MADDIE'S JOURNAL
Full Review by Red Herring
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (8 out of 20)
Oh? Now this is a most interesting surprise. The review that I am to expend my virtual ink on today is one on the topic of a personal blog. Very interesting indeed. Truth be told, I had not expected that anyone would request a review on such a genre. Blogs themselves? Certainly, of course.
Personal blogs, however? Now that's a more unusual request. I am not criticizing, mind you. It's actually a most welcome and refreshing change of pace.
You see, personal blogs are written more with the writer's interests in mind. They might be writings on their personal everyday life or simply ones that express what's on their mind at the moment. They may even simply be ones that deign to share the world's general topics of interests and the writer's accompanying thoughts with the public. The blog I will be writing about appears to cater to the latter. Whereas other blogs tend to serve the purpose of informing their userbase, blogs like these tend to be focused more on entertaining them. The reason I feel that this request is unusual is because it's as though someone has taken their personal diary or journal to a critic and asked them to review it.
As I mentioned, I am not criticizing the request itself. Far from it. I find this request to be quite an interesting topic to review and I am most delighted to partake. However, the primary issue is that criticism on the subject feels a bit moot. It's like criticizing an individual for deciding to write in a diary and it's difficult to be constructive for such a genre. Nevertheless, I shall do my best.
So. What does "Maddie's Journal" have in store for me? Will I be giggling at the contents like a schoolboy that discovered his girlfriend's diary? Will my cheeks become flushed with red as I peruse the pages? Let's crack this little journal open and find out.
Well, this journal's pages are very...blue.
Crossing the threshold of browser rendering into this journal's universe for the first time, I'd have to say the first thought that crossed my mind was: "Well, this is underwhelming." To reiterate myself, I was not disgusted, horrified, appalled, nauseated, repelled, abhorred, or otherwise disconcerted. I did
not want to stab my eyes with a fork and disembowel them. The website did not immediately turn into a monster that wanted to pluck out my eyes for its collection. It's always nice when that
doesn't happen. On the flip side of the coin, however, I was not impressed, aroused, dazzled, fascinated, enchanted, captivated or otherwise astounded. I was
not fed so much eye-candy to the point where they would become obese and require a diet. The website did not reach out and hug me tightly like a long lost brother telling me "I'm going to love having you here."
Blue. Everywhere, I see blue. Well. Okay, it's more of a color that mixes blue and purple together. What do you call it? Royal blue? Royal blue. That'll do. This website is covered in varying shades of royal blue with a dash of lilac. They're actually colors that blend very well together, but the issue is that there isn't single other color to be found. Not in the base design, anyway. All of these royal blue colors are so dark that they make the environment feel dreary...depressing, even.
Design elements? None to be found. Absolutely none whatsoever. There is no proper logo or banner, just a string of text that reads "MADDIE". There are also no unique buttons, imagery or elements associated with this blog. In fact, there
is no form of design imagery whatsoever. There's just text and rounded boxes surrounding that text. It's an environment that feels very bland, bleak and especially generic. To be honest, it feels incredibly dated...as though it were a design from the late 90's or early 2000's.
There's not much else for me to say here. It's hard to chalk up as to how much Dreamwidth itself is at fault, as I've unfortunately had no experience with it. I've only stuck to Wordpress when it comes to blogs. In the end, however, there's nothing
truly negative about the design. My eyes are not scarred and everything is generally easy to read. Colors blend quite well, even if they are completely lacking in design. It is not going to win anyone over, and while it may drive some away, it won't send the general masses fleeing away in sheer terror.
I would still much prefer to see something much more pleasant, but I find this design reasonably acceptable.
Site Layout – (6 out of 20)
Ah, layouts layouts layouts. If I am to be perfectly honest and frank in my opinion, I have never felt that blogs really held up to exceptional standard when it comes to website layout. Not unless the owner of the blog is willing to put in some serious effort, anyway. One of my main gripes is that blogs tend to lack more advanced categorization systems; such as allowing articles to be sorted alphabetically, something that a CMS is much better at capturing. That being said, blogs in their very nature all tend to follow more of a journal style of format. Journals are not known for containing a table of contents. Still, it's something of a problem for more informative blogs to categorize useful information in a way that their audience can see all of it easily.
Fortunately, "Maddie's Journal" does not aim to inform
(although it does have its elements) so much as it does to entertain. Its articles deign to share current events from the owner's prerogative as well as provide its users with some interesting recommendations and some entertainment to boot. Categorization is not as essential in this regard due to it being a fully-fledged journal styled blog. Any of its readers would visit this blog for purposes of enjoyment rather than information. They're not going to miss out on any truly useful, helpful or informative tips due to lesser categorization. Part of the fun in a personal blog is backtracking through all the pages seeing if anything in particular catches your eyes.
With all of the being said, categorization at "Maddie's Journal" is very much abysmal. Just as it lacks in design, it lacks almost entirely in terms of navigation elements. The only navigation menu that it has leads to only two pages with any "content" whatsoever, and only one of them is useful
(Recent Articles, which just leads back to the home page). The other is "Archive" which leads to a calendar-based article organization system, almost completely useless considering articles are already organized by date and the calendar does not provide the names of any articles.
As I mentioned, I am not certain how much Dreamwidth is to blame here. Lack of functionality can often be chalked up to the software itself. However, one thing that I'm a bit disappointed in here is that articles do not even make use of any common tags in order to better categorize them. In fact, there are no tags whatsoever. Saddening, because tags are one of the few saving graces in a blog's navigation system, and to not include any at all seems a bit lazy from where I stand.
Like I said, however, categorization is not a particularly important aspect when it comes to a blog focused more on entertainment. In some cases, lack of categorization can even be a feature of its own, allowing users to surf through and take a dive through everything an archive has to offer. However, I feel it has a bit of a negative impact here. There are articles pertaining to interesting recommendations and such that will sadly just become buried under everything once the articles begin to grow in number.
Still, it's not a particularly pronounced downside, if only due to its lack of importance to this genre.
Statistics and Activity – (5 out of 20)
Before I fully delve into this section, I feel that there's an unfortunate truth I must state before we begin. That truth being that it is highly improbable, bordering on nigh-impossible for a personal blog to acquire a large following or even a decently-sized one. It's already a challenge for a standard informational blog itself to acquire a "userbase" of sorts. Why? Blogs do not enforce a sense of community as something like a forum would. Even a wiki enforces a larger bond of community than a blog because everyone within a wiki is actively participating to build an information database.
A blog, on the other hand, is centered around its authors and its authors alone. The only ones making a significant contribution to the website are those that write the articles. The readership may make comments on how they enjoyed the article, make suggestions or even answer to other user comments on any questions, suggestions or comments that they may have had, but ultimately the userbase is there to read and nothing more. As soon as the content no longer appeals to them, they will stop commenting
(if they had even been commenting in the first place) and reading altogether. Therefore, content needs to remain worthwhile for its readership by informing them with useful tips or interesting news for them to stay interested.
A personal blog also suffers from this flaw, but on a
far worse scale. Whereas other blogs may hold its userbase and readership together through useful bits of information and tips, entertainment, news, etc; a common niche, if you will...a personal blog's readership is dictated and banded together
entirely by the primary author. In order for that author to build a readership, they must be an individual that could be considered very interesting by that readership. To be frank, there are only four reasons that a readership would gather around the personal blog of an individual: A.) That individual is a celebrity of some sort, B.) The articles are amazing in terms of creative writing and truly interesting in terms of content, C.) The life of that individual is truly inspirational or interesting, or D.) The individual is completely insane, mentally unstable, or "cracked" in some way
(Sort of a "love to hate" sort of deal).
All of these are very difficult prerequisites to fulfill, as you need to either be an incredible writer, fairly famous, or completely out of your marbles in order to find "success" in a personal blog. That, or your interests need to encompass a common niche that your readership can relate to.
I believe it goes without saying, but "Maddie's Journal" fulfills none of these prerequisites, I'm afraid. That's nothing at all to be ashamed of, as they're very unreasonable conditions. The quality of writing, which I'll touch on further in "Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism" is decent, but unexceptional and nothing truly entertaining or interesting. The author is certainly not a famous individual, nor are they generally insane, psychotic, bizarre, paranoid or otherwise completely bonkers (fortunately). Lastly, it does not follow a particular niche...articles are written based on what the author had on his/her mind at the time of writing it.
I am getting a bit off-track here, however. The point I am making is that it's incredibly improbable for "Maddie's Blog" to gather a following. It would be impressive if it could even gather
any form of readership at all, because personal blogs simply don't appeal to the public at large due to their lack of a common niche to bind them together and it's very difficult for the individuals themselves to serve as a niche without an outstanding quality that makes them of interest to a readership.
So, enough of my rambling. What does "Maddie's Journal" actually have in terms of activity and readership? Nothing. Zero. Nilch. Nada. Yes, there are comments to be found on various articles, but all of them
(from what I can see) are comments delivered by the Forum Promotion package team and possibly user exchange services. False activity. And false activity might as well be no activity at all.
I am sad to say that there's really no way to fix this, either. Due to its nature as a personal blog, advertising is practically pointless. Without truly astounding writing or a common niche, there there will be almost no interest from the public. The real question here is...does it really matter? It's a question we will answer at the end of this review.
Content – (8 out of 20)
Ah, we now arrive at what is essentially and arguably the most important element when it comes to owning a blog. Content. I say this with a great amount of emphasis on "arguably", because content goes hand-in-hand with the quality of writing itself. A blog may offer an enormous amount of useful and interesting content, but if it does so at the cost of completely boring or even disgusting your readership with uncreative or terribly structured writing, it will suffer immensely. Similarly, innovative and creative writing can keep an audience entertained for quite a long period of time, but without content to guide it, the audience will eventually grow weary of it...no matter how pleasant, entertaining or interesting the writing is.
How does "Maddie's Journal" fare in this regard? Well, I'd have to say there's quite a massive variety here. There have been articles in numerous different genres, from personal opinions and suggestions for gaming, movies, music and literature. There are one or two articles dealing with simply entertaining the readership with amusing images and such. There are even...cooking recipes? Yes, cooking recipes. To summarize, it's quite a large variation, although this is par the course for a personal blog dedicated to sharing the author's thoughts, views and opinions.
Is it a good thing? Well, I can say with certainty that isn't
particularly a bad thing. Not for a personal blog, anyhow. For a genre that already tends to lack in niche to begin with, you might as well go all out with it, I suppose. In the end though, this still might negatively impact "Maddie's Journal" with how much it spreads itself thin on all of these subjects, further accentuating its lack of niche and common ground for the readership.
Take me, for example. Even with all of these wonderful subjects, the available content is so limited that I don't think there's really anything that could appeal to me.
Hang on. Wa...wait a second.
H...Horus Heresy?
WAIT. WHAT'S THIS?
LACUNA COIL?!
THAT'S IT! I DEMAND THAT YOU HIGH FIVE ME AT THIS INSTANT! NOW!!!
...
*Ahem*
...
...So there may have been a few articles that managed to pique my interest after all. I'm sad to say that these articles were not particularly informative or entertaining and offered very little in the way of opinion, but I still greatly enjoyed the fact that they were even mentioned, due to my enjoyment of some of these particular series. The literature recommendations were also quite nice and I even enjoyed some of the recipes.
However, I'm afraid that "Maddie's Blog" just managed to be lucky enough to hit a few good chords with me. We Human beings all tend to have vastly different interests and occupations, after all. For others, it's unlikely that this blog would manage to hit many of their interests, especially with content being spread so thin. Even should this blog manage to hit some topics that a member of its readership appreciates, it's very likely they'll be disappointed with the actual content of those articles
(much like I was.)
There are some articles of decent length out and about within this blog, but most feel so bare-boned and minimal; offering very little in the way of the author's opinion beyond "I like this" or "I don't really like this.", which partially defeats the point of having a personal blog like this one, since the entire point is for the author to share current topics and interests and his/her views on them.
Still, there are a
few interesting baubles to be found here. These baubles may not be ones that appeal to each and every individual, but some might find them of interest. And even though the articles are quite bare-boned and minimal in writing, simply bringing some of these suggestions to the readership's attention just might be enough to grab a bit of interest in some fashion, although I feel it incredibly unlikely that it would gain a permanent userbase. But it's good for a quick look-over.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (12 out of 20)
Righto! One more section before we can wrap this blog up with a conclusion and call it a day. And as I've mentioned in "Content", it is quite an important aspect for a blog...especially a personal blog. "Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism." In layman's terms, this translates to "Quality of Writing." It's debatable as to whether quality of writing or quality of content is more important to a blog, but regardless, they are without any doubt
the most important elements. Those who focus on writing can astound, inspire and immerse their readership into their world, gluing and embedding themselves to the content offered by the authors.
So, the question is, does "Maddie's Journal" astound, inspire or immerse? The answer? No, it does not. But I'm not saying that the writing is bad in any sense of the word. First and foremost, spelling and grammatical is pristine. I could not find a single error or oddity throughout my entire exploration of this little journal. Secondly, I was quite satisfied with the use of vocabulary here. Words were seldom repeated and their use often fit perfectly for the situation at hand.
The real issue here is in the lack of creativity and imagination in this writing. There was never a point where I felt entertained reading through this journal. Every sentence was structured so that I did not grow particularly bored with the articles, but I did not find myself growing attached to any of them either. Were I not reading these articles for my review, it's likely that I would have simply left after the first couple articles.
Ah well. There's really not much else I can say here other than I feel that the length of these articles should increase as well as their creativity. Those articles were all quite a bland meal when it came down to quality. It's still relatively satisfactory, but it would not convince me to "subscribe". The author is no "From Earth" or the general contributors of "TV Tropes." Still, it's better than most freshly-created blogs that I see these days, and that alone is worthy of some merit.
Now then. Let's move on to the conclusion and finish this up.
Total Score - (39 out of 100)
Herring's Grade - C-
Final Remarks:
I must say that my final conclusion on "Maddie's Journal" is quite an ambiguous one. The score accurately reflect the website, but I don't feel it accurately represents my opinion or its quality. For this reason, I added "personal grade" of a C-. It's simply a (slightly below) average personal blog that I would never gain any attachment to. There is nothing really bad about it, although it does suffer from an occasional flaw. Nor is there anything that really stands out either, which may very well be a crippling flaw in itself for a personal blog; a genre that is abnormally difficult to gather a readership for.
Aesthetics were not exactly pleasing, but they were still easy on the eyes for a dark design. Layout may have been horrendous, but that's a rather irrelevant element for a blog like this one. Statistics were practically non-existent, but for such a difficult genre, it's to be expected...I'd even say it's a bit unfair to grade it based on activity at all. Lastly, the content (articles) themselves were bare-boned minimal and lacked in creative or innovative writing, but the structure and spelling were more or less pristine. I'd say this personal blog was a jack of all, but master of none.
Unfortunately, this does not work for a personal blog. It's a genre that will not accept anything less than truly exceptional if you desire success with a readership. I am very sad to report that there's 99.9% chance that this blog will never garner a following. I'd say there's even a 60% - 70% chance that it will never gain any form of permanent readership and is generally doomed to obscurity for as long as it exists, regardless of whatever changes the owner could make to it.
I ask that owner, however, does this fact really matter? The vast majority of individuals that start a personal blog such as this one are fully aware that they will not garner particular success or popularity with it. Most simply write in these blogs because they enjoy doing so. This is why I found it so peculiar that I was requested to review this blog, because whatever critique I could offer would be rather moot in the end. If you find that writing in this blog is something that you truly enjoy and that you are fully aware of the unlikelihood of success, then my critique should bear very little weight outside tips for a bit of aesthetic improvement. If it makes you happy, then you should pursue it.
Well, so ends my review on this most interesting review request for a personal blog called "Maddie's Journal." Short of the owner becoming a celebrity or a mental patient, it's unlikely that it will ever find true success, but that need not be a bad thing. If it's a source of enjoyment to the owner, then it fulfills its purpose and then some. Best regards, "Maddie's Journal." Whatever path you walk, whatever road you travel, I wish you the best of luck.
Strengths:
- - No outstanding weaknesses.
- Decent writing.
Weaknesses:
- - Does not particularly excel in anything.
- Personal blogs are incredibly unlikely to find public success.
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