Review: Red's Fury blog (Liverpool FC)

This blog, designed and updated by Andy, covers all topics regarding Liverpool FC, a soccer club from Liverpool in the U.K. (for those, like me, not having much of a clue about this sport :-).This is a blog by a fan of Liverpool FC, and a very enthusiastic one as well. Besides information about the sports club, a number of more or less related posts are present as well.

Although this blog offers good background information to fans about Liverpool FC, the design does not make me happy, and I had to eat a lot of chocolate to make it all better again :-). Also there are some consistency and originality issues that could be improved.
However, the enthusiasm with which this blog was made, and the obvious hard work that was put into it, make many things better. For this blog on the Red Fury, I award 52 Bricks, from which I personally fabricate a Memorial Obelisk :-)

Looks and functionality (6 Bricks)
The Red’s Fury blog is a page that screams out it’s enthusiasm with great force to whomever might find himself visiting it. The use of the Liverpool FC colors and logo are as they should be, and will give the real fans a homecoming feeling. Nonetheless, in this blog it is overdone, and has a disorientating effect. The pictures that are featured frequently on the blog are made half-transparent, so the Liverpool logo can be seen through them, which doesn’t do any good to the eyes. Besides, the fist page starts with a high number of small frames covering a multitude of information. Also, the location of the content menu changes from the right to the left when different parts of the blog are visited, making navigation without a good compass a confusing activity. I suggest some serious re-modeling to make it all a bit easier to take in.

Content (35 Bricks)
The Liverpool Football Club can be proud with such a dedicated blogger on its side. The parts of the blog covering the L.F.C. are well written, and illustrated with good graphic material. The descriptions of the games (lost and won), and the photos of signs and banners made by fans are certainly worth taking a look at.
I have a slight concern though with some other parts of the blog, which do not seem to have much to do with the Liverpool FC. Topics on Music albums, personal things and even world politics seem a bit out of place on this sports blog. Maybe they would be better off on a blog of their own.
Furthermore, I am not all too sure about the originality of some posts. Andy does a good job in giving the source of all the stuff he borrows, but copying news messages right away into a blog is not the best way to create content. Maybe it would be better if he wrote about newsworthy items, and then link to them. This way, there would be more space for his own personal opinions and views. Although in my opinion completely off topic, I liked the pics under the ‘entertainment’ category :) .
Another good thing about this blog is that it is updated frequently, about 4 times a week, so something new about the Liverpool Football Club or something else can be found here very often.

Extras (10 Bricks)
The Red’s Fury blog gives its visitors a lot of space to interact. A poll is present, as well as a message board. Furthermore, one can become a ‘friend’ of this blog.
Andy also does a good job in collecting relevant links to Liverpool FC related websites. Special blog related functions are not present (or I couldn’t find them). Maybe it could be nice to offer some cool Liverpool Football Club screensavers or backgrounds?

Visit the Red's Fury Blog here

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