New kid on the blog

August 4, 2006 3:41 PM

Voxis the newest project by blog magnate Six Apart. It's currently in test mode and not yet open to the public, but a select group of people has been trying it our for the past few weeks, including MeFi's own #1. Vox looks like it wants to combine blogging and social networking, and aims to be compatible with different online services.
posted by easternblot (76 comments total)

Was this really not posted before? Did people want to wait until it was live? I am never on top of things, so I'm kind of expecting you all to yell "QUADRUPLE" and show me all the previous posts about Vox that were tagged unlogically and that I didn't find.
Sorry for the horrible title, by the way.
posted by easternblot at 3:45 PM on August 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

Seems like it could be really good if they'd just ease off on the pastel shades and rounded corners.
posted by reklaw at 3:46 PM on August 4, 2006

Which reminds me to add the "web2.0" tag, thanks reklaw!
posted by easternblot at 3:49 PM on August 4, 2006

It is Live isn't it? I was invited in and have 4 invites at the moment. I just assume they want to grow it slowly, no? Or will there be a point at which anyone can just sign up?
posted by vacapinta at 3:50 PM on August 4, 2006

Eh, what's the big advantage? I looked through the video section, and all it seems to do is take me to someone's page and display a large image of a DVD cover and a link to amazon.

Why use it? What's the catch?
posted by Fidel Cashflow at 3:53 PM on August 4, 2006

Six Apart's decision to basically let Livejournal die while pushing their resources into Vox irks me somewhat, but I imagine they had some reason for doing so. Perhaps the code-base was so messed up that it was easier to start fresh. I hope they're smart enough to integrate the LJ system in some regards though, such as importing entries and letting friend's pages from the systems cross-read. That would allow them leverage the LJ community numbers into something (hopefully) slicker and better.

Now I just need an invite, dammit.
posted by Vaska at 3:54 PM on August 4, 2006

What happened to LiveJournal? Did everyone move to MySpace?
posted by chunking express at 3:56 PM on August 4, 2006

The concept is intriguing, but the exclusivity of the site is a bit of a drag; do sites like this ever pass out invitations when you hand out your email?
posted by aflores at 3:59 PM on August 4, 2006

I've had a Vox account for a while now, and for me, it's just not going to work. If I can't put outside links in my sidebar and the post entry form won't allow me to enter my own html, I just have little use for it. I don't see them letting LJ die though. I have had an LJ for a long time to mirror my web site and post things just for family and close friends, and LJ has been getting some great new features lately, so it doesn't look to me like all their resources are going to the new project. In fact, I sort of think things are moving really slowly over at Vox.

Vaska, check your Metfilter listed email.
posted by Orb at 4:01 PM on August 4, 2006

Or will there be a point at which anyone can just sign up?

Seems like it. From here: "Later this year, Vox will be open to anyone who wants to join."

I'm also hoping they make it so you can crosslink to and comment from other services, or at least make commenting available to non-vox users. I don't see why I need my own blog just to comment on someone else's.
posted by easternblot at 4:05 PM on August 4, 2006

Hm. I'm not really on the page that says they are going to let LJ die. If anything, they might sell it. That has come up time and again on various LJ communities. LJ could certainly use a facelift, though.

Fidel - there's no real advantage. It's got good/bad points, but on the whole it's not nearly as streamlined as LiveJournal.

MySpace... hurts... to... look... at... brain... MELTING!

Vaska - gmail me and I'll hook you up (I have one invite left).
posted by smallerdemon at 4:05 PM on August 4, 2006

It's funny how everyone is on Vox and I as non-Vox user posted about it. But I like reading everyone's opinion, 'cause I'm kind of on the fence about it. "Pretty but useless" and "Ohgawdno, not ANOTHER thing to sign up for!" come to mind.
posted by easternblot at 4:07 PM on August 4, 2006

Seems like it. From here: "Later this year, Vox will be open to anyone who wants to join."

Ah ok. Although, I recall sites like gmail having that kind of thing and then never actually opening up or even emailing the people who had expressed interest.

oh, and easternblot, email me if you dont already have an account and want to take a look.
posted by vacapinta at 4:10 PM on August 4, 2006

If they had seamless integration with LJ, it would be a lot more interesting. Instead you have Vox users and LJ users and you have to read 2 different friends pages, unless everyone switches over.
posted by smackfu at 4:11 PM on August 4, 2006

Hrm. This would be the first that 've heard about SixApart letting LJ die, if that's in fact true.

And maybe I'm missing something with this Vox thing, but... "Why?"
posted by drstein at 4:12 PM on August 4, 2006

It is strange that Vox seems to be basically a re-implementation of LiveJournal. Why buy it if they were planning to do this? I guess they might just have been after the LJ staff, but still, seems a bit odd.
posted by reklaw at 4:17 PM on August 4, 2006

I really feel like I should write a multi-paragraph, well considered comment... but... this is really just pointless. Vox is Livejournal in Flickr's clothing. Maybe this is the result of trying to rewrite livejournal starting from a less fucked up codebase, but otherwise, it really wouldn't be the kind of thing I'd invest my money and time in, if I had either one.

I mean, seriously. Did they sit around and go, "hey! let's do blogs! again!"

Relatedly (since Six Apart owns livejournal -- and Moveable Type, and other TypePad stuff, and a thing called SplashBlog that no one noticed), livejournal is not doing so well in the administration/support/running/planning/design department these days. I have been told recently by people who tried to get some help from lj support that it's basically useless now (although honestly, I don't know if it was ever any good). They've been tweaking with design things for at least a couple of months now, and for a while they had a redesigned 'change your journal' thing that had options to change everything... except the actual name of your journal. Minor things, but they don't seem like good signs.

Does anyone know how much they had to pay for 'vox.com'? It had to be some serious cash. I wish I would get a successful second venture capital round. I have some things I'd like to buy, too.
posted by blacklite at 4:22 PM on August 4, 2006

I hadn't heard about this yet, and from the looks of things it's pretty cool. I like how it's already geared towards user content - the browse feature of "Explore Vox" is especially nice.

An hey vacapinta: how about throwing an invite my way?
posted by anarcation at 4:23 PM on August 4, 2006

Dear Orb, thank you for rocking me with the email!
posted by Vaska at 4:30 PM on August 4, 2006

I have ten invites if anyone wants them. Send me your email via the contact form (lower right of the page footer here) and I'll hook up the first ten mefi members that ask.
posted by mathowie at 4:33 PM on August 4, 2006

Vox is Livejournal in Flickr's clothing.

You say it like it's a bad thing. I've hated Livejournal since the first time I tried it in 2000. It's ugly, clunky, and has the most convoluted interface I've seen a publishing tool. I hated having to memorize what cutesy icon did what, I never liked that it was hard to find the 'make a new post' page, and even the login is overgeeked for no reason ("tie my login to my IP address?" does 95% of the userbase even know what that means?).

Vox is simple blogging, without having to know any HTML or anything. It's aimed at total beginners, people that have never blogged before in their lives, and I think it's perfect for that audience. And I've gotten so lazy in my old blogging age that I'm preferring publishing a post at vox instead of other tools I use, since the posting UI is so damn nice.
posted by mathowie at 4:37 PM on August 4, 2006

I cant wait for bubble 2.0 to burst...
posted by Dreamghost at 4:47 PM on August 4, 2006

Another invite request, but not for me, for one of my designer friends. She politely turned her nose up at the alternatives I have shown her so far. This actually looks more interesting, but I'm wondering about the functionality.
posted by -t at 5:00 PM on August 4, 2006

Thanks for the invite, Matt
posted by anarcation at 5:00 PM on August 4, 2006

I'm new to it, but I love Vox. The Question of the Day is one of those simple but brilliant additions that I'm surprised hasn't been tried (or at least popularized) until now. Actually, answering those constitutes pretty much everything I've written so far (Vox username = MeFi username if you want to look). Having a topic makes writing so much more painless.

The main problem I have with all these social networks/personalized websites is how to reconcile them with each other. I have a personal website already; should I blog about other, more personal stuff on Vox? Should I put my Flickr photos on Facebook too (and now Vox)? If I had a ton of Amazon reviews, would it be worth it to move them over to my site? To Vox?

I guess it's like this problem, but beyond just relationship data. I know some of you have multiple outlets for the same media; how do you deal with it?

(Also, I have an extra Vox invite, if you make it this far in the thread and still need one.)
posted by danb at 5:01 PM on August 4, 2006

Hey, maybe this will be brilliant and groundbreaking for a few years and then the creators will go all corporate and the v. 3 of the software will deprecate spam-blocking features that work in favor of ones that totally don't and they'll charge outrageous license fees for it. But it'll be okay, because the creators will, you know, really dig the sign in front of their new corporate offices.
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:03 PM on August 4, 2006

they'll charge outrageous license fees for it. But it'll be okay, because the creators will, you know, really dig the sign in front of their new corporate offices.

Sour grapes much? This is a free hosted webapp. It's always going to be free. It's not a constantly growing software package that demands tons of customer support that gets used on corprorate sites everywhere and could justify charging fees for. It's just a lightweight blogging service.
posted by mathowie at 5:10 PM on August 4, 2006

In the latest release notes, somewhere in the comments, one of the staffers mentions more flexibility coming soon in the sidebars. I'm hoping this means being able to move the various modules around and including my own links.

I'm really hoping for the ability to html in the compose box and to allow non-voxers to comment soon too.

I have one invite left if anyone still needs. Email = my username at gmail.
posted by mileena at 5:11 PM on August 4, 2006

I was kind of excited by Vox the first couple days after I got to sign up.

I do like the layouts (pretty!) and the fact that I can insert my Flickr photos and movie clips and other random crap fairly easily. It is definitely very shiny & new. The QotD is a very fun touch.

However, there are just too many blog/social networking sites right now. I like to try them all out, but let's face it - I use these sites to keep in touch with my already established friends. Everyone that I want to keep in touch with settles on one or two of the sites (mainly LJ) and basically I cannot get rid of the Vox invites I have because everyone else is completely overwhelmed by all of the new shiny services out there.

So far there's just nothing really new or innovative with Vox. It just combines neat elements from other services and makes them look pretty, but where's the beef?
posted by tastybrains at 5:18 PM on August 4, 2006

"Six Apart's decision to basically let Livejournal die while pushing their resources into Vox irks me somewhat, but I imagine they had some reason for doing so."

I work at Six Apart, and I like my job. So that's my disclaimer. We've released dozens of new features on LiveJournal this year, and have major new things like instant messaging integration and tons of new styles, along with vastly improved navigation and UI all either available or coming online in the next few weeks. The LJ team is bigger and better organized than it's ever been, so it's just demonstrably false to say LJ is being left to die.

eustacescrubb, Movable Type is free for personal use. I'm sorry we didn't communicate well about the changes we made in 2004, but really -- it was a software license change that happened more than two years ago. In the interm, we helped a few million people communicate with each other online. Swing by our office next time you're in San Francisco and I'll by you a beer. Then can we call it even?

As Matt noted, Vox is free and ad-supported, and everyone should be able to sign up later this year. If anybody in this thread is interested in an invite, my email's in my profile.

The best part for me? Having a private Vox blog for my friends and family made me interested in updating my public blog again. So, in answer to, "I mean, seriously. Did they sit around and go, 'hey! let's do blogs! again!'" I'd say the answer is yes. Turns out the problem hadn't quite been solved yet.
posted by anildash at 5:24 PM on August 4, 2006 [2 favorites]

This was inevitable, of course. I'm not yet in awe, but I'm happy to report it's pretty from the inside as well.
On preview, I think I agree with tastybrains.
posted by easternblot at 5:25 PM on August 4, 2006

Sour grapes much?

No offense, but I think that allusion doesn't apply here; in the fox and the grapes fable, the fox dissses the grapes because they're out of his reach. MoveableType isn't out of my reach; I actually paid for the lowest-level license when 3 debuted. It was only after paying and after losing MT-Blacklist that MT 3.2 innundated me with spam to the point that my database crashed and I lost my entire blog. Had to rebuild it by copy/pasting from HTML documents in order to port it to WordPress. SixApart's tech support was shit -- they insisted, without evidence or attempting to examine things ( I offered to give them full access to my blog), that nothing could be wrong, so nothing was wrong. Then, , while scouring SixApart's labryinthine support pages for any information that could help me, I read that Mena Trott thinks the trade-off for going corporate is okay because she liked the new SixApart sign outside her office. So, you know maybe if the fox had paid for the grapes, and they'd given him food poisoning, and the grape-seller had insisted that it couldn't be his grapes that had done that, then, maybe the allusion would be apt.

This is a free hosted webapp. It's always going to be free.

Meh. Maybe. How do you know that? Is there a contract to that effect that doesn't include a "we reserve the right to charge for this once we're ready to abandon support and development for it" clause somewhere?
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:35 PM on August 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

It's always going to be free.

And LJ will never have ads. Oh wait...
posted by smackfu at 5:45 PM on August 4, 2006 [1 favorite]

I like vox. Its sexy and very fast. The only thing I want is a way to someday extract all my posts/images for personal archiving. Why don't any blog sites let me do that the way I have done on my own for so long?
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 5:48 PM on August 4, 2006

eustacescrubb, Movable Type is free for personal use. I'm sorry we didn't communicate well about the changes we made in 2004, but really -- it was a software license change that happened more than two years ago.

Anil, it is now. I read your blog and I think you're a swell guy, but I will have to reserve the right to disagree about this -- I remember the licensing scheme very well, because I bought a license, because I wanted to support SixApart after using thier software for free for several years. My personal opinion is that the "we didn't communicate this well" line is spin on a bad decision made by SixApart, one that SixApart, to thier credit, eventaully reversed.
The thing that did it for me wasn't that I had to pay -- I was happy to pay -- it was that I started paying and the software started sucking, and it started being updated less and less frequently, and my inbox was filling with spam, and then my site died.

In any case, in spite of the vigor of my prose, I'm not upset, no hard feelings, (my WordPress blog works great and no spam makes it through Askimet). my initial comment was more snark than anything else, though I must say I don't have a lot of faith in SixApart any more.

I wish you well, though, and I'm glad you like your job. :) That's hard to come by these days. And if you still want to get a beer with a grump like me I'll look you up the next time I'm in SF.
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:50 PM on August 4, 2006

Thanks Matt!
posted by -t at 5:50 PM on August 4, 2006

I would love an invite as well. My email is in my profile.
posted by the_bone at 6:34 PM on August 4, 2006

I haven't really used my vox account, but apparently I have two (2) invites to give away. Email me via the address listed in my profile if you want one. First two emails I receive will get the invites sent to the email address you use to contact me.

Oh, and by the way, I have 98 or so gmail accounts if anyone wants one of those. ;)
posted by terrapin at 6:37 PM on August 4, 2006

Can I have an invite for my cat? Look out for Sparx's Cat on Vox - he's gonna blow this whole internet thing wide open! Then he'll probably lick his butt for while and have a nap. Ah, Sparx's Cat, you're the craziest kitty EVAH.
posted by Sparx at 6:40 PM on August 4, 2006

I love vox. For me, it's head over heals better than blogger, myspace, etc. And for all the comparisons to LJ, it doesn't feel like anything like it to me. I can't stand LJ, and yet, like I said, I love vox. So sure, it's just another of many blogging services, but it's the only one I've tried that I like.

It's become a cliche, but it really reminds me of myspace for adults, though the social aspect isn't really a draw for me.
posted by justgary at 7:36 PM on August 4, 2006

If anyone is passing out invites still, I'll take one. I'd love to play with it. Ah, and like Terrapin, I have a zillion gmail invites, if someone has somehow been overlooked in the flood of invites out there. :)
posted by dejah420 at 7:48 PM on August 4, 2006

I can't help it. I won't be able to relax until I get a vox invite too. Any still on offer?
posted by Jimbob at 7:52 PM on August 4, 2006

I love vox. For me, it's head over heals better than blogger, myspace, etc. And for all the comparisons to LJ, it doesn't feel like anything like it to me.

Agreed. The analogy I made when trying to explain it was Vox : LJ :: Facebook : MySpace.
posted by danb at 7:57 PM on August 4, 2006

I have an invite I can give out. If anyone wants it just email me (in profile).
posted by justgary at 8:12 PM on August 4, 2006

Also, I have invites. Email me at Google's email service.
posted by nyterrant at 8:23 PM on August 4, 2006

I'm certain I'll develop my opinons as I use it.

User axesandalleys.

Thank Matt.
posted by Captaintripps at 8:30 PM on August 4, 2006

I am out of invites.
posted by mathowie at 8:32 PM on August 4, 2006

I have 3 invites that I'm happy to dispose of. E-mail in profile. First come first serve.
posted by tastybrains at 8:38 PM on August 4, 2006

SixApart's tech support was shit -- they insisted, without evidence or attempting to examine things........

Amen. That's why I jumped to WP and never looked back. I had a paid account and in the past I even donated a little. After getting slapped around in the "support" forums and dicking around with MT for endless hours, I said "screw this" and now I'm happy.

Anil, this is directed toward you since you do work for them. When I paid for MT, I didn't expect to be on the board of directors; I just wanted to get my blog running without the endless bullshit and patronizing/rude responses in the support forums. I really liked MT and stuck with it for a long time but it became evident that while SA moved full speed ahead, they left some of the user base in the dust. I will try Vox but my fear is that it will be more of the same - a one-night stand with a super-model. I hope I'm proven wrong.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:40 PM on August 4, 2006

Well, I've got TypePad, LJ, and Vox at this point. I would say that Vox does have some good features (ease of plugging in books/photos/multimedia, I like their backgrounds), but it's also missing some stuff that I really love in the other sites, such as HTML access. The lack of that really pains me. It is really more intended for the net noob/your momma, I suppose. I am kind of confused as to why Vox has some LJ and some TypePad features, but doesn't merge the best of them both together all the way. It's rather odd.

If the site stays free I'll keep it, but if they go to pay, I'll probably scrap my site or somehow try to save the entries and post them elsewhere (not that that's easy). The sites I've already paid for/donated money to are easier for me to work with when I can get into the back end and screw with code when I have to.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:44 PM on August 4, 2006

The lack of html gets under my skin a lot too. I already have space to store photos elsewhere, but to post them at Vox, I have to either upload them there or use the services they support. Also, it doesn't support Safari for posting, and in Firefox, I can't use paste anything from my clipboard into the post entry box, which means no quoting anyone or anything (unless I want to type it all out myself).

At the moment, it's just not very user friendly to me, and none of my friends that have accounts are really using it much, so neither am I. It'd probably be great for my mom, if she ever wanted to start blogging, but for anyone accustomed to having a little more control over how things work and look on their web site, it might make them crazy.
posted by Orb at 9:01 PM on August 4, 2006

>> Vox is Livejournal in Flickr's clothing.
> You say it like it's a bad thing.

The same colours, the same font faces and sizes, the same "Hello!" (albeit in a single language)... I love Flickr's design, but I would feel guilty if I ever designed something that looked so totally like it.

> Did they sit around and go, 'hey! let's do blogs! again!'" I'd say the answer is yes. Turns out the problem hadn't quite been solved yet.

I can appreciate that there's more to do, but it really seems like something that's going to need more of a shakeup than "we made it shiny". Oh well, I guess we'll see. Perhaps people respond more strongly to interface improvements than even I think.

(I wonder if some day I'll get used to the fact that I can bitch about something and the VP of the company responds in the same thread a little while later. I mean, I know you were a Mefi member since way back, Anil - I just like it when that happens.)

It just combines neat elements from other services and makes them look pretty, but where's the beef?*

It's web 2.0! No one eats beef anymore!
posted by blacklite at 9:14 PM on August 4, 2006

Okay, I'm liking this. The fact that we appear constrained to the limited set of design templates is a bit annoying - I hate the idea of having a personal site with the exact design as someone else's site. But apart from that, I can see the advantage. Coming from someone who's never used LiveJournal, and who joined the great MovableType exodus to Wordpress, and who infact gave up their personal weblog about a year ago, I can see this may be useful simply for the ease of handling media.

The ability to upload and attach MP3s and videos with that sort of simplicity is cool - I can see myself using this more as a media archive than as a traditional weblog or journal. None too shabby.
posted by Jimbob at 9:37 PM on August 4, 2006

It'd probably be great for my mom, if she ever wanted to start blogging

Bingo.
posted by nyterrant at 10:21 PM on August 4, 2006

Okay, wendell.vox.com is on the air. Thank you mattaroonie!!! Now I have another web sandbox to pee in! I mean, play in.
posted by wendell at 10:36 PM on August 4, 2006

Actually, it does't remind me of flickr as much as last.fm. Which is good, because last.fm is a good site.

Of course, the final failing of all these sites is keeping track of "neighbours" or "friends" between them all. My last.fm profile is starting to look good, as is my flickr - now I've got to keep up to date on this too? The person who invents the way to standardize this, so my neighbours "follow" me to the new site, will be talking real "Web 2.0". Anyway, here's hoping for last.fm integration on vox.
posted by Jimbob at 10:49 PM on August 4, 2006

Kevin, sorry you had a bad experience... I'd distinguish between the professional support our paid users get directly from us and the community forums, which I'll readily concede are not nearly as effective in getting useful, quick answers about Movable Type.

Recognizing the thread derail's my fault, sorry for roaming into MT and LJ territory in a post about Vox... anybody that wants to ask questions, comment (or just vent!) about other Six Apart stuff is welcome to email me at anil at sixapart dot com. My personal blog (linked in my profile) also has other contact info like my AIM, personal email, phone, etc. so feel free to get in touch. I'll be following this thread, too.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled Voxing. :) My favorite part of Vox today is that I can choose a profile picture for my sister when I invite her to use it.
posted by anildash at 11:15 PM on August 4, 2006

Thanks Anil. I appreciate that you could hear that.

Tastybrains was kind enough to drop me an invite so I'll take it for a test drive. I do like the integration w/Flickr. It will make the transition much easier.

blacklite said: (I wonder if some day I'll get used to the fact that I can bitch about something and the VP of the company responds in the same thread a little while later. I mean, I know you were a Mefi member since way back, Anil - I just like it when that happens.)

Ditto. Cool, dat.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:51 PM on August 4, 2006

Jimbob: FOAF should be able to do that. And LJ can provide your friends list in FOAF format. I don't know any "social networking" sites that will read FOAF, though. It's a kind of write-only format right now. I'm guessing the fundamental reason is that the point of social networking features is to get you to drag your friends over onto the new site, and if friendslist-sharing makes that unnecessary, then there's no reason for these sites to implement it.

I'm going to add my voice to the crowds saying "so what's the point of Vox again?". Can anyone describe why Vox is worth checking out?
posted by hattifattener at 12:31 AM on August 5, 2006

The demo's down because Brad was on his honemoon, but there's a real way to get interoperability of friends lists going, based on OpenID. Hell, if you want to hack on making it work with more systems (it already works with LiveJournal and all of its clones, MediaWiki, and a bunch of other apps), you can win a prize for doing so. It's even better in combination with FOAF.

The point of Vox? My take is that it's a safe place to connect with your friends and family, store your experiences or things like media (photos/movies/etc.) that matter to you, and share them with control over privacy and presentation.

Probably a less marketing-ese way to say it is that it's a better way to communicate online, complementing email and IM but offering more control and permanence.
posted by anildash at 12:37 AM on August 5, 2006

I've been on it for a couple months now. It's very nicely done, but add me to the list of people eager to see some ability to tinker with the HTML. I like the templates, but for some reason I grow out of them quickly (maybe because they're so cute?), and find myself wanting to customize & streamline a bit.

I'm waiting for Safari support before inviting my actual family--I don't think they're Firefox-hip yet. I realize that things like those nifty editing buttons for the posting form are difficult to make work in Safari, but once that happens, Vox will become more than just a subset of my LJ friends to me.

Also, I wonder why they chose not to do threaded commenting? To be more traditional blog-like, I suppose?
posted by statolith at 6:48 AM on August 5, 2006

The point of Vox? My take is that it's a safe place to connect with your friends and family, store your experiences or things like media (photos/movies/etc.) that matter to you, and share them with control over privacy and presentation.

So that Six Apart can get some of that tasty ad-revenue stream that MySpace is hogging.

No thanks, I'll stick with LJ.
posted by longdaysjourney at 8:47 AM on August 5, 2006

I sort-of like Vox, but I'm not completely sold yet. The worst part is the heaving amount of script there is everywhere, even when it doesn't seem necessary. On some browsers, you can barely post -- Safari, for one -- and on slightly older browsers, you can't even read (the scroll bars go to hell on older IEs and Mozillas).

Assuming that at some point in the future they'll deign to make a basic HTML version (all their competitors work on joe's shit browser) then the only thing I'd be left to moan about is the template system. The provided ones are great for people who just want a framework, and it's all very Apple and New User Friendly but there's no scope for expansion like your own template, or HTML in posts.

Apple's great trick is to not limit the experienced user, and Vox haven't got that yet. I've found the boundaries and they make it feel like a playpen.
posted by bonaldi at 10:38 AM on August 5, 2006

The fact that it doesn't allow users to post HTML seems like a good thing to me. If theres one thing I've learned from Myspace (and to a lesser extent Livejournal) it's that people will create pages that are almost unreadable. Any service that doesn't let people use blinking text has a head start on Myspace.

My main concern is whether the adverts will move up the page over time, their current position is good.

Despite that I'd still love to have an invite (if there are still some floating round), I like playing with new things - email is in profile.
posted by Olli at 11:00 AM on August 5, 2006

Thanks bonaldi, that was quick.
posted by Olli at 12:23 PM on August 5, 2006

*bounces up and down*

I wanna play! Someone send me an invite?
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 12:43 PM on August 5, 2006

I wanna play! Someone send me an invite?

Check your email.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:04 PM on August 5, 2006

Thank you.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 1:19 PM on August 5, 2006

Olli: You can limit certain tags, etc. Livejournal seems to hit a good happy medium that way. I can use inline styles in my posts, but it all goes to friends pages, so the reader (generally) has the ultimate control over the final view.

Also, it helps me decide whether or not to add someone to my friends list. If all of your posts are pink on lime with giant comic sans text, it's a pretty good indicator we won't get along that well. I guess Myspace does the same thing, but I don't know what happens there. Different demographic, I guess.
posted by blacklite at 2:15 PM on August 5, 2006

I have an invite too. Mail in profile. you know the drill.

What I like about Vox is how content-centric it is, as opposed to being all about friend counts and such. And I've found myself really inspired to post more often (both there and at my other blogs), mostly due to the ease of dragging in content from other sources. It's nice to write a post about a song and be able to have the song right there in the post, playable in the browser, with a couple of clicks. Vox has it's shortcomings, but as an informal, social, low-pressure, low-hassle site, it's pretty hot.
posted by cathodeheart at 11:48 PM on August 5, 2006

Late to the party, but I have two invites for anyone still wanting to take it for a test run.

I have too much time and money spent on paid accounts in LJ to give up on it yet, but Vox seems okay for what it is.

Like me though, its really is quite late to the party and has an enormous uphill battle for an audience.
posted by rfbjames at 12:52 AM on August 6, 2006

I'm late to the party too, rfbjames, but I'd like to take you up on that offer of an invite and check out this shenanigans for myself!
posted by hot soup girl at 6:47 AM on August 6, 2006

Thanks to terrapin for the invite. (I'm Bubbles on Vox, should we be forming up a new Mefi neighborhood, sort of like our abandoned one on the last big social experiment...the name of which escapes me at the moment.)

I haven't had much time to play; so my impression is limited, but it seems pretty cool. Like others though, I wonder if it isn't too limiting for those that can code.
posted by dejah420 at 8:07 AM on August 6, 2006

The most unfortunate thing about Vox is that all the proprietary javascript voodoo it uses makes it all but useless on Safari, Opera, mobile phones, etc. Would be much nicer if it was built using web standards.
posted by umrain at 9:51 AM on August 6, 2006

I've had Vox since March - does this make me one of the "select group" now?
posted by etoile at 12:48 PM on August 7, 2006

Oh, and I have a ton of invites. Please please please get in touch with me if you want one.
posted by etoile at 12:48 PM on August 7, 2006