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Last edited on 2009-05-07 05:45:04 by RyanWellsAdditions:
And of course, success in my blog project meant success in this class, at least as far as my personal enjoyment and sanity goes. But more importantly, I //learned//. I learned quite a lot actually, just in simply trying out a new way of writing these reviews. It was a growing experience for me, and I'm thankful that I had this opportunity.
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Edited on 2009-05-07 05:40:41 by RyanWellsAdditions:
Interestingly, my reviews were by far the most popular thing on my blog, and were essentially the sole reason most people stumbled upon the place. Perhaps this means that reviews on things like albums are highly valued and sought after? Either way, it's good to know that my project was apparently of value to many other people, because it certainly was of great value to myself.
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Edited on 2009-05-07 05:37:42 by RyanWellsAdditions:
Questions of interest created by apparent oddities in the project:
- What makes it so easy to find my blog by simply searching things like "porcupine tree deadwing?"
- Why do people who comment generally not comment much on the review itself, but merely their own opinion on the album or band? Do they not read hardly any of the review?
- Why are video games by far my most popular viewed post topic other than the reviews themselves, which were by far the most popular? And even then, why were the reviews so much more popular than everything else by a landslide?
- Why doesn't anyone care about my review on Lou Reed's godawful [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/lou-reed-metal-machine-music/ Metal Machine Music]]? It seemed like something that would be a popular joke in music, and thus would be searched for a lot.
- What makes it so easy to find my blog by simply searching things like "porcupine tree deadwing?"
- Why do people who comment generally not comment much on the review itself, but merely their own opinion on the album or band? Do they not read hardly any of the review?
- Why are video games by far my most popular viewed post topic other than the reviews themselves, which were by far the most popular? And even then, why were the reviews so much more popular than everything else by a landslide?
- Why doesn't anyone care about my review on Lou Reed's godawful [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/lou-reed-metal-machine-music/ Metal Machine Music]]? It seemed like something that would be a popular joke in music, and thus would be searched for a lot.
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Edited on 2009-05-07 05:32:08 by RyanWellsAdditions:
====Notes and Extra Tidbits====
Most popular reviews by views, in order:
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/king-crimson-debut/ King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King]] (387 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/porcupine-tree-deadwing/ Porcupine Tree - Deadwing]] (114 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/the-doors-morrison-hotel/ The Doors - Morrison Hotel]] (63 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/oasis-be-here-now/ Oasis - Be Here Now]] (58 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/muse-black-holes-and-revelations/ Muse - Black Holes and Revelations]] (55 views)
Most popular reviews by views, in order:
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/king-crimson-debut/ King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King]] (387 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/porcupine-tree-deadwing/ Porcupine Tree - Deadwing]] (114 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/the-doors-morrison-hotel/ The Doors - Morrison Hotel]] (63 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/oasis-be-here-now/ Oasis - Be Here Now]] (58 views)
- [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/muse-black-holes-and-revelations/ Muse - Black Holes and Revelations]] (55 views)
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Edited on 2009-05-07 05:27:17 by RyanWellsAdditions:
====What I Would Change====
If I could do this over again, there isn't much I would change, except that I would have started formatting my reviews with bolded track names right from the beginning and I would have maybe chosen to do less reviews...because honestly it was really, really hard at times to get as many done as I needed to, because they take a really long time to write. Hell, I've been working on the //Quadrophenia// review for a week. I don't think I'll ever be done with it.
Oh, and I would perhaps choose something other than Wordpress, or at least a different theme for it...or if necessary, pay money to gain access to the CSS. Why? Because that header is disgusting, and it's the only thing I dislike about that theme.
One last thing...I would add more to my blogroll and add other links on the side, like to last.fm. I continually kept forgetting to add those things, even until now.
====Conclusion: Success or No?====
Was I true to my proposal? As far as I can tell, yes. I have the desired amount of reviews and I've constructed them to be as fair as possible without avoiding my true, personal opinion on the albums I was reviewing. I wasn't afraid of the reactions when I, for example, [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/def-leppard-pyromania/ bashed Def Leppard]]. And of course, I made a large number of non-review posts, from [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/may-1st/ things simply about my life]] to [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/hey-joe/ things fitting in the music context]], and a little of everything in between. In total, I have 98 posts. Quite a lot, if I do say so myself. And of course, I did a rather important extra thing: organizing the reviews by artist and by rating on special pages. It was frustrating as hell to format those pages correctly, I assure you.
So, all things considered. Success. A lot of success, really. I had a lot of fun with this project, and I see no reason for me to quit doing the reviews. There will be less of them at a time from now on and I'll probably be focusing a little more on indie bands from here on out, but for the most part very little is going to change, because I think I've been doing just fine.
If I could do this over again, there isn't much I would change, except that I would have started formatting my reviews with bolded track names right from the beginning and I would have maybe chosen to do less reviews...because honestly it was really, really hard at times to get as many done as I needed to, because they take a really long time to write. Hell, I've been working on the //Quadrophenia// review for a week. I don't think I'll ever be done with it.
Oh, and I would perhaps choose something other than Wordpress, or at least a different theme for it...or if necessary, pay money to gain access to the CSS. Why? Because that header is disgusting, and it's the only thing I dislike about that theme.
One last thing...I would add more to my blogroll and add other links on the side, like to last.fm. I continually kept forgetting to add those things, even until now.
====Conclusion: Success or No?====
Was I true to my proposal? As far as I can tell, yes. I have the desired amount of reviews and I've constructed them to be as fair as possible without avoiding my true, personal opinion on the albums I was reviewing. I wasn't afraid of the reactions when I, for example, [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/def-leppard-pyromania/ bashed Def Leppard]]. And of course, I made a large number of non-review posts, from [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/may-1st/ things simply about my life]] to [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/hey-joe/ things fitting in the music context]], and a little of everything in between. In total, I have 98 posts. Quite a lot, if I do say so myself. And of course, I did a rather important extra thing: organizing the reviews by artist and by rating on special pages. It was frustrating as hell to format those pages correctly, I assure you.
So, all things considered. Success. A lot of success, really. I had a lot of fun with this project, and I see no reason for me to quit doing the reviews. There will be less of them at a time from now on and I'll probably be focusing a little more on indie bands from here on out, but for the most part very little is going to change, because I think I've been doing just fine.
Deletions:
Was I true to my proposal? As far as I can tell, yes. I have the desired amount of reviews and I've constructed them to be as fair as possible without avoiding my true, personal opinion on the albums I was reviewing. I wasn't afraid of the reactions when I, for example, [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/def-leppard-pyromania/ bashed Def Leppard]]. And of course, I made a large number of non-review posts, from [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/may-1st/ things simply about my life]] to [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/hey-joe/ things fitting in the music context]], and a little of everything in between. In total, I have 98 posts. Quite a lot, if I do say so myself.
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Edited on 2009-05-07 05:14:08 by RyanWellsAdditions:
====Things I Learned====
Probably the most important thing I learned here is that, while it is fun, reviewing albums can be hard as hell when you want to do it well. I could have, theoretically, been sloppy just to get reviews done, but noooooo...I had to write and write and make long reviews and address every song in some way and such. In things like album reviews, perfectionism is a hassle, but I did it anyway. Unfortunately, this may have had an effect on readership, as not everyone wants extremely detailed reviews that stretch from 800 words to 1400 words. But even with that in mind, I kept doing long reviews because I felt it was the proper way to do album reviews justice.
Another important thing I learned is that it's extremely hard to predict what your readers are like. I posted controversial albums, unknown bands, popular bands, etc. with the idea that certain ones would gain more readers than others because of the lack of information elsewhere or the likelihood of some fanboy of Uriah Heep (they'll always be my "bad band" in-joke) blowing a casket and commenting vehemently on my reviews. But really, my most-read reviews are quite an unorganized mess, and most of them are not the ones I would have expected to be most-read at all, especially with regards to [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/the-doors-morrison-hotel/ Morrison Hotel]].
Probably the most important thing I learned here is that, while it is fun, reviewing albums can be hard as hell when you want to do it well. I could have, theoretically, been sloppy just to get reviews done, but noooooo...I had to write and write and make long reviews and address every song in some way and such. In things like album reviews, perfectionism is a hassle, but I did it anyway. Unfortunately, this may have had an effect on readership, as not everyone wants extremely detailed reviews that stretch from 800 words to 1400 words. But even with that in mind, I kept doing long reviews because I felt it was the proper way to do album reviews justice.
Another important thing I learned is that it's extremely hard to predict what your readers are like. I posted controversial albums, unknown bands, popular bands, etc. with the idea that certain ones would gain more readers than others because of the lack of information elsewhere or the likelihood of some fanboy of Uriah Heep (they'll always be my "bad band" in-joke) blowing a casket and commenting vehemently on my reviews. But really, my most-read reviews are quite an unorganized mess, and most of them are not the ones I would have expected to be most-read at all, especially with regards to [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/the-doors-morrison-hotel/ Morrison Hotel]].
Revision [7698]
Edited on 2009-05-07 05:06:09 by RyanWellsAdditions:
Popularity of the blog was rather low for a while, but then certain posts started getting a lot of attention for some reason. The biggest seller was my review on [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/king-crimson-debut/ King Crimson's debut album]]. This was because a site called DGM Live, which is affiliated with King Crimson and their guitarist Robert Fripp, had linked to my review in their news. In total thus far, that post has had 387 views...but only one comment. And that's an interesting thing...I've had almost no comments on my reviews. Charles (yes, the Charles in this class) commented on three of them I believe, and a couple other people commented on some other ones...but all in all, most things went uncommented and some of my reviews have even been largely ignored view-wise, like my [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/pinback-autumn-of-the-seraphs/ Pinback one]].
Posts that weren't reviews started out often being music-related news, but soon branched out into other things. Every once in a while I even posted poetry of mine, which is something that I'm still paranoid about (because of poetry theft). Other common themes of these random posts were films I had seen recently, videos on Youtube, and whatever was going on in my life at the time.
Now, I have 98 posts, and things have been going smoother and quicker since I started switching up the way I do my reviews a bit. I don't stay with the same way of "clumping" songs in certain paragraphs anymore, and I always bold track names now to make things easier for everyone, including me. Other than that, the reviews are still largely unchanged.
Posts that weren't reviews started out often being music-related news, but soon branched out into other things. Every once in a while I even posted poetry of mine, which is something that I'm still paranoid about (because of poetry theft). Other common themes of these random posts were films I had seen recently, videos on Youtube, and whatever was going on in my life at the time.
Now, I have 98 posts, and things have been going smoother and quicker since I started switching up the way I do my reviews a bit. I don't stay with the same way of "clumping" songs in certain paragraphs anymore, and I always bold track names now to make things easier for everyone, including me. Other than that, the reviews are still largely unchanged.
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Edited on 2009-05-07 04:57:52 by RyanWellsAdditions:
Once I started the project, I was immediately hit with a complication: picking what albums to review. Do you go with a musical giant like The Beatles, or go with something relatively unknown, or something in between? And then, do you do a bad album? A good album? An amazing album? An album so famous that it's become the Sgt. Pepper in overratedness of its band? I tried to keep a pretty steady variation of these different bands and albums, but my own album collection of course limits the possibilities. So I had to be content to not do a whole lot of unknown bands. Some albums I had to really put off because they're simply so hard to review, like The Who's rock-opera //Quadrophenia//.
Revision [7696]
Edited on 2009-05-07 04:54:59 by RyanWellsAdditions:
This is the final writeup for my blog, [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/ Dirty Blvd.]], and its corresponding "Dirty Blvd. Album Reviews" project. Make of it what you will.
====Brief History of Dirty Blvd.====
The blog started as simply a blog about...well, nothing in particular. Before it was used for the project, it was hardly posted on at all and when it //was// posted on, it was typically about music, like the [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/smashing-the-superbowl/ rather popular Smashing Pumpkins post]] I did early on, which was probably only popular because all of us were browsing each other's blogs at the time (only classmates commented).
====Conclusion====
====Brief History of Dirty Blvd.====
The blog started as simply a blog about...well, nothing in particular. Before it was used for the project, it was hardly posted on at all and when it //was// posted on, it was typically about music, like the [[http://kazwells.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/smashing-the-superbowl/ rather popular Smashing Pumpkins post]] I did early on, which was probably only popular because all of us were browsing each other's blogs at the time (only classmates commented).
====Conclusion====
