Andy at Dlog has responded to people’s criticisms of his weblog design reviews (including a slightly savage one from the real world). His reply is well considered and good reading. I was particularly gratified that he decided to clarify his criteria for review:
“Some people have voiced concern over how I’m judging the quality of a weblog based on design. I don’t think that’s the case, though – I’m just talking about the layout, the look of the page. As I mentioned earlier, Riothero is one of my favorite blogs. And kottke.org, for that matter, is a site I rarely visit. My stupid little “grading system” has nothing to do with how Good or Bad a blog is, just what I think of the design.”