How Did Our Site Look in 2012? (Our War with Google and Facebook)

Over the years we have radically changed the look of this site several times as our "tech skills" have evolved. So how did our site look back in the past?

Luckily somebody archived our front page back in 2012. You can see how it looked at this archive link.

Due to the "freer" nature of the internet back then, our site was able to get "hits" quite easily, despite being pretty basic. Now almost all blogs have to cut through a blanket of algorithm suppression.

In 2012 search engines like Google used "less complex" but better algorithms that optimised key words. Google’s Panda (2011) and Penguin (2012) updates started to change this, instead prioritizing sites that were paying into Google.

Also, in 2013. Google discontinued RSS Feeds and Blog Aggregators, which were widely used by bloggers to reach audiences who subscribed to their feeds directly, effectively de-democratising the internet by refusing to count people's own expressed preferences. Blog directories and aggregators also funnelled traffic to new blogs more effectively than modern equivalents.

Another key driver of clicks was our first Facebook page, but around 2012 Facebook also started hitting links to blog content so that they could either keep people "in app" rather than clicking out or force bloggers to buy overpriced Facebook "promotion."

This was "justified" as "low-quality site demotions" targetting those with "ad-heavy" or "thin content" (i.e. not much to read or see -- a bit like Facebook then). But, oddly, even major sites like The New York Times and The Guardian saw drops in social referrals by over 50%, so the real reason was a cynical attempt to boost Facebook revenue. Then in 2018 Facebook suddenly and totally shut down our account for unspecified reasons!

Since the internet ecosystem became less "friendly" to blogs, the survivors, like Revenge of Riff Raff, which has an incredible wealth of content, have had to constantly up their game.

Revenge...?

RIFF RAFF was a legendary rock magazine based in London in the late 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately, it was just too R n' R for its own good. A genuine working class rock mag, written, edited, and translated into 16 European languages in a drug-n-Jack-Daniels-fuelled haze, often on the back of motorbikes, with spell checking by our staff of attentive rock bimbos (chosen purely for their blondeness and big knockers), it soon fell behind more nerdy and woke publications like Q, Kerrang, Mojo, Metal Hammer, and Horse & Hound. This website is an archive and kind of shrine dedicated to the writing of its greatest writers... BUT it is also a place for new talent to rise and shine. So, don't be shy! In the words of the immortal Fly, send in your "news, blues, and reviews" - and even interviews if you've got the balls to buttonhole your heroes!