It looks like Rick Thornquist's gaming news site has leaked a little early.
Boardgame News is now live on the Internet. Poking around the site, there is some interesting stuff. Judging from the "Regular Contributors" page, it seems to be a
superstar lineup, with a format that may resemble the old GameFest Weblogs style - one contributor for every day of the week. It also looks like he will be hosting The Dice Tower, Tom Vasel & Joe Steadman's fantastic podcast. It will be good to see this content come under the same umbrella. Also present is a
Gone Cardboard page, which organizes the latest releases by publisher. It would be nice to see RSS content for this section, as well as the ability to sort by game name or release date. A few tweaks and this could be an invaluable resource.
The site design is very clean, which I am a big fan of. The "dice globe" logo is a nice touch, and fits with the theme of the website. There is a bit of early design wonkiness in the form of some unnecessary horizontal scrolling, but I'm sure that will get worked out soon. The RSS feeds are not prominently displayed with the usual orange XML button or some other visual clue, but they're hidden in the source.
Take these links with a grain of salt, as they could change (and I won't be updating them here)
RSS 2.0
Atom
I have mixed emotions about the pseudo-subscription fee. All of the content is being offered for free, which is a must. However, to post comments on any articles, you must be a registered member, with a registration fee of $20 per year. While this is a compromise that lets all of the content be free, it will keep many from being able to participate and offer feedback. I would liked to have left a congratulatory comment, but since I wasn't a paying subscriber, I could not. It's unfortunate, as I think they could get by on a "donation" system. I'm sure there will be some debate on this issue.
However, I don't want to dwell on a negative. Rick did a great job while he was with GameFest, and I look forward to seeing all of that content in my newsreader every day. Congratulations Rick and the rest!