Thanks for your good wishes!
Jeanne

I think it does count that you would if you could

It must be very frustrating – seems very restrictive not at least to offer people the choice.

Anyway – good luck once again!

Joanna

Don’t you dare suggest that partial feeds equal disqualification! (You don’t want to give me a heart attack, do you!) That would disqualify Writer’s Notes, though I have absolutely no control over the type of feed Orble offers. I’ve tried my best to get them to institute a full feed, but that hasn’t happened yet. It is frustrating, I must admit. (Does it count that I’d offer a full feed if I could?)

Jeanne

I’m interested in your comment on community – I don’t agree it favours the bigger blogs, in fact some ‘big’ blogs have a terrible sense of community, where some smaller ones can make you feel like you’ve been there your whole life. I think it all comes down to how you treat people. (Not sure how I’d try and gage it in a critique though)

Joanna

Congratulations on moving forward, and thank you (and your community) for the critique of my critiques. Some categories will change as the contest moves forward, so that I don’t just repeat the same scores. I will certainly give community some thought. I kept it out of the initial round because it so deeply favors the bigger blogs, but it is certainly a key element of success.

Joanna

Content and community are most important to me in a blog. If I like what I read, I’ll subscribe and only go to blog when I want to comment. What I really do NOT like is partial feeds – I subscribe so I don’t have to go to the blog.

@ Jim I can see you’ve got strongly held views on content and design. Design matters to me when I first visit a site, esp without a recommendation, but I quickly forget because I follow so many in a feed. And once I’m reading them I don’t worry too much about the design if I go in to comment. But you’re right, first impressions can be a killer (and audio for me too is an absolute no-no)

@ Karen my views are constantly changing too as I read and visit more blogs. And I guess we all have different preferences. The feel of a blog and the way you’re treated is vital to me too. No matter how good the site if the host doesn’t reply to their comments I’m not going to bother.

@ Amy I think you and I value very similar things

@ Naomi – good to meet you and I’m glad you found me, though I have to confess I have no idea what a ZH comment is!?

@ Bob – good luck. It’s quite a daunting prospect isn’t it? I was quite relieved to get critiqued early on before I’d had time to worry about it. I’m sure you’ll be fine though

@ Jeanne I share your views on personality, content and community. It would be interesting to see John pick this up in future rounds. Good luck with your own blog critique, you have a strong blog with lots of great content (and loyal followers) so I’m sure you’ll do fine

Joanna

Hearty congratulations for your strong finish in the first round! It’s no surprise, though, because you run an excellent blog! (I must admit, I’m shaking in my boots, as I await my turn!)

I agree that community is important and would be one area worth looking at in this competition, because it speaks both to blog personality and content value. These two areas are crucial to a blog, and many other shortcomings can be overlooked when a blog is strong in these two areas. Though everyone enjoys a visually pleasing site and both navigation and archives are important for helping us find all that great content, I’d have to say that personality and content are definitely the leaders where my own experience with other blogs is concerned. Those are the things that keep me coming back. They’re also the things around which a blog community is built.

Wonderful work!
Jeanne

Like the other March Madness, you’ve got a few days to breathe a sigh of relief, it looks like.

I, on the other hand, am dreading my turn. Wish me luck!