The very model of a modern major clusterfuck.

Here's the thing: I'm about fed up with reviewing people that didn't ask to be reviewed. The name of this site says it all - and that's what I signed on to do. The two or three unsolicited reviews that I've done have made me feel like the kind of guy that stands around on the street corner hurling insane invective at random passers by. It makes me feel like the school yard bully who picks some poor little defenseless kid to sucker punch. This kind of thing only works when the reviewee asks for it. Hence the name.

That being said, I'm going to take one more whack at it. I want to offer Matthew S. Urdan, the author of Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta. a disclaimer and an option. If you did not submit your site then leave now. Go with peace and have a nice life. Do not read on.
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If you're still here, Matthew, then I can only assume that you willingly asked that your site be reviewed. So, let's get into it. First things first - your site, visually, is nothing less than a clusterfuck. It is, in fact, the very definition of a clusterfuck. It is such a clusterfuck that I didn't want to even bother reading your posts. Let me make this perfectly clear: GET RID OF ALL THE FUCKING TAT. By tat I mean 97% of the shit that you have on your sidebars. If you want to make a tremendous improvement to your blog do the following: cut it down to one sidebar with an "About" paragraph, an archive and a very short blogroll. Nobody is going to translate your blog into Portugese, nobody gives a toss about your disclosure policy and if someone wants to write his or her congressman they can probably do so without relying on your blog. Get the fuck rid of the shit. Clear?

Now, once my eyes stopped spinning in their sockets, I had a good read whilst trying desperately to concentrate on your words rather than trying to figure out how your blog is worth $28,000. It's all very butch, Matthew, isn't it? Lots of Red Wings hockey and Grizzly Adams stuff. Not my thing, but nothing wrong with it either. But in amongst the testosterone there are some thoughtful gems. This political post, which I was prepared to hate based on a pigeonhole in which I had stuck you, is nicely representative of a transition that I think a lot of Americans have made over the last few years. I've also got to give you credit - some of your sports posts are excellent, if maybe not entirely objective.

You seem to have gotten sucked into one of my pet peeves - pay per posting- and by doing so have earned my contempt. I despise pay per posts. If I wanted to read ads, I would read ads. If I stumble across a blog that runs pay per posts, I'm gone and unlikely to ever return. I just find the whole thing contrary to what blogging should be about.If you want to run ads on your sidebar, fine. I have an ad or two to pay for my hosting. But you're on Blogger and thus have no costs. Here's another thing: almost nobody makes much money blogging. I really don't think you're going to get enough by pay per posting to buy your bicycle. In the meantime it just makes you look like a mercenary.

If you clean your site up a bit, it won't be as painful to look at. The writing, well, knock of the paid work and try and write about the things your passionate about - that's when your blog's at its best. I'm a bit suspicious about whether or not this was a legitimate submission, so I'm going to refrain from giving you the rating I think you deserve. I suspect the little slimy troll who's submitting people's sites gets off on the flaming finger. So let's call it a: