From the title displayed in our sites to review ‘Countdown to the 2004 Presidential Elections’ I wasn’t exactly sure what I would find at this site, I was not really sure either whether I would be the right person to review since I am not from the US. On arrival at Indigo Bleu’s Journal you are immediately greeted with a generic looking two column blue template with a short menu in the left hand column and content in the right. There is an interesting friends list, a couple of external links, a short profile and a link to the previous entries. Although listed as a ‘news/links’ site based on first impressions I would have said this belonged primarily within the personal category.
The site’s content was a simple mixture of news links, personal opinion intermingled among entries of a more personal nature. The central topic from early on is the Iraqi war, at first giving the impression that it was mere opinion of an American on the war itself, it was soon revealed in a later entry that there is a more personal reason for interest – her husbands family are from Iraq. Although the vast majority of posts can amount to just a few words on each link, there are some real gems to be found here, especially when the author lowers her guard and writes. You may not agree with everything she has to say, but you have to appreciate that she has the will to say it.
The sites template is a simple two column template in blue and white, with the content on the right and the navigation on the left. Although on the surface this site is easy enough to navigate I did find it rather frustrating on occasion. Not wanting to look for the author’s first posting via the ‘previous 20 postings’ links, which for all I knew might take a while I headed off to the calendar. I found the first posting in August easy enough, but quickly discovered that scanning through each individual entry was to be a little frustrating – the link actually takes you to the next day whether there is an entry there or not, this would be fine for someone who posted every day, but for someone who posts more spasmodically it can be a little annoying. The links to previous or next 20 entries to be found at the top and bottom of each page were the best way of navigating this site after all.
Another point which springs immediately to mind when I think of the left hand menu is the links – in its current state it is impossible to fathom which are internal or external links until the reader clicks on it. Some re-organisation in this area, separating external and internal links would really help bring some definition here.
Although listed as a ‘news / links’ site, and despite the fact that many of its entries are of this nature I would still be likely to categorise it as personal. Based largely on the Iraqi war and the Bush administration in the early weeks, the vast majority of entries are opinion intermingled with posts of a more personal nature. Its target audience is perhaps going to be drawn from those who share her opinions on the war, and are likely to come back occasionally to read up on what else she has to say. With amendments to the side menu I think this site has real potential to appeal to this section. Although I personally found some of her posts interesting, especially when she lowered her guard and actually wrote a heart felt entry I wouldn’t visit this site on a regular basis. For these reasons I award this site a 3, some real interest here but nothing to make it stand out from the ordinary.
Editors Note: Site was originally title “Countdown to the 2004 Presidential Elections” but the athor changed directions. I have thus changed the title of this blog to its correct title of “Indigo Bleu’s journal”.Indigo Bleu’s journal