An ambitious teen weblog, Petals is an extremely attractive blog which features an unfortunate lack of content for the average reader. However, Petals may have an audience among like-minded teens who enjoy interacting via the Internet.
Christin, the 15 year old author of Petals, has taken great pains to present a feminine weblog which views exceptionally well in MSIE 5.5. The pretty blue-grey layout is a visual treat which, with a bit of necessary tweaking, would view equally well in NS 6.1. The only flaw in layout appears to be in column or table width, which is too narrow to properly showcase the individual weblog entries. Posts appear crunched into the column and the reader is optically tricked into seeing the posts extend past the column boundaries. This oddity can make for difficult reading over a period of time.
The author’s entries are typically short and focus on her daily life. The author’s tone is extremely friendly and outgoing — a welcomed plus among teen weblogs. Unfortunately, posts can prove impossible to fully understand unless one is personally familiar with the author, as she makes many references to friends and places which are not well-defined for the casual reader. Petals, indeed, appears to have been designed to appeal to a small group of readers, many of whom may be familiar with the author in real life. This weblog, despite it’s attractive appearance and the author’s outgoing tone, is an example of a private weblog made unnecessarily public. There simply is not enough content at Petals to appeal to a wide audience, which is disheartening given the author’s obvious effort in layout and her friendly demeanor.
Petals may attract an audience among 12 to 17 year olds and the author seems to especially welcome readers from this age group. The visual charm of Petals, when viewed in MSIE 5.5, is undeniable and one can only hope that an improved readership will prompt the author to craft better entries with more substantial content. This is a weblog which, if continued, may be worth a second review in the future.
petals