The Weblog Review

An Irish viewpoint and communist symbolism. These are two things that would make an ordinary weblog unique, yet selfishly both appear on Tom Cosgrave’s website.



Tom’s site offers everything you could want of a good weblog: an original perspective, a clear design, and a good writing style. And with archives stretching back to April of 2000, there’s plenty o’ content, if you’ll excuse the atrocious pun.



As an experiment, I looked back at the very early days of the site. Call it research if you will, but I consider this part of an ongoing experiment: to see if, given time, a weblog can truly mature. And it looks like here, at least, it can. The writing style has improved gradually with time, it has been refined and bettered with each rotation of the Earth, and it is good to see. It should also be encouraging for the countless websites I have disparaged at TWR: give it time and you will all get better. Maybe.



There’s no doubting it, Tom is a very talented person. The communism symbolism that decorates the site is very effective, and the fact that it is empty symbolism will appease over-serious readers. The avoidance of an obvious and inherently cliche’d Irish-inspired design is also a pleasant surprise; the blog would have been entirely less palatable if it had been in black and white or all green.tomcosgrave.com

This is the first site I have come across that is entirely devoted to the art of poetry.



That’s only because I’ve never had a reason to search out such a site in the past, but that’s no reason not to visit.



There is a grand amount of content here, from audio links to poetry, to poetry-related news articles and commentary.



The audio capabilities of the site are surely its unique selling point. A large number of texts can be listened to, and since poetry is far more rhythmic than ordinary writing, the option to listen is a very useful, and important one.



I am not in a position to comment on the quality of the poetry on the site – it is far too subjective a matter, even compared to critiquing weblogs.



The site is cleanly designed and laid-out, and should be a priority visit for all poetry enthusiasts. An excellent resource.Laurable’s Poetry Weblog

Dale B. Wood. Anglican, writer and teacher. This is his weblog.



First of all, the site design. The blog itself is composed of the most basic of basic blogger templates. The navigation is almost non-existent, so for a while I thought that there wasn’t even an About section. But there is.



Mr Wood’s blog is very important to him, that much is immediately evident by the occasionally humourous blog inspired bumper stickers scattered around the site.



I am a firm believer in chasing dreams, but at the same time I am a realist. On the one hand, I want to wish Mr Wood every success in his quest to become a writer. But on the other hand, I doubt he has much chance of success. The publishing world is well known to be visicious, and only the talented or commercially astute succeed.



From reading this blog, I wouldn’t want to read any of the writer’s work, and since none of it is presented online, I can only form an opinion from the small amount of content available.



They say that a good writer knows what to leave out. They also say that a good writer leaves it up to the reader to make their own conclusions, and for that reason only, and no other, should you visit this site.Rants and Epiphanies

The first thing to mention is possibly the most important: this site is certainly not aimed at ages 13 and under. In fact, quite the opposite. This site contains occasional bad language.



On the good side, the author has wisely chosen a system of introductory blogs that I would like to see on more sites: basically, it is a lead in to the blog, where the first couple of paragraphs are presented before a link is offered to take the reader to the rest of the post. The system works well because it gives the reader the choice of reading more on the topic, or continuing to browse.



The attitude of the posts was not one that I found entirely palatable. The writer is too often on the defensive, especially about weblogging, which is a shame. If the posts had a little more structure and didn’t necessitate a knowledge of all things past, the blog would be a much better prospect.



The vitriol is understandable, however; the author has evidently had a harder life than most, especially recently. If some of the attitude was replaced with composure and reflection, then this could improve greatly as a blog.



There are issues with the design – the aesthetic is inconsistent, and the choice of colours clearly reflects the nature of the site: black and yellow are nature’s warning signs after all.



As it is, with what can only really be described as an unfriendly design, the site scores a full point less than it is capable of.Enemy of the State

Xasperate was an overall “xcellent” site.



The topics of the weblogs ranged from technical/computer information and news to updates on little man Zac’s latest antics as he nears the terrible two phase. So, yes, there’s something for everyone.



With 12 different skins to choose from for the site, it certainly is the “skinnable blog”, as the title says. And, you’re positively sure to find a color/skin that you can deal with while reading through the weblog entries.



I really liked this site, and while there have been a few posts mentioning the demise of the site, I surely hope it sticks around for a while to come. There are too many good things about it to retire the site!xasperate