NOT JUST A FACE-LIFT

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1 2004 @ 01:45 PM

If you haven't read Geoff's post already (thanks for the compliments mate), the 'looks' of this blog have changed as of last night. However, this is not just a face-lift, I'm changing the architecture of the site as well, as I feel like proposing an alternative to the "3 columns" blog template.

I've been blogging for more than a year now, and reading blogs for a lot longer. During this time of being an author and reader, I've come to believe that the 'traditional' blog architecture we have been following is not the best solution anymore. The analysis of my site's statistics has shed some light on this matter too, confirming that the way we read blogs (or at least this one), claims for an interface overhaul.

The results of all that ranting is what you see here now. It is still a work in progress, as I'm trying to optimize things in the back-end too.

If you run a Flash blog, or a technical blog for that matter, most probably the greater part of your traffic comes through blog aggregators. If that is so, and depending on your feed's configuration, those links direct users to a document containing an entire story or article. Your index page is no longer your own gateway, and it's only used by those who visit your site regularly (i.e. they have it bookmarked); so, why do you want to put there a list of 10+ posts they might have already read? unless you write 5+ posts a day, you don't want to do that, and I certainly do not :)

Now, my blog index focuses on the very last post, and offers access to other recent posts. The difference is that you can read an extract of the post, rather than have only a link to it. And so on...

There are many details around, you will find by yourself. Please, feel free to express your opinion, or let me know if something is not working properly. Your feedback is most welcome, as always.

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