I was keen to review this site as it had a nice name. “I beg to differ” is a phrase I use a lot, is pretty appropriate to blogging and the owners of this group weblog have also sorted out the domain name too, which always suggests that an effort has been made. Once I clicked the link, my first visual impressions were also good- a technically sound moveable type blog which, although is a bit “templatey” (an adjective I just made up by the way) and slightly unimaginative, is nevertheless functional and does the job.
I quickly found the “About Begging to Differ” link, which gave me an idea of what I was in for beyond the “politics, culture and law” mentioned in the titlebar. It is interesting to note that the four people who contribute to this blog have never physically met, but previously frequented forums and the like together. There is also a rather sweet story about how the name of the site came about which I liked very much.
Ok, so far so good, but what about the content? Well, the title bar is a fair summation really- the posts are categorised in to the three subject areas mentioned, as well as “Prediction Watch” which is about er…predicting things and “Miscellaneous” for everything else. There is plenty of content to be found in all of these categories as there are (obviously) four contributors and archives go back to June 2003. It is also worth mentioning that the weblog is surprisingly unified and consistent, despite the authors having never met.
Anyone who is into US politics and/or law issues will love this blog as there is LOADS of material on these issues, all coherently argued and intelligently written. So what else is there for other readers? Well, quite a lot actually. Scanning the archives I found quite a few personal entries, usually including photos, entries about cookery, religion, blogging and other bloggers, humour and cartoon strips, movies, and for some reason the US “Survivor” series. All of these are again, well written and entertaining.
So there is something here for most people, though primarily those interested in US politics and law I would say. I didn’t give them 5 as there are no comments available, which I felt would really have enhanced the debates found here. Maybe the template could be livened up a bit too, or made a little more unique. Besides that, I reckon this is blogging (and especially group blogging) at it’s best.