by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: November 09, 2009

Geek-Speak is the brainchild of Scottish Salvation Army pastor Chris (no surname supplied), a former website designer and programmer. He loves writing about technology, and the site reflects his interests, which include the British sci fi show Dr Who and motorsport. The site has a comfortable, blog style appeal that attracts not just visitors, but advertisers and writing submissions as well.

Geek-Speak is not run on a free blogging platform, but is a fully functioning website programmed by the owner. It is a very clean looking, functional website with a white background and mainly black text. There are no obvious frills, but the overall impression is very professional and easy on the eye.

The tabs at the top of the page take you to various departments of the site. The headings are Home, Fun, Media, News, Tech and a grab bag tab called Uncategorizable. The main part of the front page is a blog, while to the right various simple blue text links lead to the About, Contact and other pages, as well as a list of the last 30 days' posts. To see such a simple and easy to use front page is very refreshing in this age overdone Flash, moving text and random graphic clutter.

Geek-Speak has advertisers, but even they manage to stay unobtrusive to the casual browser. It's a site that invites you to stay and look around without being bombarded by ads and glitz. You can subscribe to a Geek-Speak newsletter to keep up with the latest entries and other news, or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

For writers, one of the most interesting aspects of Geek-Speak will be the call for submissions page. Sadly, this is the only area where Geek-Speak may not meet your expectations. Chris is looking for article submissions on a whole variety of subjects, from game reviews and geek projects to movies and sci fi. He offers no pay, but still expects the article to be exclusive to his site if he publishes it.

Many writers may feel giving up their rights to publishing the article elsewhere for just a name credit and a personal link is too much to ask. If he offered even a small payment, it would make this rights grab easier to swallow. But whether to take up this offer or not is up to the individual writer. There is a contact form at the website where you can submit your article, or discuss a query.

Apart from this, Geek-Speak is a fun site to visit, with plenty of interesting reading. Highly recommended.

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