The Weblog Review

What is the vn/vo? Who is Christopher J. Falvey? Why should we care? What does the vn/vo stand for? Why am I asking such silly questions? Some questions, obviously, are meant to be answered. Others, however, are meant to be ruminated upon, digested, and then ultimately ruled as inconsequential. The vn/vo dedicates itself to providing ‘a little more signal’ and ‘a little less noise’. Even the tagline to the front page, ‘assuming you’ve noticed the random taglines,’ seems to be a clever message hidden just out of view of the casual browser. Despite the barrage of words we’re assaulted with in the front page, therefore, we’re strangely drawn to explore this site.

The articles on the site, which range in length from 2 to 5 pages, are, in general, far from light reading. Mr. Falvey’s crusade to communicate through content is glaringly obvious in the way he eschews attractive templates or distracting pictures in favor of unrelenting prose. The vn/vo doesn’t believe in mincing its words, either. Mr. Falvey believes that tax money and tsunami relief don’t mix, that religion has no place in government, and he’s not afraid to tell you why. Thankfully, he does this in a consistently thoughtful, engaging manner. The subject matter is eclectic, ranging from the reasons behind the Iraqi war to the emerging blogosphere.

Given the vn/vo’s emphasis on content, the layout does pretty much exactly what it’s supposed to do. All entries are made readily available from the front page, which resembles some sort of electronic newspaper. While it seems a little intimidating at first, the interface in many ways conveys the same message as the articles; the message that this site is meant to stimulate thought. It is not meant to be a five minute surf stop, despite its flippant taglines and occasional humorous entry. This site is, as it claims to be, largely content based, and this fact is clearly reflected in its presentation.

While I didn’t find myself agreeing with all of Mr. Falvey’s points, his well-argued entries definitely do a good job in highlighting the logic of his arguments. The one recurring theme, however, seems to be the American public’s love for simplicity and easy answers, as well as their inability to understand simple statistics. Mr Falvey, it seems, has taken it upon himself to do his part in educating as many people as he can, and I have to say, he does a decent job of it.

The best thing about the vn/vo, in my opinion, is Christopher Falvey’s ability not only to communicate what he thinks, but also why you should care about what he thinks, or why you should even consider the issue in the first place. In talking about steroids in baseball, for example, he relates baseball to the ‘great American drama’; Mr. Falvey has a knack for translating things to a lowest common denominator, and he’s no slouch in exercising this talent.

Thus, all in all, the vn/vo is a great site to read if you’re looking for an opinion. In fact, it’s a great site to read even if you’re not. Just be prepared to stay there for a little more than five minutes, and don’t expect any pretty pictures.THE VN/VO (www.vnvo.com)

This blog at first, appeared to be another boring “ramble pot” filled with the same old generic issues but, once I actually began reading the posts…..wow!

Wow, is all I could say because, for such a man of the world, he definately has no graphic design abilities. However, the writing is superb! Sanjay does most of the posting seemingly about his travels and observation of everything from art to Kansas City BBQ which by the way, is the best barbeque in the world!

Very interesting blog and fun to read, aside from the “F-Bomb” smacking you in the face now and again. The design is definately worth 1000 yawns because it’s obviously a basic Blogger template but, it’s clean.

Overall, I’d say that my probability of recommending this blog to others is very high because I really enjoyed reading it. I’m probably a little picky about design factors so, others may enjoy the “no clutter – no graphics” appearance. I think it’s got class!

BYLINE : Sam Ernesto

This is one site that captivated my attention right from the top to the bottom. The blog and the design are simple and pleasing to the eye without any glare to the brains.

This weblog is all about world news with a touch of satire. It has latest scoops from all over the world and makes good reading for taking good-natured pokes at any person or any socially established fact. This may not be the stuff one may find in the biggest newspapers around you. However, as one reads through the posts one will find some insights and playful banters on things that are instructive as well as witty. As this blog is supposedly (I could not find profiles for the other “correspondents” on the blog) by eight different persons / personalities the variety of news and daily scoops are very interesting to read. This is one definite blog for the reader who likes varied news and doesn’t mind, sometimes chilling, looks into the author’s scoop on scoops.

The design of the site is quite simple and appealing as I have mentioned earlier. The links and other information provided on the right are many, but organized. One thing that was bothering my eye now and then was the amount of text-ads and other ads. The number of ads on the page could be reduced.

I would put this blog as witty and satirical. This is a terrific blog for anyone who can look at two or perhaps three sides of a story. And it may not be as interesting for any one who wants the scoops straight.
BYLINE : Sam Ernesto

James is a 15 year old living in Melbourne, Australia; his blog is rather modestly titled imperfection. When you first access the site, you see a picture of the owner, which I can only describe as rather blah. On the sidebar, you see all the bells and whistles you expect from bloggers who adopt these little site tweaks in a relatively indiscriminate fashion. Bashing personal sites always makes me feel a little guilty, especially when they’re written by bloggers as young as James. Unfortunately, there’s very little about this site that compels me to recommend it.

James’ youth is made glaringly obvious in many of the entries; his sense of humour at times borders on the puerile. While it’s perfectly normal for a fifteen year old to find guys dancing to Lady Marmalade funny, I somehow couldn’t find it in me to laugh with him; not without a video of the event, anyway. James’ life and his thoughts on it also seem fairly predictable. His entries on his crushes, homework or social life really didn’t draw very much of a reaction from me – I just couldn’t find it in me to care. There’s just very little original content in this site, and very little to draw new readers in. On top of this, James has a whole category of his blog dedicated to quiz results; in my opinion, the frequency of online quizzes is often inversely proportional to the quality of the blog. After reading through the blog (and finding myself falling asleep), I feel my suspicion holds true.

I’ve never liked the modblog template; the archives are difficult to access, the three-column design makes the site feel a little too cluttered for my taste, and the fact that they are, apparently, not that customizable just makes them feel like they’re a tad too uniform. Imperfection is no exception to this rule. In fact, all the added features in his sidebars leave his blog feeling like a refugee camp for has-been online fads.

While I’m sure that James is a fine young man, his blog leaves a lot to be desired, especially if he’s hoping to catch the attention of an unforgiving internet audience. I’m sure that as James’ writing skills improve, his blog will improve as well. However, at the moment, I find his blog a little hard to read, and a lot harder to like.

All in all, therefore, to call this site imperfection is a bit of an understatement, given its many flaws. Given James’ youth, I hope his next foray into the blogging world fares a little better than this one.DWX – James’ Blog

“Looking out the window…” is the personal blog of Ashley, a young woman from Canada (who I am estimating to be 20ish) who is also a 2nd year Honors Sociology student at a University. Ashley posts regularly on the blog regarding happenings in her life and what’s going on around her (hence the title).

My ititial thoughts on this blog were “Yucky”, because I use the Firefox browser. When I switched to Internet Explorer, the blog looked fine. When I began to look at her site through my own window, I got a good sense of her life and what was going on in it.

I like the fact that Ashley has a lot of pictures on her blog. A blog can be just all text, but it’s always good to add photos with your posts to give the reader an extra idea of what you’re writing about.

Aside from the non-Firefox friendly layout, I like the colors and graphics. I think the huge strawberry in the bottom right of the page is an added touch. The blog itself has a very simple design, which is not too flashy, but gets the point across. The only thing I would do is invest a litte time in making sure that the design is compatible with popular browsers. Someone who visits the site will be more likely to stay and read more of your posts if the blog is easy to read and aesthetically pleasing.

I give you a “B” for effort. Definately an interesting read.Looking out the window…