No Chimps is a sophisticated teen blog produced by Thomas Ullmann, a 17 year old student from Leeds, England. No Chimps boasts a sleek layout of grays and greens which views best in MSIE. The navigation is straightforward and links lead to various parts of Ullmann’s site, including his poetry and photography. Ullmann shows definite promise with creative writing, as is evident moreso by his poetry and short stories than by his weblog entries.
No Chimps is best described as a personal journal. The author updates at will, sometimes posting several entries a day, at other times posting only once a week. Each entry is isolated to its own page, which is clever; but, this technique would better suit the author’s short stories than his weblog. Ullmann’s weblog entries are not “stand alone” pieces and to better understand the topics which the author discusses, the reader must delve into the archives and hope that he or she hits upon another related post. This can be a frustrating endeavor for the casual reader and prospective readers should take the time to read Ullmann’s “This Site” page before reading the actual weblog.
The author’s grammar and spelling are exceptionally poor in his weblog entries, yet quite good throughout other parts of the site. It is probable that the author does not plan his weblog entries as he does his poetry and short stories, but that is not a sufficient excuse for failing to proofread weblog entries before posting them for public consumption. Given a bit more attention to the structural quality and presentation of weblog entries, No Chimps may prove to be a very worthwhile read.NO Chimps