The description given for Script Furnace is: “it’s about personal publishing. it’s about building community. it’s about collecting your personal spew and presenting it in a web accessible format that others can digest and comment upon… there are no expectations here. just write what you feel.”
I really liked the concept. I’d have liked it to be more international though. In the “what is scriptfurnace.com all about?” section, we are told “face it. community in america is bleeding, it’s an endangered species.” This weblog certainly is very American at the moment, what with the war, and I couldn’t get over the amount of times the word “patriotic” was used. If you’re non-American, “patriotic” gets boring.
Just as I felt everything was getting too “patriotic” I found posts and comments from authors with different opinions. This is the good thing about having a group weblog open to anyone. You get real variety and debate, rather than a one sided opinion and little chance to respond. Further down the archives, and away from war, the posts began to vary more as well. It is understandable that all recent posts are political, but it is nice to see ones about entertainment, sports, carrot vaginas and the personal lives of the contributors too.
The layout works well. Very simple and just right for the type of weblog this is. You have lots of choices too. You can access archives by month, week, day or category. This fits in with the concept of the site: to place the weblog into the public’s hands. The only complaint I have is that I work on a broken 12in screen [so a square 10in] and whilst most sites show up fine, this one required quite a bit of scrolling to the right.
Whilst I did find a few issues with the site, there were enough redeeming features that I’ve got to give it a 5. What really pushed it up there were the attempts made to make it accessible. You can post anonymously if you want [although I’m not sure if this is such a good option, but a brave one all the same], the “add a link to your site” button has a “show me how” link underneath, there is a “how do I post” section. This is how a community website should be. I’ll definitely be back.
script furnace