Month: June 2001

It pains me to say it, but sex and sunshine looks nothing like its real-world counterparts. It is ugly.





The yellow and purple colour scheme is abhorrent, and the layout does little to aid this. I would certainly advise that the designer do a little more research into colour theory in web design.





All of this is a shame, really, because this is a fine, well written blog that is consistently entertaining and enjoyable. The main topic of the site is music, although there is enough off-topic material to keep the casual reader interested.





So why have I only given this site a 2.5 rating, when surely the content is the most important part of any site? Well, a webpage is not a book. A book is only really words (in most cases), but to make a good webpage is far removed from writing a good book. Looks are important.





If you can stomach the appearance, by all means visit this site and read some very good posts. sex and sunshine

Super Hyper Demon Child. The name says it all, remarkably.



Super. Well, perhaps not, although the site is pretty good. All the necessary elements are in place (although that isn’t to say that there could be more), and the design and layout are all good. What is super though is the cam portal – visit the site for this if nothing else.



Hyper. There are times when the writer’s enthusiasm (positive or negative) for a subject threaten to carry her away in a stream of rambling thoughts. Take for example her diatribe against the worldwide domination of Radiohead.



Demon. Nothing escapes this bloggers wrath. If something annoys or aggravates the writer, expect to read about it, only without a rash of expletives.



Child. Decide for yourself what I mean by this.



A good site with plenty in its favour.superHYPERdemonchild

Wondergirl is Sarah, an 18 year old interested, amongst other things, in web design and photography. This is her weblog.



From a visual standpoint, the site is well organised and laid out, with DHTML drop-down menus as the main form of navigation. The overall effect is a good looking site with a lot to offer.



However, for someone with a professed interest in photography, the design could have been so much more imaginative, like the numerous photography-based blogs around the web.



Content-wise, there is a lot on offer at Wondergirl. The blog is extensive and offers a peek inside the personal life of the author, and there are enough off-blog sections to keep the reader interested and entertained.



All in all, a pretty decent blog, worthy of a visit, just with nothing truly original to add to the genre.Wondergirl

Another group blog, only this time with one peculiar difference: the contributors aren’t all teenagers. They appear to be between 21 and 26 years old, although that’s all I could glean from the “about” section.



The posts offer insight into the lives of the writers, and the choice of perspective and narrative style differs dramatically from the blogs of the younger generation.



Not everything here will find an audience, but there is enough content to satisfy just about every conceivable visitor.



The navigation isn’t without its idiosyncracies. For example, of the four links at the top of the page, two of them go to the same document. That aside, the content is organised well, with an archive as well as a best-of section.



The layout and colour scheme are good, but more of a love-hate feel than most pages. Many readers might find that the atypical colours used don’t look right, although it is more a matter of taste than a traditional blue-based colour scheme.



If you want a new perspective on the group blog, this is the site to visit.Bad Samaritan

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. First impressions of a website count for a lot, especially when you’re reviewing them. So what impression did I get of this site when I first arrived?



1. It takes forever to download, and even when it does you’re left wondering what it was that took so long to come down.



2. The design is simple and, in web terms, old fashioned. Simple can be good, but it isn’t here.



3. The filename (though I could be wrong here) does not fill me with confidence as to this site’s longevity: blogexperiment.html. So how long before an experiment has run it’s course?



The colour scheme is almost interesting. The logo and navigation links, all plain text, seem to carry a colour gradient across them. This effect is done subtly and looks quite good, though I don’t know how practical it is. A stronger, site-level colour scheme would have been more effective.



It took about three attempts at loading the page before I actually saw any content (it seems that a small gif file didn’t want to leave home). The posts, though filled with enthusiasm, left me dry and didn’t particularly make me want to read on.



This site isn’t without its problems, but it might be worth a visit if you’re particularly curious.cloudblog