The Weblog Review

I have been tracking justafreak for a little while now. They had found a loophole with the voting system and managed to get a near perfect reader score, while having nearly 4,400 reader votes. That is what first lead me to justafreak.

The first thing that loads is a flash intro. Yay, an elaborate splash page. Ok, the flash thing was pretty cool and had good music, so I won’t take off points for that. But then after that is done loading, I am greeted with another splash page! Not one, but two splash pages. Seriously what is the purpose in doing that? We all know how I feel about splash pages.

So I finally get to the main page and it isn’t the blog like normal. There is a nice design and it has a welcome message along with some news. The navigation can be found on the left with a tiny interface that has all the links, or at the bottom in standard text link mode.

Now I am to the blog and I find an interesting blog. Its close to your standard blog with the types of entries (Friday Five, feelings about a girl, Friends…) but yet is unique in its own way. You can actually tell that there is an individual voice behind the words.

One of the more interesting features the site has is a restricted page. You need to figure out what the username and password are, but they are in a blog entry. Not too hard to figure out if you have heard riddles before. The only thing the restricted area has is a blog decoder key which lets you decode certain blog entries. These entries are a little more personal and he only wants people that are smart enough to actually read them.

Over all I have to give justafreak a 3.0 for a couple of reasons. The fact that I had to go through 3 different pages just to access the blog was a bit much for me. 2 splash pages is not a cool thing in my opinion. Also the design while good is somewhat hard to navigate and would be even harder if not for the text links. But the writing is good and the entries are good and that is what matters.
justafreak

Reservations… What an interesting name for a weblog. Does it suggest that the author will hold back information from us that we are supposed to figure out? Or does it suggest the place in which he lives? The answer was neither of those. I don’t really understand why there is the name of Reservations at all. Actually the site had a new title of Lux Aeterna which I have no clue what that means or is.

When the page loaded I was introduced to one of the simplest designs I have ever seen for a weblog. Two columns, equal in width and centered on the screen. The left column is all the navigation stuff, and the right column is the information that is presented. Above the right column is a nice image that is hard to explain as it is abstract. The only problem I have with the design is that the main area column is too skinny. It should be wider, but of course keeping it this width makes the posts seem longer than they really are.

The most recent posts are obviously what you read first. I was a bit disappointed with the most recent entries as they read like that of an instant message transcript. Sentences like I wuz lik so0o0o0o sirprizd are just obscene to me. Why would someone butcher the English language that much, especially on a forum where so many people can read what you post?

Then I got to the end of the front page, and was disappointed. There was no visible link to the archives, however I found one here. I hate having to find it myself, but at least it was easy to find.

It was in the archives that I found out about Mike the author. The posts from further back really gave a lot of information while not doing so directly. Mike actually is a good writer. Some of the posts were poems or song lyrics that he had written which were amazing. Other posts were just funny rants and raves. But if you only read the most recent posts you would be turned away.

Overall this is a good site. It has its pluses and its minuses, but is at least entertaining. With a little bit more direction and purpose I think Mike will have a really good weblog. Of course, he is only 15, so we have yet to see the best from him.

Reservations

Simplicity and Chaos, the name prepares you for the site you are to encounter. Primarily a blog come journal this site incorporates some classical MT design features in a very structured layout, little boxes break up the entries and the links. Its clear and easy to surf.

The journal entries themselves are concise and straight to the point, written in a note like format. It isn’t blossoming with detail, but could be interesting to those who are interested in the lives / experiences of other people, especially women. For Jennifer blogging is an opportunity to lay her life on the line, and to grow as an individual because of it. I didn’t see much evidence of that, but it is still a young journal and I feel confident that he writing style is such that it will grow alongside her confidence.

Rated 2.5 – A nice tailored design with concise entries. Good for those who enjoy the lives and experience of an individual.
Simplicity and Chaos

First impression; flash intro, never my thing. Generally not blessed with that desirable trait of patience I frequently shut sites down with slow loading and seemingly pointless flash. On this occasion I thought it only fair to sit through it and wait. In their defence there was an option to skip the intro, an option I took the second time I loaded it only to be presented with a second page and an “entry image”. I never quite see the point in these things.

When you eventually pass through the flash introduction and pretty images of falling snow the site design isn’t that bad, it’s very simple and understated. Quite clearly it is designed with the smaller screens in mind, leaving a great wedge of yellow at the side of anyone with a large monitor. A minor misdemor by all accounts.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the blog, I had a feeling it may well be a personal blog – I refer to as a journal rather than a blog, and I was pretty much right by all accounts. It’s a conglomeration of journal entries, random links and personality tests, nothing unique but no less worthy than any other. It was easy to navigate and the blog itself was nicely designed and easy to read.

I noticed in passing that some of the entries were encrypted, requiring a password to read. I must admit to wondering the point of all this, when quite clearly some of the passwords were displayed above the section. There may be point to it, but it eluded me.

I was left wondering if this site would appeal more to Steve’s friends and acquaintances than to random visitors, but still it remained an interesting voyage into the life of a stranger in passing. I gave this site a rating of 3, a good design despite the seemingly pointless flash introduction, an interesting journal of personal entries, the odd cool graphic, but no come back factor.
justafreak

I wasn’t sure what to expected from a site entitled “Depressed Cow”, but whatever it was this site didn’t really fit the bill. I don’t mean that in the bad sense either, because more than anything else I expected a poorly designed diary filled with rants about the inadequacy of their lives. Depressed Cow doesn’t really fit that bill. The design on entry immediately brings to your attention that the author knows exactly what they are doing.

The beauty of this site lies with the graphics, they are superb and not you’re run of the mill borrowed clip-art, these are truly the work of an individual. Obviously a popular item, because the author has taken the time to set up a collection with café press. For once I can understand why. These graphics are quirky, individual and above all else hilarious. Am I raving too much about the graphics? OK I’ll move on.

This is a personal blog in every essence of the word; it’s a journal, filled with truthful and detailed entries about the author’s everyday life. She has an easy style of writing, and thankfully with better grammar than I can muster. A journal with appeal and judging from her bio this is not without reason. I liked this journal because she has the courage to stand forward and admit she has a problem, works with it via blogging, and I think in doing help others with the same.

Overall the design is stunning and despite being a journal, and therefore personal in every essence of the word a very enjoyable read. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but undoubtedly a site which would attract a loyal cliché of returning visitors. I give this site a rating of 4, for the good design and the author’s strength to face a problem in such an honest and enjoyable way. Good luck in your endeavors Becky.
:: Depressed Cow ::