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American Blogger
When I first saw the name American Blogger I thought this was going to be about a guy who would be blogging about the war in Iraq. But then I saw that the category he listed was movies instead of politics so I was revealed.
American Blogger is still a very young site being that it just started in April. Additionally the months are not filled with a lot of posts, or more specifically a lot of ranting and raving and general rambling that can be found in a lot of other blogs. Instead the author posts movie reviews, pictures of actresses, and sports information. I was very happy to see that the movie reviews were more than a quick blurb, but also they aren't long and drawn out giving away every detail of the movie.
The design of the site is a very simple two-column layout like most blogs are now. The header image looks cut off for me on the main page, but works fine for all the archives. This could be some issue with css and the browser I am using (Safari). The other down side to the site is that there is sort of a splash page. It is more of a intro page with links to six different areas of the site, but I still consider it a splash page, and we all should know how I feel about those now (in case you don't know how I feel, I do not like splash pages).
Back to the weblog itself: when the author does post pictures he is kind enough to send them through some filters and resizing in Photoshop, which is a nice touch. It made me feel like the author actually cared about the content of his site, rather than just throwing random pictures up of actress, sports figures, etc. The only downside I have to the blog is the lack of content. I understand that one cannot possibly see every single movie and write a review about it, but the fact that there are posts about actresses and sports should be able to get enough content for the author.
Overall I thought the concept of American Blogger was a good one and the execution is there too. I do however feel that the content really needs to be kicked up a notch to be really noteworthy. I enjoyed spending my time here and I hope that in time the site improves.
This site was reviewed on 2004-07-21 by Brent.
They felt this site belonged in the Movies category.
Brent felt that American Blogger deserved a rating of 3.5.
Wow.. the American blogger; this must be something – that’s a big claim.
The site has a menu page which leads to the various areas of the site. It links to the blog, photos, links, a guest book, FAQs and a Dallas Cowboys section. It looks good. Not all sections are complete; especially those concerning America’s team.
The design of the blog section is great. Simple and straight forward, easy to read, a great banner. There is a right hand side panel with links to the various parts of his site, his photos (and there are some great photos), other blogs and the perfunctory archives, previous posts and a search facility.
The links work and open in the same window. There is a comments resource which is often full of banter with James’ like minded readership.
The blog has been in existence only a short time since April 2004. He posts reasonably regularly and the posts are varied. Movie reviews is his main stay but he has diverse interests and diverse styles of presenting his opinions or snippets of information.
I made a big mistake which I hope not to repeat in future; I checked out this guy’s photo. Sometimes you can intuit a sense of someone’s personality from their photo and it happened here. James is a real nice guy. How can I be mean about a real nice guy? My daughter says I can’t and I’ve got to agree with her.
I get that sense from his writing too. His prose is not particularly wonderful. I’m not overly fond of some of his use of the vernacular. I’m not a slut or at least don’t appreciate being called one. I really couldn’t get too interested in the majority of his posting. I have very little interest in trivia, pizza or American sports. His film reviews were short but generally on the button, by which I mean I agreed with his opinion. However there is feel good factor here. He really is a nice guy. I also laughed out loud on a couple of occasions – I really did.
All you hip young trendy gunslingers will love James perhaps. He is fun and friendly and doesn’t really have a purpose. That’s no bad thing. Peace and love to the Big Dog… three out of five.
This site was reviewed on 2004-07-21 by Duween.
They felt this site belonged in the Movies category.
Duween felt that American Blogger deserved a rating of 3.
American Blogger opens to a very pleasant, atmospheric picture of the prairie. The railroad tracks and stop sign are an amusing way to tell us he thinks he lives in the middle of nowhere. I followed the link to his blog which has been in existence since April of this year. I was impressed by the opening page here too. The color scheme is eye pleasing and the header is a complex, if subtle montage. I started to get excited. This is a really great looking site. Very professional.
But then I started to read the posts. Mercifully, they are short. They consist of terse comments about movies, with very little in the way of commentary. Some entries contain a photo of an actress or model and some salacious comment on same. One link that I regrettably clicked on named "what can brown do for you" took me to a vulgar photo. I did not appreciate the ambiguity of the link. There are other posts on various short subjects such as sports or some odd bit of news that captured the author's attention that day.
In the sidebar are links to several photo galleries that include family members, "babes", goofy news photos of improbable events, and scenic views. Some of the pictures in the "Whacky and Funny" folder are pretty fun. But that's about as much fun that you are going to find on this blog. The author describes his blog in one post thusly: “So you ask what is the purpose of my blog, must there always be a purpose? I know it's not much, and it certainly won't make u smarter for reading it, I hope it doesn't make u stupid either. I just hope that you leave here with a smile.”
I suppose one could argue that blogs don't have to have a purpose. We could debate that. But I must say, I did not leave with a smile. Perhaps it had something to do with the entry that opened with these words: "So wassup sluts..."
This blog is listed under the "Movie" category. I can't say that it belongs there except that the author does watch movies, but he certainly doesn't spend much energy critiquing them.
I won't be coming back any time soon. The one point I am giving is for the design, which is undeniably quite good.
This site was reviewed on 2004-07-21 by Yetzirah.
They felt this site belonged in the Movies category.
Yetzirah felt that American Blogger deserved a rating of 1.25.
3 reviewers gave American Blogger an average rating of 2.5833
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Site Category: Movies
Reader Rating: 2.2500 based on 4 votes
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