Mini blogs and site trials
I’ve been experimenting with a couple of new features on this web site recently. One is a different script for publishing family tree information. The program is called Retrospect and you can see it in action on my site here.
It has a very clean uncluttered layout, is easy to use and provides just the information most people want.
The other feature is to test a flatfile blog script. For the benefit of non-bloggers, WordPress and most other PHP scripts use an SQL database to store files. An alternative is to store plain text files for each article.
I came across a small program called Text Rider, which weighed in at just 92kb. It’s currently running at www.gorey.com.au/brief/. It’s just a trial run at this stage, but it may have a potential use.
I’m yet to be enthused by the mini-blog phenomenon which has given rise to sites like Twitter, Jaiku and Tumblr. I actually have a Jaiku page at http://mgorey.jaiku.com/ but I haven’t used it for quite a while (the content there is from RSS).
I can think of two obvious explanations for mini blogs taking off. One is that people are using mobile phone text messaging more than ever, and it’s easy to post content directly from a phone. The other is that people are more lazy and find it easier to communicate in short sentences (or phrases). It could also be they are not highly literate or confident in writing.
That said, there is quite a skill to communicating effectively using short articles and I’m prepared to give it a go, time permitting.
The mini blogs I don’t like tell a person’s movements, as though the world might somehow be interested that Joe is having a beer or that Susan has gone to the hairdresser. The better sites, I think, post interesting links, web discoveries, tips and snippets of news.
You don’t have to visit the other address to see what I’m posting there. The RSS link in the right sidebar will show the titles as they are published.
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Have you tried Hictu yet? Unlike Twitter, you can also post audio and video messages. Check it out: http://www.hictu.com
My current experiment with this style of blogging is located at http://shortsay.com/michael