links for 2011-09-15

"As an aside observation, it seems to take about 6-7 iterations for “amateurs” to plateau on a pretty decent profession looking result. I’ve seen this happen quickly with zines, the first issue is often hastily put together, photocopied and stapled up (this is going back a fair few years mind). The person doing it very quickly notices the mistakes of the first one, and corrects them by the second iteration. They miss a few things, which they fix in the 3rd and 4th at which point they start taking cues from existing “successful” products. At around the 6th iteration things get into a groove, and by the 7th either a format is set or playfulness with the format emerges."

There is some absolute gold in the comments under this entirely predictable rant about the dreadful new ways being detrimental to the craft. My favourite: "A good place to start might be to question why this editor’s marital status is germane to the commentary about her memo."

Infographics on the labels of wine bottles to represent the flavour, rather than tell you dull stuff about the origin of the grapes. Genius from Clare Sutcliffe. 

Well, hey, if you are going to write your first piece for "Comment Is Free", why not make it about internet trolling? 

We launched a new US front page for The Guardian yesterday. I'm very proud of the work that @lynsey_s did towards it, and looking forward to it being a brilliant test-bed of new ways of delivering digital news.