Dr D's New Comm Tech

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Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Great Blog Review, Week 5

Hello everyone and welcome to the first of our fabulous blog reviews.

In this post I'm going to give a brief rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly; what works, what doesn't, and what might need improving for our next review in Week 9. I'm going through the links in the sequence that they appear on the sidebar list over yonder. No names, but I will be listing the URLs.

The general criteria that all the NCT Nathan tutors are going by is: the blog is in place and looks good, there are pictures and videos embedded and they relate to the course/student's theme, there are interesting and accurate reports in the blog, there is some sign of completing ‘extra’ tasks and showing engagement with lectures and tutorials.

So, take a deep breath and here we go:

http://alissaedition.blogspot.com/ - 60% (Pass)
The blog has some promising reflective criticism in its entries. The use of media is strong, but as a casual reader I found the style and format of the entries was often ugly and uncouth, and would be more likely to drive away readers than retain the gaze. The biggest issue with the entries is that they don't attend to enough of the lecture topics. Overall, there's great potential here for something bigger and better.

http://teenageviewsonadultsubjects.blogspot.com/ - 88% (High Distinction)
A fabulous blog, even if the matte pink background is gaudy as hell. The vivacity of the entries is truly wondrous, and the inclusion of links, media, and emphasis is very tactful. This is the sort of standard a professional blog needs; the style alone is easy to navigate and stands out in a reader's mind as something like "I'm going to read 'Adult Subjects again today".

http://annargh.blogspot.com/ - 48% (Pass Conceded)
There's a nice touch of style to the design of this blog. The orange text contrasts against the hip black background with appeal. The problem is: there's just not enough of the thing. Content, content, content!
http://lifeonwire.blogspot.com/ - 90% (High Distinction)
God I love this thing. The blog's well-designed, well-written, intellectually curious, and built with thought and care. If you were picky you could say that the unfinished scavenger hunt was bothersome and that the videos could have been included with more aplomb from time to time, but really that's just being picky -- which this marker is.
If you're going to sign off "The 5 w's and h", you've got me worried. Not just because it's unclear how 5 w can have "and h" (because it's a possessive clause, not a plural), but because the blog begins so blisteringly well and then becomes ever-more reductive in its reflections. Good inclusion of media but often without sufficient explanation as to why this might interest the audience. It just needs a bit more 'lift' to get the 5 Ws over the line with the H.
Blues clues as a colour palette? Why not. The later entries whip up a storm, and this really improves the whole feel. Sure, the 250 words guideline seems to have been misconstrued as law here, but what I really like is how the blogger clearly knows how to write those words: punchy, with it, and full of concentrated ideas. A sloppy copy-paste early on though, tsk tsk tsk.
The fundamental thing here needs to be content. Two posts isn't a lot of work. There's clearly some good critical thinking going on when something is written. Dare to author more, please!
Twilight? Emo? No, not really. The cynical reason that emerges from many of the later entries inhibits some genuinely good ideas from going as far as they can and definitely should. It's a good colour scheme -- easy on the eyes -- and the graphic above the entries is very apt. But, again, two posts per week/lecture topic is the benchmark and this just isn't there yet.
http://elieschkesays.blogspot.com/ - 85% (High Distinction)
Great entries, dull palette. Design does matter and as you can see from the way the colours of the "Leave Britney Alone!" clip capture your eye with their contrast, something needs tweaking here. The entries sound honest and thoughtful, and this gives them an air of authenticity that is hard to get on a screen.
Sensible palette, solid writing when it happens. Sadly, there's just not enough content.
Holy pink-ola batman! The diaries of super-villains never achieve this kind of quirky design; bravo! The writing could be a little more enticing from time to time, and the inclusion of media became fleeting, but on the whole it's a decent effort.
ESL status aside, this is a well-composed blog. The balance of writing and media is perfect. However, the amount of content is a bit lacking. Two posts per topic!
We go to many interesting places but rarely with a reason. The inclusion of media needs explaining, otherwise it gets too enigmatic and suspenseful. In this colour scheme, black and white or grayscale images work much better than colour, and perhaps this points to some problems with the colour palette. The writing is very conversational, which has its pros and cons: it's easy to read but it's not doing a lot to engage the reader.
Must... choose... one... text... colour... It's a very post-modern colour selection for the entries as a whole. And it works. Lots of topical keywords drop throughout the entries, which is good; but could do with a bit more beefing up with critical reflection. This is one blog where Google-chauvinism can be well and truly attacked, please do!

http://kate-interestblog.blogspot.com/ - 90% (High Distinction)
Mhmm, this is definitely a good design. The best use of the fish gadget yet! There's an impressive palette here that accompanies some very strong writing. Personable and easy to read, I wonder where this blog will go to next?!
The design is fab. The text colour is sometimes hard to read though. The content picks up its game in the later entries, but should have been more finessed. I really like the tone of voice used here: it's engaged, slightly polemical (read: opinionated). The media, though, could have been better used at times.
http://arabianxx.blogspot.com/ - 75% (Distinction)
When it's on song, this blog is great. Some of the writing was a bit mechanical, but the overall vibe was engaged and thoughtful, and the inclusion of media was very nicely handled.
The case of the vanishing student perhaps? Please get in touch with either myself or Adam Muir and we might be able to be of assistance to get you back on track.
http://guesswhat-nelly.blogspot.com/ - 88% (High Distinction)
Yes! This is a great piece of work. The colour palette is inventive and the design is mostly working except for the birthday countdown. The entries are well-composed and this goes a long way to making the blog accessible to a wide audience.
Umm, I'm not really sure about the palette. There's some promising writing here, capitalise on it!
Courier rocks in blogs. It gives them this retro vibe of a typewritten textscape as it does in this one. More media might help brighten up the space, and grayscale images could add to the retro vibe. Let your thoughts flow in your entries a bit more.
This type of colour palette is best taken with some dark wave minimalist electro and a few shots of absinthe: it works, but the deep red on black can be hard to read. This is a problem because the links in the sidebar are clearer than the 'guts' of the blog. Put some of that angst into serious criticism and this blog will be genuinely awesome.
Yes but no. Where's the content? Where's the edge to this sepia-toned saturnalia?
There's a market for this sort of writing. The tone is that of review and it emotes best when it emotes with words rather than emoticons. These entries feel engaged, and this makes them worth some close attention. However, there is room for more content here.
http://serena2190.blogspot.com/ - 48% (Pass Conceded)
Tasteful, elegant, and a shade generic. When something's generic it looks like a few things, not just itself, and this makes me wonder if the writing could integrate media with more panache. There's not enough content here, but there is plenty of potential.
It's a texty wonder. More media would be welcome, but the writing is coherent and on target. The site itself has ad-baggage, and this might make your readers nervous about their cookies. Also, the font size is mega-small and hard to read -- maybe give it a tweak?
A very efficient tone pervades this blog. It means business. The design gives this tone a bit of an alternative kink which is welcome given that a lot of the entries take some time to get into. Maybe what we need to see here is a hook: an opening line that brings the reader in. Links and other media work well here, so the hook would really knit it all together.
The balanced critical voice of this blog is one of its biggest virtues. This tone sets the readers eye to the screen and links the media in with a fabulous semiotic knot. A shade more media could have been added.
Pink is a persistent colour, and one that can compliment a wide variety of other colours. In terms of blog design, it tends to balance the tones and shades of other media included, and it does that here. The writing feels a bit impacted at times, and many of the ideas could get some good shrift if given the space.
There's a lot of good entries here, but there could be more. The Habbo Hotel entry shows us a sense of satire that might be helpful to unearth some other critical distinctions. Dare to go beyond YouTube.
Ooh la la! Best 'blog' design thus far. The text volume to screen space ratio is fabulous, even for laptops. Good choice. The substance of the entries is a little lack-luster though.
Blogicus Interruptus might be the byline here... The entries are great when they're going, but the author's noted interruption clearly has had an effect on the blog as a whole that is in redress. There's also some kind of alchemy going on behind the scenes here, the entries are very good. So, please, let's see more of them.
I love LJ's ease of use. Sure, it's owned by a Russian company who have only recently learnt the lessons of Six Apart's user-centric mantra, but the design of the blogs on LJ still feel smooth. The entries have a personal tone, which is very good at contextualising the material but does make some of the criticisms seem a bit whiny -- not that they are, it's just a semiotic effect of the personal voice being used.
A good mix-and-match effect is going on here. Some more care could be taken with how the entries appear, but the overall design and execution is quite pleasant to read over.
More content please. The entries that are there are of a decent standing however.
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And so concludes our Week 5 review of the blogs. I enjoyed getting a sense of how many cynics are out there (surprisingly few) and the link-ability of certain sites. There's some room for the writing to 'link' a bit more. This would help those small, concentrated entries to take on a new lease of life. On the whole, good work everyone.
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