So there are all kinds of blogs on the net. And they carry different levels of content. Some have huge heaping piles of links, some post every day, some post every hour and some every minute. Some have podcasts, some have videos. You get the idea.
My issue is that I’ve pretty much locked my blog into an essay blog. I make big infrequent posts. A lot of times I write posts and never put them up because they are large and hard to edit. Mostly that’s my fault for being heavily redundant. I keep saying the same thing in many different ways to be sure I get my point across. Like right now. And while this format allows me to express myself in a way I like, it is really something I need to limit.
I had a SlashJournal and it had limits. I worked within those limits for a time. But eventually I found them too constricting, so I switched to this format which has no limits. Now that I’ve experimented with no limits for a time I find that I still can’t do everything I want. So I’m going to write myself a new blog software. One that imposes heavy limits to allow me to do more. Not making sense? Let me explain.
Presently all I can do to post on my blog is make a bunch of HTML and stick it in a box. But with so much freedom to move around I really lack direction. So I always end up blabbing away about something crazy. I never post a cool link I’ve found. I never post a short little blurb about a book or a game. I always wait for something really good and then write a huge thing about it.
So here’s my idea for a new blog software that encompasses all types of blogging. The multi-blog if you will. Instead of just one type of post there will be many. There will be simple “link” posts where I just put up a URL. That will most likely mirror to my del.icio.us. There will be blurb posts where I limit myself to 50 words or such. These will be used for anything which doesn’t require much explanation. Things like “I went to the beach today, yay!” or “I got this thing, you totally should buy it.” I’ll still keep the essay posts, but from then on I will be sure to limit myself to 1000 words or so. Maybe even less. That will force me to edit more heavily and only post an essay when I really write it well. I’ll probably make additional types of posts for photos (Flickr mirror), video and audio.
I think with all these different types of posts I will be more inclined to put up more content. And that content will be more useful to myself and others. Especially since I will also do the following. First, implement track-backs which I have never had working. Next mirror on sites like del.icio.us and Flickr for awesome and for bandwidth relief. RSS everything. Feeds of different types of posts, feeds of different combinations of types of posts, feeds of date. And of course, absolutely everything will be categorized by tag, not hierarchy. Oh yeah, feeds for flags too. Feeds for combinations of flags. The whole shebang.
What I’m going to basically do is create a single information collation point which will allow me to store, get and share all the digital information in my life. I’ve wanted such a thing for quite awhile, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized the web was the place for it to be. But don’t expect it anytime soon. I’m going to be working on using the Puzzle Pirates engine to make some multiplayer games first.
