PhotoDude.com

Thu. Nov 17, 2005

Changing The Do

In addition to upgrading to Textpattern 4.0.2, I’m making some changes in the way I do things around here. I mean, c’mon, it’s been almost five and a half years since I started doing this thing they called “blogging.” I’m on my fourth blogging app (Blogger, Greymatter, Movable Type, and now Textpattern), and have pretty much been around the horn. In fact, in some ways I’m coming full circle.

Let’s go back in time, class, and see what we can learn. If we look back at the second or third week I was blogging, back in the summer of 2000, we see a mixture of posts. Some are quotes from others, some are a link with a brief comment or quote from the linked page, and some are more full blown “articles” of 300 to 800 words. All posted linearly in the random order they occurred. All looking pretty much alike.

Over the years, via both willful acts and software migrations with their accompanying changes and limitations, the “way I do things” here has become completely segregated. It started out when I got my first digital camera, and started PixelPile in September, 2000, as a separate blog from the “text blog.” After I switched software again, I spun out a QuoteLog first in March, 2001, and then a “linklog” called Arbitrary Secondaries in January, 2003.

Over time, I’ve gotten tired of the chunkiness. This chunk of these things here, and that chunk of those things there, but do not mix chunks. Over time, RSS feeds have also become much more important, and, well, I’ve got three. Again, no mixing allowed, especially not with output from both Textpattern and Movable Type.

Also, I think the “chunkiness” made me feel like I had to have something fairly substantial to post as a “full fledged article,” and that meant they came a lot less frequently. I’m hoping this may fool me into posting shorter pieces more often. We’ll see, won’t we, class?

So I guess I’m “goin’ retro,” back to the way I started. I’ve figured out a way keep doing links and quotes in a fairly distinct manner visually and in terms of archives, yet incorporate them on the home page and in the RSS/Atom feeds (though I’ve still got some category issues to work out). So you’ll now see them pop up in the main content column on the home page in the random order I find them, instead of over in the right sidebar. In chunks.

You can now subscribe to one feed and get all the articles, links, and quotes. I’m also giving up on the idea of only placing excerpts in the feeds, and going with the trend of putting the full content there. The popularity of RSS has overwhelmed my idealism. And I’m going to try posting the images from PixelPile (along with others) in my flickr account, so you can get the images via the RSS or Atom feeds there.

So there. You can get it all without even coming to my site. Since that’s the way everybody seems to want it these days. Harumph.

If you’re one of those who still likes to see a site’s design and layout as well as its content, you may notice a slightly more prominent placement of ads. Like on the home page, for the first time ever. The truth is, this has not been one of our best years for family income. Not by a very long shot. And if I can bump up my ad take from this Web Thang, even marginally … well, I’m gonna.

But I also hope to give this site a little more care and feeding than I have over the past year or so, and maybe get out of the rut I’ve felt like I’m in.

Maybe I can be “Somebody In The Blogosphere” again with lots of links from the A-Listers, instead of a rundown backwater with so many shades of grey! And tan and brown. Definitely no red or blue. I mean, will you look at the paint job on this place? It looks like it’s about to flake off.

Naaaahhhhhhhh.

I’ll keep doing more of the same, just more of it. And maybe arranged differently. But after five and a half years of doing this, my blogwhoring days are long over. I wasn’t even very good at it. I do this because I like it, not because I want everyone to like me. But you can find that in 50 gallon drums elsewhere on the web.

The one thing that has been consistent at this site since Day One, 1/19/97, is that you will often see these words somewhere near the top of the home page: “If you don’t like it, don’t look at it.”

That’s why one of the first quotes I added with this “new system” was the one from Neil Young:

“I like it if people enjoy what I’m doing, but if they don’t, I also like it. I sometimes really like aggravating people with what I do. I think it’s good for them.”

I like that. And I hope you like what I’ve done here. But if you find it aggravating, well, I can get behind that, too.