Month: January 1970

When I first arrived at The Bachelor Blog it took my eyes a few minutes to adjust. With a bright yellow background, blue links, and red and black text it’s a little harsh. The second thing I noticed was a large blurb at the top of the page announcing that The Bachelor Blog had recently been featured in Psychology Today magazine. I searched for some sort of biographical information on the author (an “About Me” page) but could find none, so I jumped over to the magazine write-up thinking it would give me some idea of what I was in for. What I read intrigued me. Psychology Today had the following to say:

Self-Absorbed single guy gives online dating (and bachelors and, for that matter, men in general) a very bad name. What women fear men are really like.

I wasn’t sure I would like what I was about to read but I figured that it had to be interesting. I’m not easily offended. I was pretty sure women were going to get some harsh treatment here, but that didn’t bother me. If it’s done right, written well, and above all funny, crude humor can make for a fantastic blog. I hoped that was what I would find in The Bachelor Blog.

I was wrong.

The Bachelor Blog is a site with an identity problem. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s clear from reading through the archives (beginning in April of 2002) that the author is trying to present himself as some sort of player, stringing along multiple women by cheating, lying, and manipulating. He strives to create something cool and humorous (albeit coarse) and perhaps if he had a flair for writing, a decent sense of humor, or a spell checker, he could have pulled it off.

As it is, the site is flat and lifeless. Instead of a boorishly funny take on the dating scene, The Bachelor Blog is just plain boring. The entries are poorly written with many misspellings and grammatical errors. A few mistakes here and there are no problem, but these occur so frequently and are so awkward that it makes many entries downright difficult to read. The never-ending procession of women runs together after a bit until you can’t tell any of them apart anymore, even though the Bachelor is kind enough to provide a guide to the rotating cast of characters.

The author designed the site himself and although it’s not the worst blog I’ve laid eyes on it could definitely stand a few improvements. The colors are harsh on the eyes and there are some long stretches where the author uses different fonts, colors, and font sizes for each entry. Combine these with the previously mentioned careless errors and boring subject matter and reading The Bachelor Blog becomes a frustrating experience.

If the author concentrated a little less on slapping himself on the back and a little more on crafting well-written posts, The Bachelor Blog could turn into something interesting. Until then, it’s merely one more wannabe in a sea of vastly superior blogs.The BachelorBlog

One of the problems with political blogs is that the author’s bias frequently overshadows the actual issues being discussed. Normally, if you want to see a topic examined from all sides, you have to jump from conservative blogger to liberal blogger to libertarian blogger and back again. Begging To Differ solves that problem.

BDT is a collaborative blog with four authors: two conservatives (Steve and Greg) and two that lean a bit more to the left (Ramar and Mike). The “About” page reveals that the four met online in a Duke basketball forum. Eventually, their discussions turned towards politics and culture and the idea for a blog was born.

Although relatively new (the blog began in July of this year), Begging To Differ is already a substantial site. The authors are prolific and update frequently. Each displays a distinct voice and they are all passionate about their political beliefs. There’s something here for everyone, liberals and conservatives alike. The only requirement for enjoyment? Intelligence and knowledge of current events. BDT doesn’t pander to its readers or dumb down the discussion.

The design of the site is simple and pleasing. A three column layout in blue, grey, and white that looks good in the major browsers puts the focus where it ought to be: on the writing. It’s not the most original I’ve seen, but makes sense for a blog of this nature.

Some very pretty photographs appear here and there and lend a bit of flash to the blog. One of the newer features, the weekly BDT Sunday Comics, is a nice addition. It is a collection of samples from several online comics.

Overall, I found Begging To Differ a well-done political/news blog. The writing is witty and insightful (always a plus), and having such varying political views in one spot is refreshing. For the news from all sides, visit Begging To Differ. Begging To Differ

Initial instincts about a site can often be bad, or good, depending on the content and execution of the site. When I first came across soiledmypants I thought, “cute.” It’s a nice little design, with a picture of the author, I’m assuming, in the header.

The blog is a little confusing, but it doesn’t take too long to figure things out. If you visit the “vintage” link you’ll find a listing of all the archives for this blog. The blog itself, going back to the beginnings, looks as though it was started on another site. This particular version of the site was a continuation of something that once existed before. Where any of those writings are I’ll never know, but you first get introduced to the author in a very humorous light. The entries focus mainly on the daily thoughts of the author. They’re filled with lots of emotion about experiences. One of the most entertaining entries I read was about her trip to Los Angeles. It brought back a lot of my own memories of living there, and it was a pleasure to read.

The entries focus mainly on the ongoing struggles and successes of this author’s life. They’re well written considering she’s not English or American. There are a few typo’s but they’re easily overlooked when reading more of the entries. This blog is quite an entertaining read, however if you’re not interested in acting or improv then you might want to avoid some of the more recent entries that talk mainly of these things. This blog seems to be a means of self-discovery for the author, and I applaud her for doing just that.

The design of the blog works well enough. I enjoy the picture changes when you go to different pages of the site. I definately like the greens that are used as well. It’s simple, but easy on the eyes. One of the few downfalls I noticed were the links. The text pops. It’s hard to describe, but there’s a javascript that makes the words change spacing… a lot! When you hover the links turn red. It’s not so much that I dislike red, it just doesn’t go very well with the rest of the site in it’s hues of green. Some pages stop “popping” when you hover, and others continue doing this regardless. It’s not so much that it’s unpleasant to the eyes, it’s just visually distracting. The archives, as I mentioned are a little hard to find, but once you find them, there’s a lot to read. One last thing I noticed is the fact that this site is contained inside of frames. I have nothing against frames, as I use them myself, it just takes away the ability for people to link directly to a specific entry (thus is the reason why I didn’t just link you to the Los Angeles entry).

There’s a short bio of the author on this blog. There are also places to view the art, and acting, however when I tried to view these pages they wouldn’t load. There are loads of external links to blogs this author reads. You can comment on recent entries, but because of comment hosting with yaccs, the older entries are archived.

This blog is an entertaining read for the most part. I enjoyed the entries and archives I read but would like to see a little bit more from the author. She’s got quite the sense of humor which makes reading the “everyday” entries all the more interesting in the long run. She spent a lot of time on the design of this blog and I commend her for the accomplishments. She has big dreams and is beyond determined to reach each and every one of them. You read that in her entries and you feel her determination through her words. soiledmypants.com

I was keen to review this site as it had a nice name. “I beg to differ” is a phrase I use a lot, is pretty appropriate to blogging and the owners of this group weblog have also sorted out the domain name too, which always suggests that an effort has been made. Once I clicked the link, my first visual impressions were also good- a technically sound moveable type blog which, although is a bit “templatey” (an adjective I just made up by the way) and slightly unimaginative, is nevertheless functional and does the job.

I quickly found the “About Begging to Differ” link, which gave me an idea of what I was in for beyond the “politics, culture and law” mentioned in the titlebar. It is interesting to note that the four people who contribute to this blog have never physically met, but previously frequented forums and the like together. There is also a rather sweet story about how the name of the site came about which I liked very much.

Ok, so far so good, but what about the content? Well, the title bar is a fair summation really- the posts are categorised in to the three subject areas mentioned, as well as “Prediction Watch” which is about er…predicting things and “Miscellaneous” for everything else. There is plenty of content to be found in all of these categories as there are (obviously) four contributors and archives go back to June 2003. It is also worth mentioning that the weblog is surprisingly unified and consistent, despite the authors having never met.

Anyone who is into US politics and/or law issues will love this blog as there is LOADS of material on these issues, all coherently argued and intelligently written. So what else is there for other readers? Well, quite a lot actually. Scanning the archives I found quite a few personal entries, usually including photos, entries about cookery, religion, blogging and other bloggers, humour and cartoon strips, movies, and for some reason the US “Survivor” series. All of these are again, well written and entertaining.

So there is something here for most people, though primarily those interested in US politics and law I would say. I didn’t give them 5 as there are no comments available, which I felt would really have enhanced the debates found here. Maybe the template could be livened up a bit too, or made a little more unique. Besides that, I reckon this is blogging (and especially group blogging) at it’s best.

Begging To Differ

I really wondered what was going to be waiting for me at The Imdateless.com Website. Was this going to be a male or female author? Was it just going to be like the other sites where the person goes out on dates with people and blogs about it? Or was this just going to be a dating website? Lots of possibilities, so lets hope for the best.

When I first got to the site I was greeted with a flash intro. I am not big on intro pages at all. I don’t think they serve a purpose other than inflating statistics for a page. I chose to skip the intro and I was presented with a membership page all done in flash. What the hell is going on here? This is a dating site? This isn’t a blog. Where is the blog? All of those shot through my mind immediately.

So I saw a non-flash intro link and clicked on that. Again, I am presented with a membership page and I am starting to get frustrated. I notice a news link on the left, so I click that. That expands into a couple of options so I click on current, and I am brought to a blog! Finally I found it. So for all of you who wonder where the blog is from the front page it is: Non-flash -> News link -> Current. Ok, since my first time visiting he added a “Current News” link on the front page. Just click that.

The design of the blog is very simple: two columns with navigation on the left. To give it a little bit of flair he is using a DHTML menu thing to expand and collapse all the options for the navigation. Kind of cool, but I can see where it will get annoying since he manually has to change it.

Now that I have gotten to the blog I found the golden gem. This blog, for the most part, is a very fun read. He talks about why he is dateless, his attempts at dating, and other things in his life. There are posts about updating the site which seem to get old and annoying quickly, but it just ads to his personality. One thing that he could benefit from is using includes as he talks about having to update like 90 pages every time he changes something.

The stories of why he doesn’t have a date and his attempts are the best. You just want to help this guy out with any advice you think you should give him. Some times I thought man he is trying way to hard, others I thought not hard enough, and other times I was asking myself “Why the hell is he doing that?” This is the only downside I have to the blog itself: it is good because of the topic and how he is telling it. What will happen when he does get a date? What will happen if he gets a second date? Will the stories still be as vividly told, or no? I hope not.

Overall we have a great blog with a great idea behind it. He even went so far as to make imdateless.com a company and to run it like a company. Interesting. The lack of a fluid design for the site and hard to find (originally) weblog make it hard to give it anything above a 4. This site has some improvements to make and I hope they get made. Interesting that my initial reaction for this site was give it a 2 or worse based on the hard to find navigation, but then this is the WEBLOG review and his weblog is very good.
The Imdateless.Com Website