First impressions of Bundle

[thyme4change]

I will say, I think you guys are being a little fuddy-duddy-ish. Are you honestly saying to me that you couldn't figure out that website? Either they made vast changes to it in the past 2 days, or you guys are not as smart as I always thought you were.

To find the area we've been assigned click on >>Everybody's Money>>See all articles and then scroll down. For some (dumb) reason it is under "Discoveries" - whatever that means.

There are community posted items and they are marked "Community" and then the posters name.

I think, if they let us actually start our own threads, that it is very similar. Yes, there are also a bunch of articles there - but at least all the comments would be in one place - instead of there being multiple threads about the same article, or worse, threads about an article, with no link, so we can't read the article.

All that said - I hate that the replies are in reverse-chronological order. That makes following the conversation very difficult and I think it hinders the actual exchange of ideas. I find that structure so restrictive that it may be a deal breaker for me.

The upside to all of you raging against bundle is that you have created a self-fulfilling prophecy. With all of you sitting here saying how bad it is, no one will ever go there, bundle will never have the incentive to conform to your ideas, and you can stand here for years and say "See, I told you bundle would never succeed." Unfortunately, I am afraid this forum will stagnate without new membership.

[thyme4change]

Also - this board sure ain't perfect. What's the deal with the ridiculously tiny font when you quote someone??!!

I might be old, but I can barely read this.

[Deleted]

I guess I am old fashioned when it comes to message board I just like an easy format. Having too many 'bells and whistles' which is what Bundle seems to have is a turn off to me and I am only 36 lol

If anyone is familiar with the change at digg.com they went to a new version 4 and it basically cut their readership drastically.

This new trend of everyone trying to make things more like Facebook isn't really going over well on the internet.

[thyme4change]

But Bundle doesn't look or feel anything like Facebook. I don't know why they are advertising themselves as "like facebook."

I'm not sure what "Bells and whistles" everyone is talking about. The only thing I see is that bundle has is avatars - and we have them here too.

[Deleted]

Dec 27, 2010 18:24:30 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

But Bundle doesn't look or feel anything like Facebook. I don't know why they are advertising themselves as "like facebook."

I'm not sure what "Bells and whistles" everyone is talking about. The only thing I see is that bundle has is avatars - and we have them here too.

By 'bells and whistles' I mean its trying to do what mint.com does also...I have no idea if mint.com has message boards and I've never looked.

Just a regular message board is ok with me.

[thyme4change]

Oh - I agree with that. Mint sucks - and I expect that bundle will also. But, if you think about what MSN did - they had hundreds of pages and we only went to the one that applied to us - so I don't think the fact that bundle does a bunch of other crap should really upset you too much, if the functionality of the message board was okay.

Unfortunately, the functionality of the message board isn't (shall we say) "best practice." MSN effectively killed our community. Sad to say.

[thyme4change]

I just posted a topic on bundle to see if it would work. They did review it first, and it took about 15 - 20 minutes to post. They did not review my reply to another topic. It posted immediately.

I probably sound like I'm trying to drive people there, and I'm not, because I hate the upside down thing. But if people are going to bad mouth the message boards, I think they should state FACTS about how it is bad. This is not a article-comment-only board. Users can contribute topics. If you hate it because it is only comments on articles, you are hating it for the wrong reasons.

If you are hating it because the screen is busy - I'm with you there.
If you are hating it because they have other functionality, like money management software, then did you also hate MSN for having diet and exercise information?
If you are hating it because it the articles suck, that's cool, although Liz is writing for them - so I'm guessing we will get at least some of the same articles.

[Deleted]

Can you link it? Seriously... i'm not sure if i'm not finding anything over there, or if there is just nothing really to find...

[yclept]

thyme4change probably has a point in saying that there is nothing to lead new people to this site -- in time it probably will stagnate, dry up, and blow away. But then, one could pretty much say that about the MSN boards at the end -- they were getting harder and harder to find and there were no longer any articles or journalists whose articles linked to boards.
Still, it's looking to me like Microsoft's ploy to direct their old users to their surrogate, Bundle, has also failed.
I'd like to think that a few heads will roll at Microsoft when they realize how miserably they failed. But then, the time for heads to roll was way back when they got rid of Markman, Jubak, and Middleton. Or when they ruined the utility of the boards by ditching the ability to attach spreadsheets, VBA code, and such. Dare we mention dumping what was the best screener at the time (replaced now by stockscreen123.com) after spending all the money they must have to develop it? It's been quite a study in ineptitude, and kind of funny in retrospect, albeit sad.
Their original business model in the late 90s when "advanced" features of the MSNMoney site were by paid subscription (but cheap, something like $30/yr) probably would have worked fine. They obviously got carried away with the late 90s "eyeball count" accounting metric and only years later realized nobody clicked on ads in a special interest forum. All those wasted ad dollars by Scottrade and others -- did they really think that people here didn't already have a broker? Or Ford? If I want info on a car or truck, I'm sure as hell not going to go to the MSN investing boards on the chance that they might have an ad running for Ford! I'm going to go to Google and let them find Edmunds and whatever other vehicle sites are most worth searching. Just how stupid do they think we are? It's an insult, though an eminently ignorable one.
Enough -- but it boggles the mind that decision makers get paid pretty big money to fail this miserably.
One other note to thyme4change (an obvious shill) -- do you guys really think folks are going to register on your site if they read the following part of your privacy policy:
Other Web Sites and Advertisements
"This Privacy Policy applies only to the Website. We do not exercise control over the sites maintained by third parties even if related to our service or to the cookies included in advertisements served on our Website. These other sites and third party advertising companies may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data about your visits to our Website and other web sites or solicit personal information from you. We do not have access to nor control over cookies placed by third party advertisers or how they are used. We encourage you to read their privacy statements, as they may differ from ours."
There were other nefarious statements, but that one stopped me cold.

[tobyradloff]

I find Bundle hard to navigate as well. I am glad that this board was created, since it is in one of the message board formats that I am used to. However, I will miss the MSN message boards.

[money100]

I find it difficult to navigate Bundle as well. I'm in my twenties and LIVE on the net.

I dislike that citibank is a partner. I guess I'm suspicious that the advice won't be completely unbiased. Like, articles will crop up telling you that you must buy this financial vehicle (debuting at citi right now!!) and that sort of thing.

[resolution]

I find it difficult, but it is getting easier. I finally figured out that if I click on the word "community" underneath a post, it will just give me a list of threads that people have posted and leave out all the articles.

[thyme4change]

One other note to thyme4change (an obvious shill) -- do you guys really think folks are going to register on your site if they read the following part of your privacy policy:

I'm not a shill. I've been more or less obsessed with the MS Money boards for well over 10 years - but have never been compensated for it. Enough people here know me to know that I'm just a contrarian PIA, not a plant.

Honestly, I won't spend any time at bundle, but mostly because laterbloomer was successful in spreading the bad cheer and keeping anyone who is worth hanging with from going there. I don't care for bundle's format either, but it isn't really going to kill anyone. It is a message board - sure, a bad one - but it is a message board. No matter how many times later says it isn't.

I'm just going to have to mourn and move on. This place will just be like EE and be nothing but sexual references and inside jokes in about 90 days.

[resolution]

This is the view that I found that just shows the message board messages. money.bundle.com/category/community/ the problem with it is that there are so few messages right now. It won't be enough to keep me entertained.

[thyme4change]

the problem with it is that there are so few messages right now. It won't be enough to keep me entertained.

That is definately the problem.