Wednesday 28 November 2007
The Shame.
Our pals at The Engine Room have found a fun little gizmo that works out the reading level required for any blog on the interwebs.
The Engine Room was designated a genius level blog. "Great," I thought, "with the A.A Gill quote in the last post and the most indecipherable paragraph ever in a post from a couple of weeks ago we should walk it." (Incidentally, I'm not sure how I managed to insert hyperlinks into a thought, but it happened. )
Imagine my horror when, upon inserting our URL, I was confronted with this:
I was so shocked that it took me more than 2 seconds to get annoyed with the copy on this banner. A blog can't read so how can the blog have a reading level? I think the sentence should be like so:
This blog's required reading level:
Anyway, I'm not happy. Obviously the technology is deeply flawed. I demand a Goresque re-count! Something must be done to right this wrong!
I know there are those who may think that I shouldn't take this too seriously; it's just a bit of fun; my competitive smugness is extreme to the point of being nauseous etc. To those people I say, "Hi, have we not met before?"
Traditional pedants would have a field-day with that terminal preposition but I'll push on; no time for an edit in this Kerouacian ramble. (Goresque, Kerouacian, how many more names can I mangle into the vague resemblance of an adjective?)
I was slightly heartened to see that Apostrophism was awarded the same level of reading requirement. Slightly.
P.S. Well done to J.D. and the gang at the Engine Room. I'm very fucking happy for you. See, I can be gracious. I'd also like to add that I definitely didn't run http://engineroomblog.blogspot.com through the readability test to check that you were telling the truth. Ahem.
Labels: Al Gore, friends, fun, grammar, Kerouac, rants, wrong word
posted by Gez at 10:40 pm
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7 Comments:
Gez -
It probably has something to do with the fact that you habitually quote people that use incorrect grammar/spelling/etc in your blog.
just a thought(:
p.s. keep up the good work.
What does required reading level actually measure? If stuff at a lower reading level is easier to read, I’d say it’s better. Eschew obfuscation.
Maybe we should start a support group. High-School-Reading-Level-Blogs Anonymous.
:)
I've never had the chance to gloat so much in one week!
My own theory was that the gizmo was confused by the use of British English rather than American English spellings, but I guess GramamarBlog has shown that not to be the case...
Shall I go back to gloating now?
It could be that you're exemplary use of the english language makes your blog easier to read, thereby lowering the required reading level. You should be proud.
I, on the other hand have to live with the ignominy of my blog being given a genius rating.
Good grief, I just realised the horrible error that I made in my previous comment.
Forgive me...or shoot me now.
I think the "tool" always gives that score for any blog, because the real aim is to put spam links on your site; check the generated html and you'll see this:
<p><small>Get a <a href="http://www.cashadvance1500.URL_BROKEN_FOR_COMMENT">Cash Advance</a></small></p>
I'd say this is definitely one to avoid.
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