Time again to prepare the gallows for another King of the Blogs Tournament.

Will Jon of Personal Trainer retire undefeated or will he be cast down into the salt mines for the rest of natural life, with the throne going to another?

It's a particularly tough call this week, as all show great promise, but I cast my lot thusly:

Write a fairy tale set in the blogosphere. Include only two of the judges.

Jon of Personal Trainer
GOOD POINTS: Flagrant appeals to my vanity, plus he FINALLY gets me that long-desired kiss from Songstress. Good work, Jon! [discreetly hands Jon envelope of cash]
BAD POINTS: Didn't give the King of Fools any gratuitous linkage, nor did Jon choose an actual Fairy Blogmother for me (Susie of Practical Penumbra should've gotten the part, but I can't expect Jon to have known that). Picking almost any woman off my blogroll would've worked.

And an extra-special stick-beating for making me Andrew Sullivan's pin-up boy, although bringing Wonkette into it was actually even worse.
SCORE: 4

Scott of Slant Point
GOOD POINTS: You can NEVER go wrong quoting the Princess Bride. An ambitious project and a pleasure to read.
BAD POINTS: Essence of moonbat, while a clever plot point, does not work in that scene because it reeks horribly, and Rather would've noticed the stench in both glasses. A minor point, but one that you should've caught & fixed.
SCORE 4.5

Neva of Neva
GOOD POINTS: Nice M. Night Shyamalan twist near the climax & I *loved* that last line.
BAD POINTS: Writing style contained too many simple, declarative sentences to keep me into the tale. Would've been a more pleasant read if it were either spiced up or pared down. Just took too long to get to the end.
SCORE: 4

Person Trainer: A Just War
GOOD POINTS: Nice, attention-getting personal anecdote for an intro, plenty of supportive linkage, and an informative summary of Just War Theory.
BAD POINTS: This piece was obviously meant more to inform than persuade, however, all the explaining following the line "Do you have a couple minutes?" leads the reader to believe that the author's opinion of the Iraq war will be given at some point, but it's left implied, rather than stated. This post just needs Jon to say "I think the Iraq war meets these criteria" at some point to make it complete
SCORE: 4.5

Slant Point: The Hollywood Left vs. Johnny
GOOD POINTS: Goal stated, evidence presented (complete with supportive linkage), hypocrisy noted, conclusion drawn, writing stopped. A model blog entry. Well done.
BAD POINTS: There shouldn't be an apostrophe in "Johnny's", since it was plural, and not either a possessive or a contraction.
SCORE: 4.5

Neva: Go Read a Book
GOOD POINTS: Good observation about the differences in how love grows in men & women. Oddly enough, *I* was the "new creature... [who was] a good deal in the way" in Beloved Wife's Eden.
BAD POINTS: The introductory quote and the bulk of the book list doesn't quite fit right with the main point of the post. It would've been a better and more focussed piece if that first chunk were taken away and put in it's own "here are my favorite books" entry, leaving just a discussion of "The Diaries of Adam and Eve".
SCORE: 4

Here are some technical things I like to see on a blog:

King of the Blogs javascript thingy in the sidebar
Comments enabled
Permalinks working
E-mail contact info available
Blogger's name/pseudonym prominently displayed
Site search feature enabled
Link to an "About Me" post on the sidebar
Blogger's gender is easily discernable
Blogroll
Readable font style & size
Readable color scheme (for example, NOT bright red type on bright green
background)
Divisions between posts clearly marked
Paragraphing in entries (NOT just writing one fat block of text)

Aside from the tech stuff, I also like to see a blogger's personality shining through, to
remind us of the person behind the words.

With that in mind...

Personal Trainer:
GOOD POINTS: Jon just keeps getting better. That extended entry monkey is off his back and has been returned to the zoo where it belongs. I really like that he's placed his "About me" post, his contact e-mail, AND his search box all "above the fold" so that they can be found without hunting. Bonus for all the gratuitous linkage this week, too.
BAD POINTS: None visible
SCORE: 5

Slant Point
GOOD POINTS: Aces the technicals, and - like Jon - puts the important stuff above the fold.
BAD POINTS: There's something just a little bit off about the color scheme. I'd suggest either having the gray background appear behind the right column as well, or just put it behind the center column only. As it stands, it looks lopsided. Also I'm beginning to see why Pietro hates calendars. That's a good-sized chunk of primo real estate wasted at the top of the blog for something that no one navigates by or cares about. Maybe Scott could slide it down & sell an ad there or something.

Off topic: Pete Townshend called - he wants his picture back.
SCORE: 4

Neva:
GOOD POINTS: With an uncommon name like Neva, it's nice to see her picture right up top. No gender identity mysteries here. A warm smile makes a great first impression
BAD POINTS: I know you're new, but it's time to start poking around in your template & tweaking things to reflect your personality. Google up an html tutorial, save a copy of your template in case something goes wrong, and begin experimenting - change some fonts, change some colors, add borders around your blockquotes... SOMETHING to spruce the place up so you don't look like everyone else on Blogspot.

By the way, the yellow link to "A Quote From The Museum Of Left Wing Lunacy" does NOT show up well against that background.

Finally, you can get the code for a site search box from this old post of mine.
SCORE: 3

Personal Trainer: 13.5
Slant Point: 13
Neva: 11

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