It’s amazing, but the end of the term is upon us. To wit, please complete the following tasks for Wednesday:
1) Choose one person in your group (or more, up to you!) to do an audio post on Tumblr. Let’s experiment with what could be the next wave of blogging. Okay, I’m overstating it, but we are all attached to our phones, right? You can find instructions on the “Goodies” page of your Tumblr Dashboard.
2) Critique, with an equal emphasis on the positive and the to-be-improved, each others’ group blogs in a comment on this post. Members of each group will complete this assignment individually, but feel free to talk about it among yourselves. Here’s the round robin:
Idiot of the Day will critique Beat Strugs
Beat Strugs will critique It’s Not You…
It’s Not You…will critique The Blogozine
The Blogozine will critique Idiot of the Day
Think about the following questions:
- As a reader of this blog, how well is it fulfilling your expectations for a curated space about its topic?
- How do you find the balance of content forms–images, links, text, etc.
- Do you enjoy the reblogged content or the original content more/less/indifferent ways? Explain.
- What do you feel like you are learning from the blog?
_______________
A few helpful HTML-related links for your enjoyment; feel free to send me more:
HTML examples
Wikipedia on HTML, with assorted links
The Rhetoric of Blogging 
December 8, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I think that The Idiot of the Day blog is very well organizad and has a simple layout that is very easy to follow. I do think that the use of Pictures and quotes are really helpful because they ease the post that has been posted. I also think that the blog does a great job in including different links and websites in regards to their news because it makes it more ineresting and believable.
However I do think that some of the posts could use more explanations.
On the other hand, the blog does a great job in choosing posts from a wide variety of topics to fulfill their achievement. In many of the posts, you can definetly notice that there are people that lack a sense of reality. I mean, seriosuly how can a man marry his video game girlfriend. This sounds pretty idiotic to me.
This blog does a great job in posting from different links, and does not reblogg that many posts. In this case, I really enjoyed the original content more because I think it makes the information posted more interesting and credible. I feel the same way with the pictures; in some of them you don’t even need and explanation o understand the picture. The picture tells it all.
I feel that I’m not learning staff that will make me become a better person from this blog, but it is a blog to definetly enjoy Turing your free time just to check out the awkwaredness that people do. For example “Dwarf’s penis stick o vacuum cleaner.” It is a stricking news, that is really eye-catchy because it is not something that we hear normally. Yet, it is impossible to relieve how some people are up to these things. I thought that this blog is funny and had a more entertaining purpose, rather than learning something from it.
December 8, 2009 at 6:34 pm
The Blogozine
When I first looked at this blog I was a little overwhelmed with so much information about multiple topics. I really enjoy the posts and food and fitness, mainly because those topics interest me more than celebrity gossip or fashion. I even got some ideas for my blog from the food posts! The blog succeeds in taking a vast amount of information and making it manageable for readers. It is easy to tell which topic the posts are about and from there read which links interest you. I would have liked to see more commentary from the bloggers about the links. Some of the titles weren’t very explanatory and I feel like I would have been more informed if there was a frame or “curation” of the link. In addition, the multiple topics are not blended very well. I see three or four posts about fitness followed by an equal number of posts about celebrities. I think it would be more of a magazine if the various topics were interspersed throughout the page. Ultimately, it is a fun website to visit and get lost in entertaining links and pictures.
December 8, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Beat Strugs:
To be honest, at first I was unsure of what the topic of the blog was until I found an little information tab. After reading through multiple pages though, I do think that this blog does a good job of curating about “struggles and the people who beat them.” I think that this group has included a wide variety of stories from things in sports and weight loss to how a 12 year old solves Rubik’s cube in about 2 minutes. I think that they did good job of balancing the multimedia. Each page I went to there was at least one photo of video. I think it would be nice to add more photos or videos just in terms of aesthetics. Additionally, when I read a blog like this, I am more likely to click onto the video then to click a link so I think the content should be more video-based. In my group’s tumblr, I was guilty of only posting links but in recent weeks I have been trying to post more videos because I find them a lot more interesting. I also really like the quotes that are frequented on the blog. I think that is a type of content form that not many people use and it is definitely an interesting one!Whenever I am reading a Tumblr blog, I don’t look to see what is reblogged or original. Because all of the posts relate to one theme, it all seems the same to me. However, I think that “reblogging” is a very lose term. I really think that original content is text,video or a photo that the blogger writes or took himself not captured from youtube or google images. I think REAL original content is definitely more interesting because it is much more personal. However, because most people take videos from youtube or photos from google it is hard to say which I enjoy more because it is basically the same as reblogging. Beat Strugs is teaching me that there are many different types of struggles each day and many people trying to beat them. Whether they be humorous, dumb or serious, it seems like there is a lot of scenarios that revolve around the task of overcoming obstacles.
December 8, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I really liked the blog “Idiot Of The Day”! First of all, I think this is a great topic for a blog. Everyone loves laughing at people who do genuinely idiotic things, or genuinely idiotic people. I laughed out loud at almost everything I read when perusing through the blog.
I think the bloggers do a great job of curating the cite. You get a wide array of information, ranging from old news, current news, funny youtube videos, and even real events that occur in the bloggers lives.
In terms of balance of content, I think there is a great mix between videos, pictures, texts, and links. It is very nice to find such a variety in the blog, as reading only one type of content form would certainly get boring for the reader. But if the reader has headphones, he/she can watch a video. If they don’t, they can click on a link. And if they’re pressed for time, they can just read the title of the post and still get a kick out of it. All of this combined makes for a great experience for the reader when looking at this blog.
I enjoyed reblogged content and new content equally. For example, I thought Dana’s recent story on her two friends that turned around mid-walk to class because they were too lazy to finish it was hilarious. But I also enjoyed posts such as the real newspaper headline that read “Psychics predict world didn’t end yesterday.”
My two criticisms for the blog are that I don’t think it is ALWAYS necessary for the bloggers to comment on what they post. Most of the comments just say “Wow, what an idiot,” which is implied by the post’s title anyways. If there is something different that the blogger has to say, than I definitely think it should be included, however, if it is the same general comment about what they’re showing being idiotic, I don’t think it is necessary.
Also, Dana and TJ are the only ones who’s name and picture come up when they post (as far as I could tell). I think if the blogger’s are going to be recognized in that way, it should either be all or none of them to keep consistency in the blog.
Finally, while I don’t think I am necessarily “learning” anything from reading this blog, it certainly opened my eyes to all the idiots out there.
December 8, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I went in to reading Beat Strugs with very low expectations, mostly because I’m totally cynical and kind of sadistic (overstatement). When I first started reading it and it was mostly quotes, I didn’t really enjoy it. But the stories and videos were REALLY great. I loved the woman who lost 200 pounds and I LOVED the facepalm picture art. It was SO cool. Also, the post about the job report being at its strongest since the beginning of the recession was something actually semi-comforting to read about the economy for once. Even if it’s only a TEENY tiny silver lining that you have to look for to see, some people do see it and more often than not, I’m guilty of looking for the worst.
I thought that the blog was really well done, also. They used the different media really well. I especially liked all of the videos; the one with the 5 year old body builder was particularly entertaining, albeit disturbing. Also, even though I’m not really a fan of the inspirational quotes, I do think that they make the blog aesthetically pleasing. I think they do a good job curating their subject because of all of the different mediums of presenting it.
I definitely liked the original content more than the reblogged content but that’s probably because there is so much more original content and for a blog like this, I think that a breadth of material is extremely important.
I definitely learned from this blog. I didn’t necessarily gain new information and I’m not going to go so far as to say I have a completely new outlook on life and my life has changed, but I think that I should read things like this more often instead of all of the depressing stuff I normally look at.
December 8, 2009 at 10:07 pm
The Blogozine
I thought this was a great use for Tumblr, and is something magazines should look to when it comes to reformatting their media. It is a well-curated collection of celebrity photos and food, and makes great use of the interactivity of blogging by including fitness videos. I like the content and the photos because they give the site the polish of a magazine. I do wish that there were some “editorials” in this magazine. I can tell that the authors have good taste by the content they choose, but I want to know why that content was chosen. The site is mostly reblogged content, and I enjoy the content that is chosen, but the reliance on outside content doesn’t allow each author to have a voice. It would be great if I knew a little about the author and their specialty in the blogozine. I wish that the variety of content was more spread out. Instead of several posts about food or fashion in a row, it would be nice to have a something to break up the flow of the same type of post. I feel that, like a magazine, this site is an education on popular culture along with advice on shopping, fitness, and food. The site curates these topics well.
December 8, 2009 at 11:10 pm
I really liked the blogozine. As with any magazine, some things really interested me and some I couldn’t skip over fast enough. I really liked the number of pictures but wasn’t as crazy about the number of links, mainly because I dislike tumblr’s link system.
It looked like almost all of the content was reblogged material instead of original, which works for this type of group blog set up.
Reading this blog keeps me entertained. I think I learn random tidbits from it, but learning is not the first thing I have in mind when I read it.
December 8, 2009 at 11:19 pm
It’s Not You…:
I have been checking out this blog as we starting doing our group blogs and I really like this one. They “claim” to be the all-knowing resource on relationships and quote Shelley to back their claim. They do a wonderful job of throwing in information or news for everything relationships. I think the phenomenon of relationships in general is fascinating and nine times out of ten in a daily conversation with someone else, you usually are talking about someone’s relationship. It is just something that as humans we find so interesting. So, that is why I think this blog works so well.
They literally have everything to do with relationships from cute proposals, to tips, to crazy facts about cheating, to funny tid-bits about their own personal life, and much more. I wasn’t sure if they would have a good balance of multimedia but they have done a fantastic job with that. I figured they would only have text, links, and maybe some pictures but they also included quotes and several videos very well. I didn’t think the videos would function well but the ones are saw were actually very good and funny. I would say links or chunks of info from other sources were the most common but they did a good job of mixing it up.
They didn’t really have a ton of reblogged content on their blog, but I definitely enjoyed their original content more. You could start to see what kind of stuff each blogger liked to blog about and get their reaction about relationships a little. Plus, some of the original content drew directly to their personal relationships, which was really cool to see. All in all, I like original content way more than reblogged content anyways. I feel like from reading this blog I am learning new ideas and facts about relationships. I have my own ideas already about the topic as I have been in one for two years now but it is cool to branch out and see what other people have to say. And plus, like I said earlier, relationship information is fascinating to anyone, so I always love learning new stuff about it.
December 8, 2009 at 11:43 pm
It’s Not You…
They’ve done a great job with engaging the audience in their blog. They frequently ask question that encourage readers to comment and pull information and reblog from various sites. They have also managed to use many different blogging mediums to tell their stories. The humor keeps me reading and spreading the word of this blog. There’s a perfect balance between humor, serious issues, visual references, videos and news stories. I especially like how this blog uses reblogging in many of their entries but also include their own insight on the entry, making the blog post partially theirs. I would like to see a different layout for this blog though, I don’t think the black blog with multicolored effects is doing justice, since it’s a very humors blog, I would like to see a more comical design. What do I feel I am learning from the blog? haha well, I feel that I’m learning about relationships, good and bad ones, and ultimately, I just enjoy reading funny stories that many people who have been in relationships that relate to. Awkward moments, horrible dates, great dates, and all of the above! Keep this blog going!
December 9, 2009 at 12:42 am
Beat Strugs:
I think this blog does a great job of curating all there is out in the internet into an inspiring blog. There are so many news stories out there about terrible things happening, or celebrities that I don’t care about, but this blog turns all that on its head. It’s great to see so many different people represented on one blog for a reason such as this.
I found the balance to be a bit text-heavy, more importantly unnecessarily text heavy. I think their layout should definitely be more uplifting and free, with a lot of space and not too much text. When someone is looking through this blog, it’s annoying to have all those words sort of jumbled into a skinny strip down the page.
I liked the reblogged stuff just as much as the original links, but had one problem. As far as I could tell, did nobody write their own posts, about something happening in their own lives? I should hope at least one person would encounter something or someone who is running the same race as every other link they post. This could just further emphasize their point, however; if not even one person in their group knew of someone pushing the limits of live or society, then anyone doing so is that much more special?
Maybe that’s what could be learned from this blog: The true ability of human nature to go off the beaten path and be inspiringly original.
December 9, 2009 at 12:50 am
It’s Not You..:
I’ve been following this blog since it’s creation and I love it. I love the mixture of personal narratives and curated material very much. Moreover, I really enjoy the tone the writers chose…the cynisicm and self-deprecation really appeals to me. Sometimes life (and relationships) need to be taken with a grain of salt otherwise it’s difficult to deal it(them) and the blog does an excellent job of conveying that. I really like the aesthetics of the blog, very uplifting, puts me in a good mood.
Another thing I really enjoy are the variety of “personalities” on the blog, how each person has his/her own alias of sorts. It makes the material even more personal with distinctive personalities. The combination of text, image and video is great as well. Really, there’s nothing about this blog that I don’t like…in fact, I absoloutly love it and would keep following if it were to be continued beyond this semester.
December 9, 2009 at 1:59 am
Idiot of the Day is a fantastic blog. I loved being able to hear and see such outrageous people. A lot of these posts were unlike anything I’ve ever read or seen before. The variety of posts put me in a great mood and it definitely fulfilled my expectations, the title itself is perfect! There was a great balance of videos, links, text, and images. I enjoyed the different forms of content because it never seemed repetitive and always kept me interested. I personally enjoyed the video content the most because they were hilarious! The idiots they displayed were unreal and I was embarrassed for them. After reading several posts I believe the original content was best in this blog. With a topic like “Idiot of the Day” it has to be somewhat hard to find content to reblog. I like the original content more because with all the craziness in the world it’s much easier to make your own post than to have to search through Tumblr, plus it made it more fun to see the bloggers personality through their writing. Even though I don’t necessarily believe I learned anything from this blog it made me laugh so hard. It’s sad to see how many “idiots” there are in the world. Overall this is as great blog and I encourage others to follow.
December 9, 2009 at 2:25 am
The Idiot of The Day:
I think the blog did a great job of curating the web. The topic is specific, yet interesting. I would imagine there is a lot of content on the subject, although not all of it is engaging. I think that the bloggers did a great job of identifying what would be engaging to their audience. They found completely different aspects to write about, yet they all fall into similar themes.
The content is balanced. There are pictures, video, links, and content and the information is different. The balance gives readers a range of content to read. I think that some pictures could have used more explanation. Some posts took me a bit longer to identify the point.
Overall, reblogged content trumped original. I think this made the blog actually better. For the subject matter, it was better to search for content from the widest range possible and then curate what would make the most sense.
Overall, I learned about all the stupid things people do. It was entertaining and educated me on things I would never have sought after. The content was never the same and readers could expect something of wonder every time. The content was humorous, thought out, and appealing.
December 10, 2009 at 10:54 pm
It’s Not You…
This blog does what I’d expect for a group-curated blog about relationships. It discusses an array of relationship stories (one author meeting her boyfriend at a funeral) and topics (Facebook-official status). The form of their content is weighed heavily toward text, but includes images and video, as well as a unique form – guest blogging.
Generally, I enjoy the original content more – it tends to be more personal, and to me, carries more authenticity without sacrificing diversity; they’re not only personal stories, but also personal observations on relationships. It’s this diversity that defines the blog – I feel like I’m getting a wide range of perspectives on the topic.