I found it funny to find a site that is as busy as this one has a section on ‘web design’ with an article that reads: ‘Cut the clutter and increase the content.’ Yes, there is tons of content. But it is hard to follow, the font sizes jump all over and there are many included ‘off-site’ boxes, such as market watch, google stories etc. etc. These boxes almost never enhance a website’s appearance and the jumbling of fonts and font sizes just make sites look messy and recreational. That having been said… The idea of a family site is rather interesting.
The site is maintained by Carri and Chris Short and (should?) focus on the lives of the Short family. ‘Think of it as a journal designed to be a central location to communicate with others (as opposed to sending out dozens upon dozens of e-mails).’ Sounds like a great idea. I’m sure for the people directly involved this is a great communication tool. The blog contains what you may expect, family trips, photos at Sea World, pets (R.I.P. Sushi) and birthdays.
Unfortunately there is also a lot of content I wasn’t expecting. Most of the content seems news based and has nothing to do with the family at all. The entries are well written and interesting but I fail to see how they fit on the ‘family page’. Some of Chris’ entries are technology oriented. He has written some articles on google (yes there is a ‘family websites’ category on google), linux, as well as entries about Chris’ numerous speeding tickets (tsk, tsk tsk!), some Politics (maybe too much for a ‘family’ blog? Do beheading photos need to be in a ‘family’ blog? Maybe consider two separate blogs here?) and various news related articles. I found there to be more media articles that family articles in the blog, oddly ‘our life’ is mostly not about the family at all.
This site ended up not really being what I was expecting. I was expecting the Short family site to be about the Short family.
There are so many extraneous topics and articles it became difficult to find an entry actually about the family some months. Granted, there is a lot of useful content here such as the Bits & Bytes articles on technology/computers, yummy drink recipes, jokes and a section on the USAF. I was just expecting something different. I think the family section should be separated more distinctly from Chris’ personal entries and interests to make this blog more cohesive. Overall however, in spite of the strange amalgamation of topics, I enjoyed reading this site, I would have preferred it stay on course however. Short Family Web Site – Our Life