The Weblog Review

Simply put, this weblog is a fun place to hang out.



The layout is crisp and clean, and the site is easy to navigate (although he doesn’t seem happy with it). The author has some interesting, fun, goofy pictures up. He also has several other fun diversions.



But the real appeal of the site is the weblog itself. The author’s writing is straightforward, gets to the point quickly. Some of his entries are hilarious and had me laughing out loud. Some make you think without being overly philosophical. Others are simply what he thinks about other sites on the ‘net. But just about every one of them is interesting, and there aren’t many weblogs out there like that. He updates regularly, often several times a day, which I like as well.



The author is an 18-year-old high school student, but I would recommend this site to anyone who wants to go to a feel-good weblog.tymelgren.com

I liked the bus at the top of the page. I really liked the bus. Maybe that’s something I should seek counseling about, but it really made my first impression of Ty’s site a good one. The first thing I thought to myself something along the lines of: “Oh, cool! A bus!” and it made me smile.



It probably takes a while to load on a dial-up connection, and the bright red background might cause some distress with various users. But the bus graphic drew my attention away from the red background, which would have normally made me cringe. While my description of it may lack in creating a visual picture for the reader, the actual concept of it really works for the site.



The weblog was very easy to read, which I liked. Most of the entries were just daily updates on what Ty was up to and the general happenings in his life.



Typically, you’re not going to find any profound, life-changing weblog entries here, but it is a nice casual read, if that’s what you’re looking for.



If you check out this site, be sure and look through the entire site. One of the best sections is under the “Crap” link, where you can find a link that allows you to “Dress Up Ty”. Now, I’m not sure how accurate the drawing of him is, but it’s still a really neat concept.tymelgren.com

There’s no easy way to review a site like zeldman.com. The eponymous writer is perhaps the best known of all webloggers; he is champion of web standards, involved in independents day and the ultimate designer resource ALA, and his weblog is a portal into the underbelly of the web programming world.



And yet that isn’t all there is to a site that adds to the inherent value of the web. His glamourous life (here with the correct English spelling), perhaps named with a hint of irony, is some of the most beautiful and touching writing outside of bluishorange.



Outsiders might overlook this site, as I first did when I stumbled upon it four or so years ago. It looks simple, with graphics employed sparingly. A lot of the posts really only cater for those with a real zest for web design. But this is a good thing; like the need for web standards, Jeffrey Zeldman’s daily report proves irresistible.Jeffrey Zeldman Presents

Orange! I don’t know if other reviewers leave the weblogs with blinding background colors for me, or if I am naturally attracted to them, but I seem to review more than my share of brightly colored weblogs.



Tyler is a teenager from Missouri, who has to traverse many of the same horrors that befall most teenagers. But Tyler is different, because Tyler has an ugly yellow bus on his weblog.



Aside from the bus and the orange background piercing through my skull, there is not much to the design of Tyler’s website. I can’t say the design is unappealing, because there really is not enough there, to really call it a design. Sparse, is probably the word I would use. Or, if I were being kind, I would say: the focus of this weblog is obviously on the writing.



Tyler is actually a prolific writer. There are many entries, most only a couple of lines long. The entries are fairly standard: a lot of quizzes and other teenage blather. Unfortunately, the lack of depth makes it hard to hold the interest of the reader. For example, when discussing the book A Farewell to Arms Tyler recommends, “I is kind of good, but it is one of like five books ever that I don’t recommend.”



That is a pretty strong statement to make without an explanation. I realize teenagers are not known for their depth, but Tyler is apparently in wading pool territory.



I am giving the site a 3, for its voluminous.

tymelgren.com

A vanity plate for a girl with no internal monologue. That’s the tagline for this weblog. The anonymous other of this weblog is an English teacher in the South Bronx — infdicating she is perfectly capable of putting the “smack down” on me if I dangle a participle in this review.



I will start with the design. The design is Blogger Template: Blue. Not very inspiring, and it appears that not a lot of time is spent working on the design. Of course, that can be forgiven, because Blogger is designed for people who are not necessarily interested in spending hours working on their site design.



That being said, design is really an integral part of expressing the personality of a weblogger. Poor design, sends negative connotations, regardless of the writing quality.



The author approaches her content almost as though she were relaying stories to her friends over the phone. The writing is very informal, and easy to read. The English teacher shows in the above average sentence structure and absence of spelling mistakes.



The entries are interesting, but standard fare for a weblogger in her 20s. I would like to see more entries though, and the archives section is broken, it took me a couple of tries to get the links for last year to work.



Over all, I am going to give this weblog a 2.5. If more effort was put into the design, and there were more entries this could easily be a 3.0+ weblog…to.

falling off