User blog comment:Dopp/Communicate Easily with Message Wall/@comment-98221-20110927044558

I disapprove. The talk bubbles waste valuable space that could be filled with the text necessary to communicate. Nor does seeing a photo or an avatar of a user contribute anything useful or essential. Rather, it distracts visually from the content of the message. The notifications are gaudy and likewise distracting. Their vertical layout fills the screen, obscuring the site's actual content, and the presence of message summaries and time-since-posting detracts from the purpose of designated pages for communication. Why is so much of the upper screen wasted on a self-gratifying image, and why is there an edit count? Such a prominent display serves no utilitarian purpose. Also, such easy access to the blog feature serves to lure new users away from contributing to the site in favor of presuming that visitors seeking information relevant to the site's subject actually care what the user says, does, or thinks.