With a name like Doomsday America, I was expecting a blog that started roughly around the events of September 11th and being a very political based blog. Oh how I was wrong. What we have is an attempt to publish a book on the web that did not get published yet. The purpose of the website is “It is the intent of this web site to provide a method of making the contents of this book available to all who would heed its warnings.”
So the page loads and of course we have a picture of a New York skyline. What a surprise there. The entire site has a black background with blue and red text. The font size has been increased due to the fact that blue text on black background is hard to read. The links look like they are pre-made from a template as they are not even the same font as that of the main text. And finally as far as the design goes, the entire site is in frames. Any of you who saw me on TechTV’s Call For Help will know that I told Leo (the host of the show) that it was 2003 and he didn’t need frames any more.
Moving onto the content itself; Yes it is informative. Yes it is opinion based. Yes there is very little content. The website is posting one chapter at a time on the web. This is done obviously to draw in more people, but I think this is actually turning people away. There is no note saying how frequent the chapters are going to be, just that more will be coming. The table of contents says there are 21 chapters, but only the first chapter has been posted! And to make matters worse, the opinions stated do not have any facts to back them up.
One of the things the site is doing correctly is they encourage feedback and reader participation. Of course, this can only work if the message boards are up and running. But they aren’t. So another aspect this site has to draw in readers is not doing its job.
I am not sure why this site was submitted to us to review. It is only considered a weblog by the loosest of standards. This is more of a publication that will just sit there. I am curious as to why this book was written in early 2001 (before September 11) and is just now being put on the web. Why the two years? This site has a lot of work before it will garner readers. I do NOT recommend visiting this site, as it does not have enough content for you to read past 10 minutes, the message boards are not up and functional, and to be honest, it just isn’t all that interesting to read.
Doomsday America