Newsvine is now live and out of beta. This site lets you create yourname.newsvine.com and seed stories to the main site as long as they are newsworthy and not self-promotional. The site name promises news ahead, but what I found was more like a snobby digg clone.

They have a code of honor (nice shield) which points out that activities like sensationalistic titling is unwelcome and also provides other editorial criteria. Basically boils down to: keep it newsworthy … or else you aren’t Newsvineworthy. Will this criteria make a lot of the writing boring? I wondered about that as I registered. Keeping the writer out of the writing might be Journalism 101 but personally I like being entertained while informed, not only informed. Others might disagree and want the color, but not the colorful.

While waiting for my registration validation email to arrive (more on this later) I decided to search around the site and read various tech stories not written by the pros. I already receive the Associated Press, BBC and Reuters through a dozen other sources at least. This type of content doesn’t and won’t make Newsvine stand out, it will be the work and slant of the amateur newscasters. So how are they doing so far?

A top seeded tech story pointed to a Free USB Key from Microsoft but when I clicked on it I ended up at a page with no commentary, no picture, no “I have actually received this,” no explanation of the signup process, just a link to the page with the offer. I suppose the titling was self-explanatory news, but when clicking on the Microsoft link I learned I needed to click a graphic next to it and fill out some shipping details and a brief quiz at the end. Couldn’t the writer of at least given us the quiz answers? This entry makes the site seem more like linkvine than newsvine. Nothing wrong with being a link, but a link is not really top seeded news, it’s a link. It’s like looking at pictures of Lindsay Lohan’s ribs.

Digg has already blazed this territory and dare I say much, much better (even if you factor out all the prepubscent comments).

[shhh, don’t tell the teacher but I ordered one of those free USB keys, supplies are limited, so thanks to the newsvine columnist for the link, here’s the answers to the quiz questions:

1) 2
2) True
3) True - OEM licenses are NOT transferable
4) True]

But that’s only one top story, the other top seeded stories included, with my comments in parenthesis:

* Newsvine among 25 startups that are reinventing the web (alert, alert, somebody call the Code of Honor cops, violation!)
* The BBC’s Take on BitTorrent (decent article, not much substance)
* 37 Signals: Getting Real (pitching their PDF book, spam, spam, spam)
* Indiana State adds Laptop to list of essential school supplies (somewhat interesting)
* AOL accused of planning ‘two-tier’ internet (old news)
* The Web Design Blog (spam)

Registering for Newsvine
The registration process wasn’t very smooth, perhaps due to the rush of visitors hammering their site during their launch. The overall site experience was like pouring chilled molasses out of a jar. Firstly it said my display name “TDavid” was available in green but when I clicked to submit it said it was unavailable. So from the time I entered it to the twenty seconds later somebody else took it? Possible, I suppose. So I went with T David. Next the registration email didn’t arrive right away. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Is there email server severely queued?

Registering for an account also allows newsviners to leave comments, vote on and promote seeded stories a la digg, and chat, but I’d recommend waiting for a day or two until the initial rush subsides (and I realize by writing this I’m just stoking the fire). This is kind of sad because the best time to have a story seeded is when the traffic is at peak and I think when this dies down to realistic traffic levels it won’t sustain in its current incarnation. There are definitely a few things to see here but right now it’s a long, long, long ways from “reinventing the web.” Is that not a violation of the Newsvine Code Of Honor for sensationalistic titles? Guess it doesn’t apply to sensationalism about Newsvine.

Still waiting for my registration validation email. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Does anybody scale for public launches any more?

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