The first page of Maft.co.uk isn’t the weblog, however, I was charmed by it. Neon-green on black with little stick-figure icons. This may very well be a case of “it’s so crappy, it’s awesome.” MaFT acknowledges this wondrous crappiness. One click, and I’m at the blog, which, rather than displaying the most recent entries, displays a linked list of all entries, in order, with small summaries. Definitely unconventional, but I can deal.
Unfortunately, updates to this weblog are highly sporadic. The most recent entry begins with “ooh, two updates in one month.” The entries are short, rambling, with a lot of train references and people-watching entries. The people-watching entries are great, especially when MaFT revels in the image of two polite individuals smacking into eachother due to their politeness.
The train entries are just confusing. MaFT apparently takes a train to work, and seems to have a fond affection for the locomotives. However, many of the entries (and not just the train ones, either) seem to take “stream of conciousness” to unhealthy extremes. Few make much sense, unless the reader is an acquaintance of the author, I assume. Many mention places, bands, and phenomena that leave the average reader clueless. Reading, I learn that the author is twenty-three, and has just recently discovered the blogging community. The knowledge that he has been writing in a void at least someone explains the chaos of the entries. In an early entry, he says “basically, this bit of the site will be me babbling on about things that happen in the world.” Unfortunately, the entries never transcend this babbling style.
The design is unique, enjoyably kitsch, and easily navigated. The deviation from the traditional blog format may alienate some readers, however. The theme of the site appears to be HTML itself, and the mock-tags surrounding each post are an interesting approach. However, the refreshing design adds little to this already chaotic and barely readable blog.
MaFt’s blog is only part of his site, which includes the requisite current books and music list, a table of all the concerts he has attended (with a few reviews), and a selection of family and concert photographs. In fact, the photos are the only part of the site I would recommend to anyone, aside from MaFt’s friends or anyone else who might know what he’s talking about.
Despite the author’s adeptness with HTML, I can’t help but feel this site is nothing more than the common vanity page, and, while it may interest people who know the author personally, it isn’t the place for the average blog reader to spend their time.a new thing