Let’s just start this by saying that I adore both Chatty DM and Men with Pens.

(…I’m beginning to think my calling is to move to Canada!)

Either way, the Drive-by-Shooting is a blog consult where Harry and James of MWP go to your blog and basically shoot as many holes into it as the possibly can. It’s actually a pretty scary thought (which is why I haven’t signed up… yet), so I applaud Phil for rolling high in testicular fortitude.

Here’s the post where Musings of the Chatty DM gets shot up… and here is Phil’s response at Chatty DM.

I think that every blog has something that needs to be improved. Heck, I can find things in Men with Pens’ design that I don’t like! A big chunk of design is personal preference, but I agree with Harry and James that a larger chunk is usability. The best content in the world will be overlooked if your blog is hard to navigate.

I wrote a giant post in Phil’s comments about the drive-by and it gotten eaten by a 404 monster. *sniffle* I will try a dramatic re-creation here:

• Cartoons = Bad
  • I disagree! I far prefer to have a “face” to connect to a blog rather than a generic image. In instances where the blogger does not wish to show his or her face to the world, what’s wrong with an avatar? Besides, I think the ‘toon versions of Chatty and myself are pretty darn sexy!
• Comments Placement
  • I’m with them there, Phil. The comment link does need to be at the bottom of the post. We want to comment after reading the awesome post!
• RSS buttons
  • I think this is an easy fix – why not change the color of the bar to dark blue so the orange pops out more?
• Color Scheme
  • I love your color scheme! It’s very soothing and calming and lets me focus on the content rather than “bling” trying to draw my eyes elsewhere.
• Overall
  • The most important thing, Phil? You have great content. That’s what’s going to keep us coming back. That’s what’s going to make other bloggers link to you. Keep up the good work, we love ya.

So I’m a little too scared to ask for Men with Pens drive-by at the moment… so I’ll ask my readers – is there anything about Geek’s Dream Girl that you think should be changed or tweaked?