Sunday, December 05, 2004

Meta: Some thoughts on this blog and its future.

I have some ideas for "improvements" to this blog, and I'm writing this both to crystallize my ideas and to solicit feedback. So, if you're reading this, consider yourself invited to make a comment on what you like or don't like about these ideas.

Linking to my own comments. I write comments on other blogs sometimes, and I can link to those places for "my" readers to enjoy. I could do this periodically (e.g., weekly). I've done this already, but it's not a regular practice.

Reprints. I've been writing things in various places since long before I started writing things here. I can "reprint" those things. Again, I've done this already.

Favorites in the sidebar. I don't have a blogroll at the side, and I don't plan on it. Listing the blogs I follow feels like listing my video rentals or the books I check out of the library. What I do want to add there is a list of my own posts from the past that I consider my best. Maybe I'll limit myself to ten.

How to protect the anonymity of people around me. I've been careful not to mention any names other than my own even though it's probably easy to find those names. Exercising that care is difficult, and I'm looking for a way to make it easier. This topic is actually large enough to warrant its own post.

A guide to Toehold. If the blog were more personal, I might want to include a dramatis personae for newcomers. It might also be handy to categorize my entries somehow and collect them by categories. A need like this seems to imply that I want software different from Blogger.

Reprints and linking to my own comments are cheap ways for me to fill my self-imposed quota of seven posts per week. Favorites in the sidebar is already in the works. I've considered having "pride" and "shame" categories for what I consider my best and worst works. When that goes live, I'll invite you, gentle reader, to nominate your favorites for placement there.

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