Secrets of the City

SotanLife?

AH….after looking at it for about 3 min I figured out that its not So Tan…as in I just got back from vacation and I’m soooo tan. Its like Minne…sotan. Clever. Nice web design, you have to sit through thier montage of public domain photos to get to a page that only has advertising info. I guess the Nov 1st launch date is just a dream now.

Thanks MplsSimpleton. I too was trying to figure out what Sotan stood for. Very strange.

I hope Sarasota, FL or http://www.lsota.com – “Life Style of the Adult” don’t get all mad and slap a restraining order on them!

http://www.lsota.com endorses “Air America” no wonder al wants to cum to mn

Thanks for adding the ‘Purple Rain’ link, Rex. One correction: ‘Sign O’ the Times’ screens Saturday at midnight at the Uptown. Anyone wanna go?

sotanlife.com did launch on November 1. It appears to be working fine for me.

yeah, I checked out this sotanlife site. I think it’s pretty neat. I needed an expensive restaurant to take the wife to and they had a large list. they have some good features and it seems pretty user friendly. the articles were good also. i cleared by cache and then the montage thing was gone. i think this site will really take-off. We’ll see.

Duuuude, you’re screaming “HEY, THIS IS MY SITE!” It’s fine if you wanna talk about it, but at least fess up.

Now that a few months have passed and sotanLIFE has evovled into the most expansive and usable database for Sotans to use in finding arts and entertainment what are you thoughts on the site? I currently work at sotanLIFE and would love to hear your thoughts. phil@sotanlife.com

Wow! SotanLIFE provides all the information that I need to find affordable and enjoyable events in the Twin Cities! There are easily accessible dining and entertainment links, not to mention fun tidbits on all the Twin Cities hotspots! I especially like the clever poll questions and reviews! SotanLIFE is great!!

Seriously, though, I’m pretty sure that we’ve talked about the SotanLIFE site before, and what a disaster it is. The banner and side ads couldn’t be any more obnoxious and invasive, there couldn’t be any more links jammed on the front page, and there couldn’t be any worse music preview than a piece that compares Common only to Jay-Z and Kayne, yet doesn’t mention Mos or anyone from Chicago. And the events calendar doesn’t list anything other than events marketed so much that they’re inescapable.

SotanLIFE is a terrible, horrible website.

BTW, I’m in for Purple Rain.

Tee-hee.

Taylor and Rex, You two seem to love to tear apart sotanLIFE without the use of logic. How can you say our site is a disaster? Not agreeing our music editorials does not mean our site lacks credibility. I would like to know what you see as a website that so much as competes with the product we have created. I completely disagree that our advertisements are invasive. Could please present me with an example of a web page that incorporates web advertisement in a fashion that pleases you? Its not like we bombard you with pop-ups and unrelated ads. I appreciate that you share a similar passion for finding the best way to locate arts and entertainment in the Twin Cities, but I would respect your opinions more if you would present a valid case for your opinions rather than patching up fallacies with sarcasm. Before you irrationally comment on the site again please take the time to actually look at it. http://www.sotanlife.com

Hey, I haven’t said a thing yet. I just giggled. But since I do this online media consulting thang to buy bread….

SotanLIFE puts me into a quandry — I just don’t “get” it. I can’t think of a reason I’d revisit the site — unless I wanted a panoramic shot of the inside of Stella’s, a toss-off review of Anapolis, or a list of bars to play darts in. The writing is sub-sub-alt-weekly, so that won’t bring me back. The listings are… well, listings. There are already a half-dozen listings sites. Is the idea to compete with CitySearch? If so, there are better dying companies out there to compete with.

Please don’t think I’m a dick for saying it, but I’m not sure what makes the site unique. It lacks personality. If you want a suggestion (probably not), hire someone who’s got writing/editing chops, because the site seems designed around a business model that didn’t have a content agenda.

I like being wrong about these kinds of things, so I do honestly hope the site works out for you.

You can think I’m a dick if you want.

Very simply, very logically, the site is aesthetically convoluted and its content is contrived.

At first view, the page looks like it’s sponsored by the St. Valentines Day Massacre — you’re banner ad is what, like 70 pixels, and your banner is what, like 90 pixels? How is that not invasive? You’ve got 14 different pictures, not including the movie promos, with surrounding text boxes, each trying to stand out over one another.

It’s completely inaccessible how the features and poll and advertising is laid out on the front page, and once a reader manages to click through there’s just a never-ending central column to scroll down. Awful.

As for the stories, your writers are pretty decent, but the stories themselves lack any sort of immediacy that the internet.com thrives on; most of your stories are the sort of thing I expect to read in last month’s Minneapolis/ St. Paul magazine. Your bar section, for example, lists the three bars that I’d expect every 30+ year old who has lived in the Cities for more than six months to already know about. Terrible.

And the only thing that I did like about the site was that the fun “try this” shout boxes, and those are even problematic because first they are stacked at the bottom of the content totem and second expose the fact that the site doesn’t know if it’s a directory, a places for reviews, or an on-line magazine (the same is true of the polls).

That’s as logical as I can be. You might owe Rex a few bucks for his critique, but my feedback is free.

And Purple Rain isn’t tonight because this is an old post.

the term “sotan” kind of makes me gag. there’s just something so unappealing about it. plus, until i read this thread, i had NO idea why there was a site called sotanlife and what the hell it had to do with the twin cities. it’s just not a term people throw around. thank god.

To agree with Taylor, I was wholly confused at first as to which banner was for what.

Also, for a site dedicated to a community, interactivity is really important. I don’t see any of that on sotanlife. If it is there somewhere, then it’s not prominent enough.

And to agree with vampkate: I’d never heard “Sotan” before. Did the site creators make it up?

the way the ’sotans’ keep showing up like this makes me think that it’s just their way of staying in the conversation. i mean, seriously, who in their right mind would think the ultracynical internet crowd would respond favorably to a bunch of astroturfing and “please love my website” comments?

• “the product we have created”
• “sotan”
• “the most expansive and usable database for Sotans to use in finding arts and entertainment”

Yuck.

Sorry, but the whole aesthetic makes me ill. The dark, garishly-hued Minneapolis/St. Paul skyline photos just make me think of cheesy, low-rent TV newscast graphics, the 3AM vomit stench in the back of a police car, and polyester-clad politicians on the take from sleazy developers, getting jacked off in alleys on the creaky leather front seats of outdated, fuel-inefficient, domestic sedans. A night on the town, indeed.

Combine the above with a seeming fetish for black/burnished silver/purple/etc. in the backgrounds and graphical elements, and the site is about as cheery and inviting as a morgue.

How about some blue sky and fluffy white clouds?

And I really, really tried, but I can’t help but loathe “Sotan”. Having lived here all my life, I have yet to hear the term. It’s just a bad-sounding construction, like calling people from Green Bay ‘Sconers or people from Fargo ‘Kotans. For some reason, Sotan makes me think of the white, crusty precipitate left on the inside of a plastic tub after someone’s soaked their smelly feet in epsom salts and emptied the water, leaving the tub to dry in the late-afternoon sun.

a.h.o.i., based on your first paragraph, I just want to say I’ll be interested in investing in YOUR entertainment web site. You seem to know how to really have fun without having to go all the way to the Chanhassen Dinner Theater.

I don’t like the name either. It seems pretty contrived. The site strikes me as a bit sterile, but I have a friend who worked on it, so lay off! Just kidding. This is good, albeit harsh feedback for the creators….

when i first visited the site (after a spam-ish comment on MNstories.com that i didn’t approve), i was very confused about the name “sotanLIFE” and these “sotans” they kept referring to. i thought it was some little club i wasn’t a part of. then when i found out it was their contrived attempt to create a cute little name for Minnesotans — i, too, gagged.

i think the panoramics, video, and menus are great on the few restaurants that have them. it’s way more thorough then other sites in that regard, i think. but of course there are only a handful, and i honestly don’t care about your articles – i’d rather have quick easy access to the restaurant guide.

still, i’d welcome your advertising on MNstories.com

I agree with the “sotan” references – does anybody actually refer to themselves as a “sotan”? I certaintly don’t. I don’t know anybody that does.

I was actually designing a “Mpls/St. Paul Nightlife” site myself. It was to be called Minnesota Pulse (http://www.mnpulse.com). Half-way through my project, however, sotanlife.com was born. I realized that, while their site was terribly designed and rather cheesy, they had obviously put a lot of time into the database and advertising (I’ve seen sotanLife.com advertisements at bars/restaurants/lifetime fitness even!).

I decided to go a different route and dedicate my site to local developments, both residential, and commercial etc; one of my other hobbies.

My point is this: It is a well though-out site, and has more potential than most other MN “Scene” websites. I say give it a chance, give it a while to realize that text-based advertising is more effective and more appreciated by users, and I think it will be a great source for what its intended use is.

Shameless Plug: In the meantime, check out the site that was created because I didn’t want to bother to compete with sotanlife: http://www.mnpulse.com/

in my opinion the site is solid. the search works well and the search results have a lot more info than some of the other listing sites. the places that have photos/video etc…are impressive, I wish there were more.

I would like to know what you see as a website that so much as competes with the product we have created. I completely disagree that our advertisements are invasive. Could please present me with an example of a web page that incorporates web advertisement in a fashion that pleases you? Its not like we bombard you with pop-ups and unrelated ads. I appreciate that you share a similar passion for finding the best way to locate arts and entertainment in the Twin Cities, but I would respect your opinions more if you would present a valid case for your opinions rather than patching up fallacies with sarcasm.

This is what I was talking about.

This is what I was talking about.

Content aside one thing I noticed as a webmaste is the use of contextual ads from both Google Adsense and Yahoo YPN on the same page. This is a violation of the Terms Of Service from both companies I believe. Also the arrows pointing to each YPN add may be a violation of the Yahoo TOS it certainly would for Google.