Review of Webster's Weekly

Technical Information

Name of site:
Webster's Weekly
URL:
http://www.awa.com/w2/
Developer:
Contact:
w2@casagato.org
Date site last updated:
6/21/95
Keywords:
Poetry
Literature
Generation X


Review

The subjects covered in this ezine range from Americana to Mad Rantings (the most considerable section) to music, photography, poetry, politics and psychology. I believe this serial has a long way to go before it reaches the level of quality found in the average print publication of the same type. I review it mainly because it seems to be often mentioned favorably in listings of ezines of note.

The quality of the articles is generally mediocre with a pronounced emphasis on Generation X themes. The editor likes the idea of "offering some bon mots in between sessions of Doom" and that describes the tenor this effort pretty well.

Actually, the project deserves a little more credit than this. Many of the articles focus on political concerns, the slant of which can be easily ascertained from a very funny and typical list, "Dan Quayle Quotes." Another representative piece in the latest issue is titled "The Role of Stupidity in American Politics." What distinguishes this ezine is its interesting, if somewhat idiosyncratic use of hyperlinks in the feature articles. However, it appears that many of the articles consist of undisciplined ranting of the sort that print publishers would no doubt like to point to as examples of what happens when anybody can be a publisher. Generally, the ezine seems to suffer from having too many opinion pieces, most of which assert their "attitude" rather aggressively.


Link to Webster's Weekly
Reviewed by Boyd R. Collins, Automation Manager, The Libraries, Mansfield University, July 1995.
bcollins@superlink.net