Tiny Voices in my Head

The cumulative numbers for Tiny Voices in my Head were pretty respectable, but some of the comments were downright nasty … and not all of them were used.

Mixed review? Yes.

Love it or hate it? You bet.

This blog caught a little bit of everything, getting every number from 0-10 in most categories. Tiny Voices in my Head obviously meant more to some readers than it did to others.

CONTENT – 6.3
“Dawn is witty and engaging and I never fail to be entertained by her blog. Oh yeah, she's funny as hell too.”

“There are approximately 8,437,298 MySpace sites done by little girls with Hello Kitty wallpaper that are more interesting than this site.”

“I love the personal nature of this blog. Dawn seems like a real sweetheart and it comes across in her work.”

“The content is pretty mediocre. There's nothing very unique about her blog, just reading the posts that are right there. I'm sure if I were to dig through her archives, I'd see more creativity.”

“I didn't even crack a smile while reading this blog, much less find anything funny.”

“The dual-comments insanity aside, this is one of my favorite ‘personal’ blogs on the Internet.”

“I read all the entries on the first page and wasn't inspired. And in a show of fairness, I clicked her archives at random, settling on the month of October 2004. After reading all of the posts from that month, my opinion is still neutral.”

“This is good stuff. If there were a female version of me, this would probably be it. Or close to it.”

“I just couldn't connect with the content.”

"It's a real bloggy blog. Some days are better than others."

“I have seen Webmiztris around the Web here and there. We frequent the same blogs, but admittedly, I had not visited hers before. Her blog content is not what I would call funny, so much as conversational and matter of fact. She is not intentionally trying to be amusing. She simply tells a story. If you laugh at the end, great. If you don't, so be it. I actually like that kind of writing.”

“Dawn’s blog is naked truth. It’s not always funny, or smart, or anything, but it’s always Dawn. I like that.”

DESIGN – 7.5
“She has probably the absolute greatest looking blog I've seen. It's very easy to read and the layout is the best.”

“It's not the greatest design, but it's easy to navigate and read. She always has a hot photo of herself in the ‘about me’ section, which would make even a bad design look good, so I have to factor that in my scoring.”

“Her blog design is cute, fits the theme of her page. I can only assume she designed it herself, because her advertisment asking 'do you want a new blog template' leads to her e-mail address. The blog is very clean and neat. She's got everything all rolled up like most Web designers do.”

“It's not that bad, but what's with the two places to comment? The calling thing seems like an invitation to stalkers and other psychos. I can't condone that.”

“Love the header, but it's a bit big. I don't like having to scroll down just to see the first post. I also don't care for the drop-downs in the sidebar. Just list everything and get rid of the ads. But it's a nice design and easy on the eyes.”

“I love the theme and the main graphic a lot. It’s a personal touch for a personal blog. I like it.”

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 6.5
“Her writing style is very suitable for what she has to say, and even long entries are a great read because of her breezy prose. About the only thing that bothers me a bit is that she injects an 'LOL' on occasion, which is completely unnecessary and disrupts the rhythm of her writing. Her blog is funny already and doesn't need a laugh track.”

“Ooooh! It's the angry goth girl with dyed black hair and a blue streak, talking a blue streak because she can, because, like, wow, I mean, oh my God, it's the Internet, and we can say whatever we want out here and, like, Mom and Dad can't rag on us about it, you know?”

“I can't give a decent score to anyone who uses the word ‘redonkulous.’”

“The writing is simple, no grammar problems that I noticed and nothing that really stood out as obtrusive. However, she has a whole lot of one-sentence paragraphs. Why? It might work for the whole conversational tone, and perhaps it is meant for dramatic pause now and then. But, every single post? Maybe it's my own personal quirk. I don't know.”

“Again, good stuff. Thoughts are nicely broken up into small, easy-to-read paragraphs. Lots of gratuitous profanity. I like that!”

“Dawn has a casual writing style that fits a personal blog.”

INTANGIBLES – 7.4
“LOVE Dawn, HATE that she has comments running on both Haloscan and Blogger. Why? It's a pain in the ass for readers to have to monitor two threads of comments, and I'm sure it's a pain in the ass for her as well. Dawn has a lot of fans that love her blog, why is she punishing us like this? On the good side, she publishes her entire entries in her webfeed, which is always appreciated. Too bad she buries the link to her feed in a non-descript FeedBurner icon. If she used the more recognizable orange webfeed icon and didn't bury it, I'm sure she would have more than 21 people subscribed.”

“She can have a 7 from me because I don't find her overly annoying.”

“Nice avatar, but I'd like to see a little more skin. I'd like this blog a lot better if my blog was linked in the sidebar!”

“I neither like nor dislike her blog.”

“Having two sets of comments is terrible. I’m not real crazy about the sidebar, but it’s not bad. I don’t like having to make extra clicks, but I guess it’s a necessity.”

FREQUENCY – 9.0
"Dawn averages between four and five posts a week."

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 52% Yes
“Already do. Love her.”

“Probably not … nothing stood out for me.”

“Not even if the only other available reading on the planet were Tom Green's autobiography.”

“Yep. Aleady do.”

“I probably wouldn't read this blog on a regular basis.”

“I don't find it compelling or entertaining or enlightening enough for me to incorporate reading it as part of my regular blog reading habits.”

“Yes, love to.”

“Overall, it's just another ordinary blog.”

“Yes, I would read this blog regularly.”

“Perhaps, just because we have mutual friends. Would I die if I missed a day? Probably not.”

OVERALL – 74.5

Ingrown Brain Stem

Ingrown Brain Stem drew a couple of fans and a couple of detractors, but most of our reviewers were relatively indifferent about this site.

"I can see why a lot of people like this blog. I just don't get it."

We didn't get a lot of comments to go with our ratings this week, but most of them had this same apologetic quality to them.

CONTENT – 6.4
“He keeps his posts relatively short, which is nice. There's nothing I hate more than bloggers who go on and on and on. And he's pretty funny. I can relate to a lot of what he has to say.”

“It looks like a lot of work goes into finding all the things he writes about, but it's a bit of overload. I prefer blogs that go into more detail about one or two topics, rather than posts with a whole mess of topics. I also like blogs with personal stories, and I only came across one of those; the one about his grandmother.”

“Nothing about this blog stood out for me.”

“Is it me, or are we seeing a lot of people who are utilizing links in their blogs and passing it off as being original material. Yes, once in awhile, a link to a news story is fine. Some original content around that news story, great! But, one sentence with a link? Oh Lord. I was so bored. I can surf the web on my own, thank you very much.”

“My score would have been much higher if there weren't posts like Ass Rape Isn't Always Funny. He's wrong. It's never funny. That aside I dig his cynical and sarcastic wit and he had me laughing out loud quite a few times. I almost fell off my chair reading Jesus of Zombia.”

“I think this guy is funny, but the site just doesn’t do it for me.”

DESIGN – 6.7
“Well done. I like the zombie motif. I would have went with a 10, but there were some items along the side panel that made no sense to me.”

“It's pretty basic, but it's easy to read, which is all that really matters to me.”

“I suppose it's fine. It's neat, organized with a relatively clean sidebar, though, I would suggest rolling up that blogroll. And, that header is kind of obscure, though I think it is a part of the whole Zombie theme. Maybe I'm too old to get it.”

“Clean and simple.”

“Relatively simple design, easy to read.”

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 7.2
“When he really writes, the writing is well-done. Pretty good grammar too.”

“I didn't see come across any grammar errors, but I also wasn't wowed with any of the writing.”

“I didn't notice any major errors.”

“This is hard to apply a number to because most of the content is not original. The parts that he does write are cute at best. Yes, I realize that the word ‘cute’ will probably irritate the author, but frankly, Scarlett … yeah.”

INTANGIBLES – 5.5
“No pet peeves here.”

“He links to the Animal Rescue site, so he has my heart right there. The sidebar is long as hell, but at least it's nice and neat. He just seems like the kind of guy I'd really like if I knew him in real life.”

“One point for the shitty blog award proudly displayed in the sidebar. Five points for the animal rescue site logo/link. Minus one for the Amazon crap. Minus one for the genuflections, because self-praise sucks ass.”

“His side bar is too messy.”

“The profile picture freaks me out but not near as much as the sidebar. It’s neat and organized but most of it is unnecessary. It makes the whole site feel awkward.”

FREQUENCY – 6.0
“Copygodd posts about three times a week.”

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 34% Yes
“He has a good take on a variety of topics, but it's not quite funny enough for me. I'd check on it now and again, but I wouldn't add it to my favorites.”

“Actually I do read this one every so often.”

“We read some of the same blogs, but I don’t read his. It's OK but just doesn’t do anything for me.”

“Yes.”

“No, though, it isn't the worst one you have made us review.”

OVERALL – 70.9

Best Week Ever

After compiling this week’s reviews, it is a good bet most of our reviewers would have had a higher opinion of Best Week Ever earlier last year. It appears many of you have grown weary of the celebrity snark sites.

CONTENT – 6.1
“I am sure this appeals to some, but I am very weary of celebrity pop culture Web sites. There is so much to look at here I don't know where to start. If I had just happened upon this site on my own I would have kept right on going.”

“Loved all the links to lots of cools stuff that I wasn't aware of.”

“Not exactly my thing. I hear more about Britney, Paris, Lindsey and the like more than I care to as it is, so I probably wouldn't visit this blog regularly, but people who are interested in that sort of thing would probably really like this blog. It's kinda like People magazine in blog form.”

“Painfully forced humor coupled with television goodness and a whole assload of YouTube movies which can be seen on YouTube. Why sort through 4,345 ads to see them when you can simply go there, without the eyesore?”

“This is what happens when bloggers sellout and get paid for ‘writing.’ I loved Michelle Collins’ blog [You Can’t Make It Up] but she rarely posts anymore. I assume she and the other contributors post for pennies here instead. Too bad.”

“If you like this stuff, it’s better to subscribe through Bloglines so you can avoid the ads and horrible design.”

“Regular, timely posts, I will immediately commence peppering conversations with the word, ‘robo-vagines.’ And I have promptly passed around the ‘Box in a Box’ YouTube a bit.

“It's just regurgitated crap from other blogs with idiotic comments. Nothing about this blog is funny.”

“They hit more often than miss.”

DESIGN – 4.1
“It's easy to read, but nothing spectacular. And the sidebar is a bit overwhelming. Do people really click on tag clouds and categories? I never do. They always seem like such a waste of space and they make the sidebar look so crammed. And of course, there's a shitload of ads. Ugh.”

“Too cluttered, too much to see. My eyes, my eyes! This is freaking my ADD out!”

“What design? It reminded me of one of those refrigerator magnet games, you know, the one with all the words just strewn everywhere? Except the magnets were mixed up by a 5-year-old. No, nevermind. That would probably make more sense to me.”

"Oh God, not another mediocre celeb-u-tainment blog."

"Holy shit the sidepanel is cluttered. Who has time to sort through all of that?"

“It's too damn busy. The pink font annoys me.”

“There is just too much going on. Too many different fonts/colors/sizes. It looks like a big jumbled mess.”

“The design wouldn’t be all that bad without all the ads and other nonsense.”

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 5.9
“I don't see any problems with the writing and grammar, but I don't exactly find it all that exciting either.”

“It's fine. It ain't Shakespeare but he could get a gig with People magazine probably.”

“What quality? Everything was taken from somewhere else! Of course the grammar is perfecto! It was taken from other sources! The parts that the author does write, however, are fine. Not Rhodes Scholar fine, but grade school at best.”

“Good use of grammar and punctuation. Should spell check a bit before hitting publish. However, the writers of this site do know their way around a sentence. Currently, I'm enamored with the following: ‘Looks like it’s that time of the month … time to go to rehab.’”

“The grammar is correct enough to get the vapid ideas across.”

“The writing style is so so.”

INTANGIBLES – 3.3
“Ads. Lack of original content. Broken links. Pics that don't work, in the header no less! A blogroll that reads like the Who's Who of the superficial, malcontent and unoriginal. Ugh. I can't find anything redeeming about this blog, except for the little X in the right hand corner of the screen. Here's a 1, just for allowing me to escape.”

“Blogs like these are so impersonal because there is no ‘about’ the blogger/author. You have no idea who's writing it. I have a hard time getting into blogs like this.”

“Is this guy a professional? Look at the bottom of the site. Does he work for MTV or VH1?”

“I am just so burned out on stuff like this. I spent a lot of time going though this blog, but frankly five minutes in I was exhausted.”

“Anything that has to do with VH-1’s Best Week Ever automatically loses credibility with me.”

“I was in a shitty mood before I read this blog. Now I'm ready to gouge my eyes out.”

“Could they add just a few more tags? I think they missed ‘and’ ‘it’ and ‘the.’”

“I think the concept works much better as a TV show than a blog.”

FREQUENCY – 10.0
“Best Week Ever features several posts each day.”

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 48% Yes
“No, I read too much about celebrities now.”

“If I happened upon it in my web surfing, I'd read it, but I wouldn't blogroll it or add it to my Bloglines.”

“God, no.”

“Yep. I subscribe through Bloglines.”

“Let's play this by ear, shall we? I've put it in my bookmarks and promise to ‘glance’ at it every couple of days. Fair enough?”

“Hell, no!”

“Yes, but only because it's always up-to-date.”

“I might now, but only for the purpose of finding new music.”

OVERALL – 69.2

The Life and Times of RevRee

The sexual banter that often highlights The Life and Times of RevRee brought out a little bit of that in our reviewers this week.

[Apparently, one of our reviewers really likes green eyes.]

RevRee managed pretty good scores in every category except frequency, setting a relatively high mark for the first review of 2007.

CONTENT – 8.1
"Great content! I don't see any boring ‘I woke up and had a cup of coffee and then I took the dog out to take a shit’ lame-ass type of posts. I like that. She doesn't blog all that often, but when she does, she rocks."

"Hand porn? I'm on board with that concept."

"Even though I don't relate to what she says on many things, she's a lot of fun."

"A good blog makes me want to jump right in and comment. A bad blog makes me want to watch TV. I'll definitely be commenting on this blog in the future."

"I read (almost) every single post on this blog and barely cracked a smile. She has a few sentences that are amusing but even that was pushing it. She does mention in her profile that she often ‘slips in sexual innuendo,’ which can be funny in the right context (self deprecation for example) but here it doesn't quite work. I guess I never caught her at the right moment."

"It's a really nice blog, even though it can be a bit too girly for my taste. The frankness is good, especially on sexual matters."

"How convenient that Rev just did a post in which she picked her favorite posts of the year! I seemed to like the posts better in which she told stories that gave insights into her life."

"She's a funny girl. And she's sassy. I like sassy. She's somewhat provocative in a fun way."

"This is my kind of blog. She comes off as smart, sexy, and funny. I can’t wait to dig deep into her archives."

DESIGN – 8.5
"I like the look of this blog. Very clean and easy on the eyes."

"I like the header image a lot ... very nice colors. Black text on a white background is always very easy to read and the sidebar is neat and tidy. Perfect!"

"Simple, clean and easy. What more can you ask for?"

"I like the lay of the land. Well done."

"It's clean an easy to read. I'm not blown away, but neither am I nauseous."

"The design is clean and neat. I don’t normally like green, but I imagine she has green eyes. That makes my cock hard."

QUALITY OF WRITING/GRAMMAR – 7.3
"I really like her writing. She reminds me of myself. The post about ‘How Not to Pick up a Chick at a Bar 101’ Oh yeah, I can totally relate! That one had me rolling!"

"Please use the spell check."

"I saw a few spelling/grammar errors and the writing feels a bit stunted at times."

"I wish it was more ‘different’ but it's good writing and she is who she is."

"As bloggers go, her grammar is pretty good. She had a good amount of grammar mistakes, but often times she'll use a comma wrong in one instance, and then use it right the next in a similar situation. This leads me to believe she merely needs to proof read better, which is why I'm cutting her a break."

"She's a good writer. I like her style, although she uses exclamation marks like she gets paid for every one."

"She’s a good conversational writer. Not everything is perfect, but I don’t care. It’s a blog for God’s sake."

INTANGIBLES – 6.3
"I can't find anything I don't like about this blog."

"I had to take a point off for no Tom Jones references in the Sex Bomb post."

"Good writer. I'm really surprised she's still single, actually."

"If you allow comments on your blog a chat box is superfluous, not to mention just plain annoying. And what's with the voting for best movie of the year? I can see it on Pajiba but here it makes no sense."

"No pet peeves for me."

"Nice tagline."

"I don’t care for the chat box, but that’s just a slight deduction."

"Dude, she has pop-up ads! That’s unforgivable!"

"I really wish she would post more often. It looks like she recently moved and changed jobs, so perhaps that explains the recent dearth of posts."

FREQUENCY - 4.0
"RevRee has averaged almost two posts a week the past six months. It’s been more like once a week lately, but we’ll go with the average."

WOULD YOU READ THIS BLOG REGULARLY – 74% Yes
"Yes, I added it to my Bloglines."

"No."

"Yes, I already do."

"Oh, hell no!"

"God, yes."

"Maybe."

"Yes. Thanks for another good one."

"Yes. RevRee is perfect for Bloglines because you never know when she’s going to post. It's a good day when she does."

OVERALL – 87.2