Arrival at a site is greeted with yet another version of the generic movabletype template, which is fine but not very eye catching. It looks OK, it doesn’t stand out and is little dull, but, it’s easy to read and isn’t hard on the eye. There is a small about me section part way down the left hand menu, containing a variety of links to a homepage (there’s a small biography off this link), and a few work and photo gallery links. Pretty standard stuff thus far, and so I head off to that first posting in the archives.
The first post confirms my initial suspicion, the author immediately detailing that the reason behind the blog is a mere jump onto the bandwagon. This is fair enough, its how a lot of people got into blogging, it’s also how we ended up with a lot of blogs with very little to say for themselves. That said I continued to read. Entries go back to June 2003, so I’m guessing that the scenery proved favorable to the author, check the first post and you’ll understand what I mean by that. Early on it struck me that this was going to be a very technical blog with just the odd personal entry thrown in for good measure, later I realise that this isn’t the blog of someone who has nothing to say themselves – there is in fact some interesting posts going on here, maybe not for everyone’s tastes but definitely people who share similar interests to the author. There is the odd example of some really great photography as well.
The posts are well written, they are easy to read and quite often (depending on the subject matter) I found them pretty informative and interesting. OK, they weren’t anything out of the ordinary, but I do think it has enough of a pull factor to bring me back every once in a while to see what he has to say for himself.
As I said the design is a generic movabletype template with very few alterations, however, it is easy to navigate and read, and it doesn’t draw anything away from the content. Some amendments to the design may well help it appear a little more individual, but so far there is nothing seriously going wrong here.
Imablog was an interesting venture, nothing out of the ordinary but a worthwhile contribution to this phenomenon we call blog as any other. I might be tempted to pay it a visit every once in a while, but it wouldn’t draw me back on a regular basis. Personally I think the content is likely to appeal to those who share interests with the blogs author rather than the blogging community at large, but then no blog appeals to everyone. A worthwhile contribution, showing some real promise, a well deserved 3.5
Imablog