery. Despite the slogan that we adopted a decade ago ("We don't do Windows."), we have covered Windows on the Mac extensively using Apple's Boot Camp and emulation software like Parallels Desktop for Mac and VirtualPC, i.e. before it was ruined by Microsoft. We no longer feel that the Mac and Mac OS are seriously threatened with extinction by Microsoft but we still like to have fun with Steve "I-don't-know-what-a-monopoly-is" Ballmer, Microsoft's principal cheerleader and CEO.

Many respondents praised our efforts that now span nearly 12 years, over 10 years in its present format and content. They noted that we offer a different perspective than all other Mac Web sites. We appreciate the kind words.

We've had a long run, rarely missing a daily edition with our tiny but capable staff. We'll keep our standards and do our best on content but it is likely that there will be a few pot holes and gaps in it until we get a new major sponsor. [Bill Fox]