Wow. See, when a weblog that I’m about to review first loads is when I start forming my initial opinions. Maybe the site loads slowly, maybe the layout is a very crisp and well done design, or maybe it’s just your average every day weblog. When the Catalyzer Newsroom started to load, I honestly had no idea what to think. Just “wow” was about all I could come up with, and it wasn’t necessarily a “wow” that would indicate any type of amazement or long lasting positive impression.
The layout just baffled me. How anyone is supposed to be able to make heads or tails of where things start and end is beyond me. It’s a standard three column layout, but the different colors, the random images, and extra tables that have been added and slightly altered just give it almost a nauseating appearance.
The sidebars do have some helpful and informative links about current events, such as “current campaigns” and “presidential endorsements”. They have a section where they’re “always seeking submissions of opinion pieces, original writing, etc.!”, which does feature some nice viewer submitted pieces.
Only about two weeks of archives are posted on the front page of the site. The entries are typically quite lengthy, so this is close the perfect amount of writing to leave on the main page. It doesn’t take forever to scroll down to the bottom, but it also gives newcomers to the site a chance to get some background on how the entries are written and what the primary focus is of each of them.
Each post features a headline type table at the top of the post, giving the title of what’s about to be written, the time and date it’s posted, and a method of contact for the author. While reading each post, you realize that the majority of what is being written is just copied and pasted from the actual article that is being linked/discussed. The opinions or thoughts of the people behind this weblog would be a great addition to this site. Readers connect better when they get even the slightest bit under a writer’s skin and not just reading the surface, which is just information that’s taken from one source and regurgitated to sound as if it were ones own.
I wish I knew why the Catalyzer Newsroom was started – what inspired the creators, what motivates them to continue providing content, and what classifies an outside link as one they want to list on their many sidebars. It’s obvious that it does take a lot of time, hard work, and research to find all of the links and information that they provide their readers. The authors of this site certainly know where to find the information they’re searching for.
This weblog is geared on current events and the thoughts/opinions that the publishers of this website have on them. If you can manage to find a method of reasonable navigation through the site, it might be worth a visit or two.