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i have a philosophy about how personal blogs should work, at least mine.
i think that personal blogs should consist of one web page. this makes it so that the reader can't skip around as easily. the blog should be journalistic and personal. it should be organized extremely simply, with a title, date, and content section for each blog entry. in terms of code, blogs should be coded very simply, using only p tags and div tags. the former is the content, and the latter organizes and styles the content, with the use of the id function which attaches to css code.
one web page:
these blogs should not be easy to skip around in. if someone is going to read this blog, they shouldn't be bombarded with history, with easy means to skip around in terms of each blog entry having its own page.
in my opinion, using a program like wordpress along with a standard form of template is tacky and overdone. it doesn't seem to matter what kind of blog it is; they all look exactly the same. it is also far too complicated. plain html code loads in a fraction of the time of a single blog post entry, even if you are loading the entire blog all at once with html. it scales properly, it is downloadable, archivable, compact, easy to host, easy to code, and you don't need any special software in order to edit any part of the code.
using a simple template for each blog post entry is extremely trivial with simple html and css. there are infinite ways in which one can decorate, style, and organize such a blog as mine using equally simple html and css.
journalistic, personal:
my personal presentation style online revolves around being mildly intimidating, alongside drawing in the consumer. i like my web pages to make me feel how i felt reading blogs some time ago: as though i were the main character uncovering ancient secrets, much like an archaeologist or the poster of found footage. i felt like i was the only one discovering such information.
for my personal style and brand, i believe that i need to have a certain visual aesthetic. my style has been described as schizophrenic, crazy, and mildly concerning; exactly what i'm looking for.
code:
the code of blogs in my style should be ridiculously simple. they should consist of div tags which style p tags by pointing to css code, and place a border around each blog entry. using css, there are many styles of border that can be used, and along with size and color, there are seemingly infinite options for visual style. using a cohesive color scheme, simple, understandable shapes, and a unique font will all make for a recognizable and easy to read brand.
this is an ongoing journey with how i design my blog pages. it is my personal philosophy, and i can't say i'm publishing this article to tell you that you should make your blogs this way. if fact, quite the opposite: this style belongs to me.
i was inspired by very old liveblogging sites that i was exposed to a long time ago, where journalists would update the public with a very simple webpage where there was, like my style, a timestamp, an entry title, and a message. i suggest that this style of blog need not stop at microblogging. you can provide updates to the general public very economically, efficiently, and still have long entries with manually updated dynamic content and any number of features.
i am, i admit, smitten by the idea of a simpler, plainer, more ominous internet experience. you can absolutely code your own site, and do it very easily. you can get, and my friends do so, very much more fancy than my site. i prefer the very simple, plain-text-inspired style of site that i operate. it is pure, simple, and more emotionally effective due to this, and i suggest that this is a direct result. complex code, pretty headers, large photos, all of these build on the website directly... but that is not the kind of site that i operate.
i hope my words are interesting to you, and i know that to some small few, they resonate deeply.
take care.
-tori