I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last three months on the format of a blog. The design patterns of this type of site, and those that set it apart from a macrom site, or a static informational site.

Of course blogs are more timely, and are therefore stickier (mmm... sticky blogs...) but does this advantage come at a price?

They typical blog has a front page and date-indexed archives section. Some more sophisticated blogs also have categories, so you can find posts loosely related to the one you're reading, or look for things on a particular topic.

Having had both of these 'windows into the past' for a while, I don't think they're sufficient. I still look at some static sites and miss in my own site the qualities of relevance that they have.

There are two kinds of posts (okay, there are as many kinds of posts as there are posts, but for the sake of this post, I can make my point by dividing posts in general thusly): Those which have meaning within the running commentary of posts, or otherwise are relevant specifically to the time when they're posted, and those which, insights, information, commentary or otherwise, are items that would make it onto a static site, if that was what you kept. This second type of post is the kind of thing you wish people coming to your site for the first time could see when they're trying to get a foodhold understanding of who you are, rahter than forcing them to dig through sedimentary banality, or lurk long enough until they think they know you.

So this post isn't saying much more than that my current focus of blog framework study is looking at the more effective kinds of information presentation on static sites, personal or otherwise, that have a fair amount of data, yet easily allow people to self-select the kind of information they want. I hope to identify ways of building this kind of framework dynamically, and incorporate it into the blogging system, so that when I write what I think is a profound, timeless, or otherwise worthy piece, along with filing it dutifully away in the date archives and a few topic pages, it'll also find a home in the pantheonic 'static site'.

Clearly I'm thinking far too much about this for someone with a backlog of posts and only twelve days remaining before the Big Drive, but then there's always spare cycles to burn, walking down the stairs, showering, sleeping...

Hey, happy Monday, y'all!