Peer Review #1 for a New Friend's Website

For this week's Pub 101, everyone in the class was told to do a peer review on someone in this class. As a creative writer myself who sometimes writes stories or fanfics, it is very cool to see poetry writers out there. Poetry is not my strong field when it comes to writing, and the poems Ammarah created were very creative and about how she sees the world from her view. Campbell (2006) has argued about how students need to create cyberinfrastructure or have their network and website about themselves online, to communicate and share their views. The website has a deep green color for the background and access to the other categories and posts on the top right side. My only recommendation for this one is to put the Menu in the top middle instead, perhaps easier for viewers and users to see. I like the tags on the website, I suggest the text be all white colored in font, instead of dark green, perhaps it would make it easier for color-blind people or people with vision impairment to see better, and see the text better. Ink is where the poems are, I found each of them very creative and thoughtful, some can be visualized. A small suggestion is adding an image for some of the poems, to provide some sort of visualization for viewers to see. Tell me now really would grab the attention of any viewer, content as well, for them to view the creative poems. The color choice is simple and would fit a poetry blog, the background isn't fancy, but it is a deep color. This suggests that in poetry, the texts themselves are more important than appearance, and also backgrounds or images because it is the texts themselves that are painting the images. I also noticed some of the letters are not always capitalized, which tells viewers right away that the page is focused on the unique fonts and texts of poetry. The website is super well-updated, there are a lot of recent posts and posts from last week and the week before, which suggests she posts regularly or weekly. I can see when everything is posted, and there are clear tags. The About page is simple with a brief profile of the friend, who is the blog poster. Both the content and color match what she wants to post, which is poetry. I noticed the black-and-white illusion art in the top left corner, which looks quite different from the background. That must be the home page button and also the page refresh button. It takes me to the Welcome page, and the text is easily able to grab a viewer's attention. I like the humor that is used on the Welcome page and how not all the letters are capitalized. Warner (2002) discusses the public and counter-public, and Ammarah perhaps is trying to reach those writers who are viewing her blog, specifically those in the poetry community and publishing community. "The online network and website can be personal and impersonal." Warner (2002) argues (p.417). Ammarah's blog not only is for the public but also about herself and her passion, which is poetry and publishing. I enjoyed reading the poems and a lot of them were able to paint a picture in my mind.

Ammarah's (2023). website: https://ammarah.ca/

References for Pub 101 readings:

Campbell, G. (2009). A Personal Cyberinfrastructure. Retrieved from: https://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/9/a-personal-cyberinfrastructure

Warner, Michael. (2002). “Publics and Counterpublics.” in Quarterly Journal of Speech. 88.4.

Posiel Pub 101 class: https://posiel.com/outline/full-semester-outline/