Blog Readability Test

By John Freeman on November 27, 2007

(with thanks to Gad Sir! Comics). According to this simple Blog Readability Test from the Critics Rant web site, you apparently have to be a genius to read the downthetubes blog.

It appears to work on some HTML based sites too, so we did a few checks. Top-selling UK tabloid newspaper The Sun’s web site gets “Junior High School” while both The Times and The Guardian‘s is “High School” (it couldn’t read the Daily Telegraph‘s site, which is perhaps no surprise).

Apparently, you have to be a post grad to understand the Star Wars and Star Trek official sites and a college undergrad to understand the official Doctor Who site. (Yes, this is obviously an American test site).

As dtb contributor Jeremy Briggs points out, the Genius level for this blog doesn’t mean that you have to be a genius to read it – but that you have to be a genius to understand it!

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.