Jun 29, 2014 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for feedback, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else.

If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

Read on for the ground rules and to leave a comment . .

TIP: To keep from losing your place in the comment thread while you visit others’ blogs, right-click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.

  • You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling. If you simply leave a link to your blog, it’s likely to be overlooked.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • No running on the deck.

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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    1. Hi, Michael! I really enjoyed looking through your blog. I think your blog layout and design are really cool, and I can get a sense of who you are and what your blog is about. Great design!! =)

      Like

      1. Thanks for the feedback! Yep I switched to a cleaner, simpler theme and for me, functionality is huge so glad you found everything user-friendly. Thanks again!

        Like

  4. Hi guys. Within minutes of sharing my blog on my Facebook, I received criticism that I sounded pretentious by abusing the use of an extensive vocabulary. I need to know from other people if it’s really a problem. Please check it out (for my sanity).

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi, Julia! I don’t think your blog sounded pretentious at all. I think your writing has a poetic feel to it, which I love, but perhaps people may not read it well since I heard people have trouble reading poetry. I hope this helps!! =)

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      2. Awesome! Ya, I think that you got some mean feedback and that’s not fair. I hope you keep writing the way you do because it’s very pretty and poetic. You’re very welcome!!

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    2. Hi Julia

      First of all your blog was really good. Secondly I don think you sounded pretentious there. I have read many articles with much more difficult vocabulary. I think you did a fine job.

      I think a best piece is one which is moderate as to use of vocabulary. If one uses very difficult vocabulary, often reader lose interest.

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    3. you shared it on a social networking site, you got bashed. it happens. its not pretentious or hard to follow. it is downright readable. like a lot of youtubers say- haters are everywhere, you need to focus on the followers.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you.. I initially was going to ignore the criticism with a “h8rs gon h8” comment, but my college English professor once said the same thing, so I was having doubts. Not anymore though! Thanks for the feedback!

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    4. Hi Julia, I wouldn’t say it was pretentious at all. I think people need to look up the definition of that word. I do think your writing is definitely on higher plane than what I write or read even (I probably should start though). It really depends on who you want your audience to be, with the little I read, it seems people in a very high education bracket. It feels like it is something that could fit in a scientific journal with ease. (Kudos for that btw).

      I once knew a guy who talked like that too, his higher vocabulary was just an everyday thing, he was fun because I always had to stop and think about what he said, lol.

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      1. Haha thank you so much, your feedback made me laugh. I really wanted to be unconventional with my blog, and I guess I’ve achieved it a little bit. Thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it. 🙂

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    5. As a verbose user of verbiage outside the norm on my own primary blog, I may not be the best critic 😉 I did not find it pretentious, no. Excellent command of language, yes. Above the ‘average’ FB user? Perhaps. I am more BookFace than Facebook oriented, so forgive me if that seems a slight.

      Good insights as well. Write on…

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      1. Thanks so much! I’m glad I’m not the only verbose one out there.. I’ve been reading your other feedback comments, and they seem like life-rafts for the bloggers (get it, because it’s a community pool ha-ha). Anyhoo, thank you for the encouragement!

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    6. Hi Julia. Your blog isn’t pretentious at all. I thought your insights were keenly felt and articulately expressed. That’s the thing with writing- you can’t please everyone. So just write what comes naturally to you!

      It’d be great if you could check out my Blog- a longish travelogue- and let me know what you think.

      Thanks.

      http://musingsandwitterings.wordpress.com/

      Like

    1. Hey Christina, your blog definitely has its own voice and personality. You’ve captured that well with the theme, fonts, and your content. Asking for feedback was a big plus for me. I think you should try writing memories down, so that it adds more breadth to your blog. Hope that helps!

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    2. I like your tone, about a serious matter. Using humor to talk about tough things is a good way to put a little distance to allow folks more comfort and offset tension. Good writing, and a nice presentation.

      A little tough on me for reading due to the font size, but, hey, I’m over 50 and wear reading glasses, lol!

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      1. Hi!
        I’ve been thinking about getting a theme with a thicker font size b/c sometimes it is hard for me to read as well! I just notice it’s very light. Thank you for letting me know as I want people to be able to read (and enjoy reading) my blog!! Thank you for your time and feedback!

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    1. I should also mention, what is a good way to bring more of an audience and perhaps engagement within my blog? I am still new to everything. Thank you in advance.

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      1. Welcome to WordPress! My suggestion is to find similar blogs and comment, follow, like, etc. The more you interact with people on WordPress, the more they will interact with you! 🙂 Best of luck!

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      3. Not at all. It looks great! My two suggestions would be 1. Put your “About” page right next to Home instead of at the end (it will be easier to find) and 2. Come up with a tagline, whether it’s a quote or something that describes the content of the blog. Hope that helps!

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      4. there is a separate section for this in the help section i think. it is pretty good, take a look (can’t find a link, sorry)

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      6. Well, the theme is good, its readable and easy on the eye.but it won’t spur a reader to try another article as they cannot see your other works on the side like a lot of themes offer (i am using my phone, so that may be because of that). Also i feel that your writing is too… Vocal? Basically it is speech oriented. You may want to consider reviewing what you wrote after you are done and maybe edit it once more? I think the paragraph below can be structured in a better manner-
        I literally get tongue-tied. It’s so dumb really because it’s all in my head! I think to hard about what it is I think the person wants to hear instead of saying what I truly feel. Another thing that hinders my “talking abilities” is that I feel that people more or less tolerate me when I talk. I get the feeling that they are mentally rolling their eyes when I begin talking and it makes me feel like what I have to say isn’t important, which in turn makes me talk with my eyes to the ground as I trail off in a mumble.

        Hope i made sense. Have a good day.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Thank you for your feedback! I will definitely play around with the appearance. I am not very good at it. When you say, speech oriented, do you mean that I am writing as I talk? Hmmmm…I am trying to figure out how I can, in a sense, write more formal…I definitely need more practice in my writing. I really appreciate the feedback!

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    1. I visited your blog — At first, I didn’t want to read it because all I saw was big blocks of text. Maybe break up your paragraphs so they don’t look so daunting, However, I kept reading because of I’m interested in food and I’ll read anything with “bacon” in the title. Your post on chicken was really helpful. What do you brine your chicken in? A huge plastic bag?

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      1. Thanks for your feed back…i really appreciate it and will break it up a bit more, never thought abouit it really but it makes perfect sense. As far as brining a chicken all you need is a plastic bowl or conatainer the will allow the chcicken to be completly submerger while in a brine.

        Like

  11. Hello everyone, hope you’re all doing well.

    I’m looking for some feedback on the design as well as the introduction of each articles.

    Do you like the design, or do you think all the images everywhere are distracting. And I’ve heard different opinions about the intro’s to articles. Should intro’s be abolished or do they add a hint or personalization, and should I continue writing them or should I just get straight to the point.

    http://appducate.com

    Thank you for your time.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Cool site! The images are not necessarily distracting, just perhaps a tad large on the home page? Also, I like the intros, but I wouldn’t feel obligated to always have them. It depends on the post! Hope this helps. 🙂

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    1. Haha I totally love your image in the header and the background of your blog, the text colour suits your theme perfectly, awesome job!
      Although I was totally expecting horror stories, lol…

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      1. Thank you so much for the kind words! The story part probably would of been better but I wanted to try to just base the blog on like horror movies. I have like a really big passion for horror films and just thought it would be cool to express what I thought about the films I have watched or will watch in reviews on my site.

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      3. Thank you so much for the kind words! I really wanted to focus more on horror movie reviews because I have a deep passion for them. Do you think I should maybe get a guest blogger to write horror stories on my blog as well or would that interfere with the reviews?

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  13. Hi. I’ve been blogging for over 6 months now, but I’ve really not been able to think about the process of writing very much- too much else going on! I have two questions:
    1) Is the ratio of paragraphs to photographs about right?
    2) in my last post http://themangocage.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/wonderba-small-but-mighty/ I used a banner as a device to speak about motherhood- the subject’s been done so much I thought I’d take a different inroad. Is it a decent enough starter?
    I would really appreciate your advice.
    MC

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Fazal,
      Your article was a very informative and engaging piece. To most people who would only have a passing knowledge of the World Cup, like Suarez’s bite and who the winner was, your article would tell them everything essential about the biggest world soccer event in a completely comprehensive way. I wanted more of your take on it, especially on why you thought the Netherlands would win, and there are minor errors in grammar, but otherwise I think your writing is an excellent read. Keep doing what you’re doing! Hope this helps!

      Like

      1. Thank you Julia for taking out time and reading it. I ll try to look and improve on grammar in future. Netherlands just won against Mexico, 5 mins ago. And again it was due to their dazzling attacking line up.

        Thanks a lot !

        Like

  16. hi i have been writing occasional post on my blog for a couple of months now and if i am being honest mainly in half terms and holidays but with summer looming i really want to get more people reading it and was wondering if you guys had any advice. i know its just another fashion blog but it is a subject i am passion about and studying.
    thankyou
    http://lollipoplooks.wordpress.com/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Your blog looks great and although your background picture is very beautiful, it’s kinda distracting. Maybe want to work on something less busy? 🙂 loved your first post, btw. Very creative.

      Like

    1. I like it. It seems to be focused on travels, and the name Wander Studies fits (really like that btw). Is there something specific that seems off to you?

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      1. Thanks! Needed to hear some positive feedback about the name. 🙂

        I don’t know really, I just feel like I’m looking for a niche more specific than just ‘Travel’ – maybe I should just keep blogging and it will reveal itself.

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      2. That’s what makes the name so good, imo. You can blog about anything and it would still fit. Whether it is ‘physical’ you wandering or ‘mental’ you, it all fits. 🙂

        Yup, I’m still all over the place in my blogging, mostly I just write random stuff on my personal one.

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    1. Hi Sid,

      The only feedback I have is the current blog theme you are using makes the font very large, which actually impedes my ability to read (that might just be me though).

      Like

    2. The HUGE photo at the top made me scroll several times before I got to the text. For a regular reader that might be irritating. I agree about the font size, too.

      Other than that, for me the article is WAY too long. I would have broken it up into much smaller chunks. At least one for each day. I think you’ll keep more readers that way.

      Like

    2. Very nice and I enjoyed the splashes of color with no distracting background. My only thing would be to reduce the post text size slightly and the post title even more. Means less scrolling. I have old eyes and still had to bring it down to 75% of my norm.

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    1. I think it looks okay. The theme tends to be a bit scrunched, but I could find things easily enough and readability was fine and didn’t look too messy to me.

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      2. You have middle column (blog posts) that isn’t very wide, so overall it feels like the left and right column are very close to it, causing a scrunched look. It’s not bad or anything. It really comes down to your personal preference of how you want it to look.

        Like

      2. Oh man, nearly had a heart attack when my post I was trying to schedule for Monday accidentally posted. Thankfully I fixed the date before it was plastered all over my social media sites. Whew talk about a close call! :/

        Like

  28. Hello everyone!! Hope you had a great weekend… 🙂

    I had put up a post last week where I was thinking about adding an Invited Content section in my blog. Kindly click the link below to read the details about it and give your feedback. Also, feel free to let me know if you would be interested in being a part of it.

    https://turn2pagelife.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/invited-content/

    Thanks so much!

    Like

  30. I am a magazine journalism student and I will be using my blog to practice my writing skills and to show to future employers. I would be very grateful if anyone seeing this comment could tell me what they think of it and how I could improve. Thank you 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Ask about any aspect of life? Okay. My lawn mower won’t start and I’m trying to figure out additional diagnostic tests to run before buying a new one. Can you suggest anything?

      My point is, your blog doesn’t look like “ask anything” and I doubt you’re really able to answer anything. (Would someone really visit your blog, as it looks now, to ask about lawn mower repair?) Your blog has a definite look and your sample topics match that look. I’d drop the “ask anything” and present yourself as knowledgeable on a certain range of topics.

      Like