It had been a while since I had written a review of a weblog. I needed something to grab my attention, to inspire me. I needed to go somewhere that appreciated weblogs and was trying to advance the medium instead of wallowing in self-referential crap. I scanned the list of pending sites, looking for something, but I didn’t know what.
Then I saw it. Zero Format, it said. Really? The weblog of an ALA contributor? It had to be too good to be true. It would be like getting to review zeldman again, only this time I would get to do it with a site I hadn’t been a devoted fanboy of.
So, the review.
Let me warn you: if you are a graphics-obsessive, go to this site. No, it won’t take half an hour to download over a dial-up, I want you to visit this site to see what a good weblog can achieve.
A real weblog tells a story, every day, and never posts about posting. A real weblog contributes to the web. And that is exactly what Dennis Mahoney has done with this site.
The standard of writing is exemplary, the volume startling. If this site was never again updated, it would still provide sufficient entertainment for many months, which, in a web littered with the stillborn remains of bloggers content to post a one line link, is a gift that must be cherished.
Complaints? Well, my praise for the site isn’t unreserved. The navigation could use a rehaul – there’s so much content here (most of it high class) that it all screams out for attention simultaneously and so could do with better filtering than it currently receives. But then that’s a minor issue compared to the greatness of what’s on offer.
If you want convincing of this site’s credentials, read the article on what shouldn’t appear in a weblog (but invariably does), and then look through any of the hundreds of sites reviewed here at TWR.0(zero)format