Game 28: #2 Seed I’d Rather Be Writing Versus #5 Seed Men With Pens

The Matchup

Second-Seeded I’d Rather Be Writing is coming off a victory by forfeit, which was disappointing for the fans and the teams alike. I am anxious to see this blog get tested again. Fifth-seeded Men with Pens is a crowd favorite that won a narrow victory in the first round but followed it up with a resounding second-round victory.

Best Headlines

Tom Johnson over at I’d Rather Be Writing is a technical writer and it shows. Judging by the last ten blog headlines, Johnson tends toward long (11+ word) descriptive headlines. When you read a Tom Johnson headline, you tend to know exactly what you are going to get out of the post. They aren’t clever or flashy, but if it is a topic that interests you, you’ll know it from the headline. James Chartrand and Harry McLeod over at Men With Pens are more concise, but for the most part they achieve the same effect. Their headlines are informative, and are often goal-oriented, such as How to Show You Care About Your Customers. They do occasionally go for flashier headlines such as Fiction Writing: Discover Your MonkeyBoy.

Both teams scramble for the ball, but MWP comes up with it, driving to the basket for a two point shot. MWP leads 2-0.

Best User Experience

Both of these sites are run by bloggers who think they know what people want when it comes to a blog. MWP sells blog design services, and IRBW teaches classes in WordPress. The two sites have a very different idea of what their readers want though. IRBW has the more traditional blog design. It is a three column design that can look a little busy. That’s because Johnson piles on the features and widgets. He has sixteen different features on the page, including a live traffic feed and his latest tweets. The MWP home page is also chock-full of stuff. In fact, the featured blog entry takes up less than a third of the page. The rest of the page is dedicated to featured content, ads and a few comment-oriented widgets. This is a magazine style format that creates a relatively attractive page. The one thing that it lacks which I would like to see is a chronological list of the most recent articles. If a recent article isn’t featured for some reason, it tends to just disappear. One reader noted this, saying “It seems like there was another post here a little while ago that I didn’t even get a chance to read.” I’ve had the same problem myself, struggling to find an article that was recently in the RSS feed but isn’t on their front page. This is an easily solved problem. They just need a most recent posts list somewhere on the page.

This is a close one, but IRBW gets the ball and scores based on ease of navigation. The score is tied up 2-2.

Best Community Experience

IRBW has an active and intelligent community. My last review complained that Johnson wasn’t responding to comments, but he seems to have picked up the pace since that last review. MWP takes pride in their community. They not only get a lot of responses, but they actively engage their readers and promote conversation. The community is a big part of why people go to MWP.

MWP gets the ball back and races down the court. It’s the old Alley Oop play! Harry lobs the ball at the basket and James goes above the rim to put the ball in. MWP takes back the lead 4-2.

Best Branding

I am judging this category on personality, purpose and value. MWP has the personality part wrapped up. Harry and James are characters. I don’t just mean they have strong personalities; they are like characters in a story. The blog is their story. IRBW doesn’t have the strong personality of MWP, but it does an excellent job of staying true to its purpose. IWBW is a blog about technical writing and the Web 2.0. Johnson rarely strays from those topics. MWP writes about blogging, fiction, design, business and themselves. It’s a big tent over at MWP. When it comes to value, both blogs have plenty to offer. Both have informative articles that are worth reading.

Both teams got their hands on the ball in this one. Jump Ball! The score remains 4-2 in MWP’s favor.

Best Archives

This is a study in contrasts. MWP has its own way of featuring posts. They divide them up into categories and run the headline along with the first few words of the posts. This magazine-style best-of is attractive and pushes recent posts. There is no traditional list of recent posts or top posts though, which I for one miss. On the other hand, they have a terrific archives page. It sorts the archive by page, by month, by category and by post. It is as thorough as you can get. IRBW has a recent posts list, a top posts list, a tag cloud and a categories list. You can also link to a most popular posts list. What IRBW does not have is a true archives page, at least not one that I can find from the front page. Both blogs include a related posts list at the bottom of each posting, which is handy.

Both teams struggle for the ball but MWP comes up with it based on their awesome archives page. They score two in the paint. The score is now 6-2 in favor of MWP.

Best Post

Over at IRBW, the best post is easily Johnson’s recent My WordPress Quick Start Guide - Now Available on the WordPress Codex. While the post itself is mainly a table of contents, I have to give the guy credit because he wrote an in-depth guide to WordPress and placed it in the WordPress Codex. This has been needed for a long time and I will be using it often.

James at MWP has an excellent rant on web workers and the global economy in his article, Are You Really A Good Web Worker? James discusses all of the complaints he hears about the cheap competition from developing countries and the difficulties some people have competing. I don’t agree with every point he makes, but it is an interesting rant that does make you think about your assumptions.

IRBW gets the ball and shoots it from beyond the three point arc. It’s too late for the win, but there is still time to make it close. The ball drops in. Sorry MWP, your stuff is good, but Johnson wrote a freakin 7000 word guide to WordPress. With a final score of 6-5, MWP wins it.

Post Game Analysis

Men with Pens can once again thank their community, which would have given them the victory even if I’d Rather Be Writing had managed to tie the score. If technical writing and Web 2.0 development are of interest to you though, I suggest you take the time to visit I’d Rather Be Writing. It is a fantastic resource.

In other news, the final four bracket is complete. Men With Pens will be taking on top-seeded John August. That should be a battle for the ages.

The Articles

So people can compare for themselves, here are the past 10 articles from each site:

Men With Pens

1. How to Promote Your Business and Win Clients
2. Feed Reading and RSS for Dummies (Like Us)
3. Fiction Writing: Discover Your MonkeyBoy
4. How to Use a Laptop In the Sun
5. How to Show You Care About Your Customers
6. Third Round and One Shot Closer to Victory
7. Link Love From James’ Feed Reader (and on Giving Up)
8. Drive-by-Shooting Sundays: Bibliophile’s Retreat
9. Fiction Writing: Character Creation
10. Are You Really A Good Web Worker?

I’d Rather Be Writing

1. My WordPress Quick Start Guide - Now Available on the WordPress Codex
2. The Broken STC Model - and What’s Replacing It
3. Updated Date and Time for WordPress Course - Wednesday Evening, April 30
4. Madcap Blaze’s Topic Review Feature: A First-of-a Kind Feature with an Interesting Workflow
5. Podcast - DITA: From the Perspective of Someone Actually Using It
6. WordPress for Beginners Course - Wednesday Evening, April 30
7. Why Software Applications Need Product Blogs, and Why They Don’t Get Them
8. How Much Time Do You Spend in Web 2.0 - Interesting Article from the Read/Write Web
9. Find a Way to Have Fun in Your Writing
10. Looking for Corporate Examples of Web 2.0 Engagement