Rudderless opens to a clean, clutter free page with an easy to navigate list of links including an About page that tells us a little bit about Slim and Kiki, the authors of the site. Though the information is of the “likes/dislikes” variety and not really all that helpful to the new visitor. Kudos from me though, for un-clutter on the opening page.
I began to read the entries and at first was very impressed with a humorous story about air travel, which was cleverly written, and had me laughing out loud. But as I continued to read found that I was more than a bit disoriented as to who was writing the entries. If it was a long one, I had to scroll down to the end to see who posted it. This makes for some confusion when trying to get with the flow of what is being talked about. There are entries on all manner of subjects: raising a toddler, music, urban living, liberal political viewpoints, workplace incidents and a few book or movie critiques. The writing styles of the entries seemed irregular and I was struggling to find some coherent theme to them or a thread that ran through that I could follow, and finally gave it up.
While the entries are clearly written, and are occasionally interesting or humorous, I began to feel just a bit like I was at the mercy of someone clicking the channels with a TV remote. There was a disjointed quality to them that was exacerbated by not knowing who was writing, unless I wanted to scroll to the bottom and find out. And to add to the confusion, I ran across entries that had been written by someone else, as yet un-introduced. Frankly, I began to get a bit annoyed.
To be fair, if you are a fellow Urbanite you might find this blog of interest. But it did not hold mine for long. And I am sorry for it, because a few of the entries were SO well done, I was hoping for more of the same.
If I have any suggestions they would be: a little more cogent ‘About’ section, and if the author of each entry identified themselves in the heading, it would cut down on the confusion.