The Weblog Review

Glistening Dreams is one of the better blogs I’ve seen. The layout is somewhat simple, but catchy. Right now it is Autumn, and the layout resembles it well.



Every site has its drawbacks, and some of these are completely apparent. After going to the site and clicking on the splash page, I was sent to another somewhat “index” page. Then I had to click on every single link on that “index page” in order to find which one is the link that digs into the blog. When I finally got to the blog, I was somewhat annoyed by the layout. It may be just my screen, but I had to scroll way too long to find the rest of the layout, which is hidden on the side. The site was started on October 20th, and it’s been almost a month since the site was started. I was searching for archives from the last posts, but could not find any.



Overall, the site is nice, but it could use some revision. I cannot judge on the posts, since the blog is not that old, but I can judge on visual effects. In my opinion, this site deserved its 3.0 rating.

Glistening Dreams

Even though this site is being given a group log, there are only a couple of people that post unlike your normal 18 people group logs.



It has been a while since I visited a site with this one feature so I guess it is time that I would come across one. Splash pages server no point unless the site is some high tech type page with major graphics, scripts and what not. Even then, I don’t like them. But oh well.



Click enter and I was immediately enjoyed. The design of the site was very clean and I could figure everything out almost. There is a bar of words stuck together like newscamslinks… each being its own link. This can be confusing for some people, but I have seen this before. Other things about the design were that it is very clean and simple. Nothing too fancy, and it was done well.



Again, being different from the normal group logs, this site didn’t really have that one big long chat feel to it. Instead, it was more of two people posting about their life as if it was only their weblog. Each posted some interesting things about their life, which was nice. I particularly like the fact that Ramon’s dorm floor is going to be setting up web cams around his floor to see what the weather is like and if the pizza dude is there. Brilliant!



Overall the site is very easy to read. The posts are not too long, which makes reading a lot of them take very little time. There are multiple updates through out the week so you will always be entertained.

empty-life.com

I always am curious how someone will make a news/links site unique to their own. Sometimes it is with design, other times it is with comments, and sometimes it is with just the types of links.



This site has all three of those. It also has some personal life thrown in the mix.



The design itself is original, but looks like a modification of other designs. It reminds me a lot of metafilter. But that is ok, because the design really isn’t the issue. One thing I would change is making the default be new windows, instead of checking the box to force that.



The comments that are made to introduce us into the site that is being linked is crucial. If it were just a link without any context, why would I visit it? But good thing is that there are some good lines thrown in about the link.



The types of things he links to vary quite a bit from games to posts about products to random stuff. All of which are things that he is looking at which are things most bloggers would find enjoyable.



The posts about his daily life are short, but I get the impression they are supposed to be that way. The focus of this site, in my opinion, is that of the links that he posts.



Over all a very good site with a lot of links that I think most people will enjoy.

Zapology

I am still laughing over the first thing I saw at the site. By the time most of you read this review, it will probably have moved someplace so I have taken the liberty to link it for all of you.



So I am expecting there to be a lot of complaints about this person’s life, things that annoy the webmaster, but instead, I don’t find that. What I found was a very good weblog to read. Not only is it well written, it also flows. Though one post typically has no relation to the others, it manages to do this.



I liked the design of the site. It is very easy on the eyes with the light colors. One thing that was kind of annoying was all of her links were in one big column with out organization. I didn’t realize there was an about section until I looked closer at the links. Just a little organization of the links would be helpful.



The site is very enjoyable to go and read. I only found a couple entries that I didn’t like, but that is how most sites are anyways.

KittyKitty

You never know what you are going to be getting into when a site has a normal title of Jainie’s Journal. Will it just be a journal or will there be a little twist on it?



It turns out to have a small little twist in it. In general the entries are about Jainie’s personal life: her trials and tribulations, but there is also a lot about Buffy The Vampire Slayer in there too. At first I couldn’t help but think, why is there all this Buffy stuff in here, then I checked out the profile: under bio it reads, “Buffy addict, Spike addict.” Enough said. The quality of the writing is good, well thought out and not any errors that I could see.



Design of the site is very basic. It has two columns; one being for all the links, the other for the blog itself. One problem that I did have with the design is the links are all black normal looking text. Unless you mouse over them, they look like part of her normal entries. I was unaware of any links in the blog part until I realized this little problem.



Overall the site was pretty good. If you don’t like Buffy then you probably won’t like this site, but if you do, you will enjoy it. Other than the design issue mentioned, there isn’t anything else wrong with the site so go check it out.

Jainie