Blogs that Stand the Test of Time
Most blogs arrange their content chronologically. For many blogs, strict chronological ordering perfectly matches the type of content they produce; after all, the name “blog” originated from the term “weblog”, which was a type of journal or diary. Journals are inherently date-based.
Chronological ordering, though, seems to work against the type of content I want to create; it forces older articles into the recesses of the web in order to promote newer stories.
When I post something online, I’d like to put a lot of thought into each post. The blog world is filled with people reposting and linking to information from other sources; if I’m going to post something, I’d like it to be an interesting reflection on my part. Usually, those types of posts aren’t made obsolete by the passage of time.
Consider the typical scenario: I’ll post (what I consider to be) a long, thought-through article; perhaps a few close friends of family will read it. But as soon as I post another article, the old article gets shoved down the homepage and starts to gather cobwebs in the corners of the forgotten internet; people tend to read only the most recent post, and it’s rare that useful discussion or insight comes from people reading older posts.
I find Paul Graham’s article structure much more intuitive. Rather than allowing new content to become obsolete through the passage of time, his content is organized as a collection of articles or essays. Each article still retains a “date of creation”, but that date only serves as a reference point; the content of the articles reigns supreme.
It’s not very useful or interesting for people to read trivial details about my daily life; even my family wouldn’t be interested in those details once they’ve fallen into the past. Rather, by posting more interesting content and organizing it with the content more important than the posted date, my own site has a better chance at surviving the sands of time.
To accurately represent that type of content, I might need to shuffle the structure of the site. Readers should be able to see a collection of higher-quality articles I’ve written, and should be able to browse them easily.
Something like a “featured articles” list, placed in a prominent spot, would be a good start at a more time-proof personal website.
I know I don’t have many readers right now (if any), but perhaps this will help gain a more solid audience. For those of you who are reading this, you can subscribe to new posts here, and receive notification of new posts either via e-mail or via a RSS feed. You’re welcome to leave a comment on any of my posts if you have the inclination.
Comments Posted 5 February 2008 in Meta
