My first impression of Rebel Yell was a little less than good. Admittedly, this was due to what appears to be a confederate flag in the logo, which to me, doesn’t exactly conjure up warm and fuzzy feelings. The statement “Just ‘cause I talk slow don’t mean I’m stupid” was a little bit of a put-off, as well, until I realized the grammatical nightmare of that sentence was most likely intentional. Even up here in Canada we understand the stereotype placed upon those from the South.
Initial impressions aside, I was pleased with the quality of the content of this blog. It’s certainly well written and concise. Stoney makes it very clear what his opinions are. Granted, I don’t really share these opinions, myself, but I certainly know others out there do. Stoney’s feelings really come through well in the posts, and that’s something that cannot be overlooked. There’s a happy balance of political and personal posts to be found here. There are even some silly posts peppered throughout, though they still carry weight, like this one.
Stoney informs the reader that he’s a Republican and a very military-minded person, who was in the Air Force. I can’t personally relate to either of these things, which made it a little hard for me to get very into many of the posts. However, that being said, Stoney’s passion and the obvious fact that he’s quite proud of this stance and his views (and his life, for that matter) is quite impressive. Given the current events in the States, a lesser man may shy away from being so bold. Kudos to Stoney for standing firm.
There were a few things in this blog that were a little offensive to me, personally, and I would assume, to others. The “…freaky-eyed raghead…” comment in the post from March 8th was one of them. I’m all for freedom of speech, but sometimes there’s a nicer way to get the same point across. Thankfully, there are many posts that are quite wonderful, and nearly heart-warming, that made up for the few that upset me.
The design of this site is very clean and simple. It’s not impressive, but for a blog of this type, you really wouldn’t want it to be. By what I got to know about Stoney, he’s a simple man who doesn’t want any of the bells and whistles that some people feel the need for. If you ask me, the look of this site meshes quite well with the content. The only flaw I found was when using Internet Explorer, all of the content in the sidebar ended up being pushed down to the bottom of the page. In Firefox, the page displays perfectly.
The ‘About the Author’ page is extremely short and to the point. Thankfully, the ‘100 things about Stoney’ page makes up for that, by providing much more of a look into the man behind the blog. I had a good time looking through the ‘stoneycam’ images. This area of the site was a welcome feature that impressed me quite a bit. Some of the pictures were quite moving, actually.
Rebel Yell is definitely different than any blog I would normally read, but I know this must be a favourite among many people out there. It’s a very good-quality blog with a lot of promise. I have a feeling this is going to be quite a popular blog in the very near future.
Rebel Yell