The Masonic Traveler – Blog Review

If you ever wondered what went on behind closed doors of a secret society, then you may want to have a look at the “Masonic Traveler’s Blog“. While you may not be given privilege to the secrets of this society, at least you will be given the opportunity to learn more about it. The blogger wishes to bring to you a pursuit of an understanding of “the divine in context of the relativism of man over his nihilistic individuality. We are in this together.” As I don’t quite understand that quote, I am going to guess it has something to do with the Masonry, as the secret societies and Greek organizations are highly ordered and speak very divinely. That being said, not understanding that will not mean you won’t enjoy the blog. If nothing else, you will get an education from reading this blog. You will learn that “free masonry is an order that is fraternal (men only) and is founded on the universal belief in the Divine, illustrated by a certain landmark of tenants and virtues, that teach symbolically a progressive system of discovery that leads ultimately to a personal degree of self-improvement and an inclination towards the betterment of society.”

The journey of the blog is the journey of one man’s Freemasonry experiences, and he stresses that it is not a vehicle of any specific lodge or Grand Lodge. He is interested in the exotic aspects of the work, and hopes to bring his enlightenings to you. You can get a feel for any of these enlightenings through the recent posts What is Freemasonry? That Shrine Guy, Chicken Little, Free Mason Underground of Philadelphia, Impact, Good St. John the Baptist Day, The Role of Grand Lodges, Grail Call, Whole Lot of Meme’ing Going Around, and a Saintly Throngs.

Navigation on the site is fairly straightforward though there are some formatting issues with the right navigation bar which seem to be exclusive to Internet Explorer viewers. Posts are centered and there is both a left and right navigation bar. The left bar contains the “who is” information and information on free masonry. You will also find here the fraternity store, free masonry in the news, and advertising. In the right navigation bar, you won’t find much here, and you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to get to it. This seems to be an IE issue, and not a format issue with the blog per se. In the right nav bar you will find the about me information, other Masonic blog links, blog widgets, advertising, and a menu with a listing of headlines current in masonry news. I like the headlines menus, there are updates from as little as 2 hours ago. I also like how the AdSense is incorporated into the blog design, it is barely noticeable. I am generally not fond of the white text on black background look, but it seems to suit the mood of this blog so I won’t think twice about it. I did have problems with empty space in the right nav bar however that simply said “text text text” or “more to come”. These spots are better left empty than with text essentially advertising there is no content to put there. I also did not see either a categories menu or a recent posts menu which to me are two critical blog features. These make usability of the blog so much more appealing for readers and I do recommend them to the blogger.

I will go with a 3 for this one, and I think my main suggestions have already been indicated. I think the blog is well written, so content wise it will not lose points here. There are appropriate pictures as well that are relevant to each post, and the theme of the blog is very interesting. The blog is also not losing points on activity, there was an updated post during my review, so that is always good to see active blogging. With just a few format changes, this blog could be a tremendous success. Best of luck!