About this whole "Blogging" Thing...

[krowface]

Anyways, I've also gone ahead and created a blog, something I haven't really had since I last had a domain a few years ago. Shit, I was blogging before the term even existed; we're talking back in the era of E/N sites. StileProject didn't have porn ads, there was no blogosphere. I'm a little shocked. Back in the day there really wasn't much out there in terms and resources for anyone who wanted to have a 'blog' (man, i *still* feel weird even using that term.). You wanted a blog, you opened up notepad and you wrote it yourself. You wanted links, you went out there and looked for them. Then you e-mailed other webmasters and you bartered for reciprocal links.

Now it's a simple matter of creating a blog, then clicking a few links. Traffic is created for you. Images are generated online instantly. Templates are everywhere. Honestly, if you have the information architecture, you don't really need anything else. Follow the directions, do a quick google search and you will never have to contact a web designer the entire time. Sounds great, unless you're one of them.

What amazes me is that designers and coders have created so much in terms of generators and templates, that we've almost automated ourselves out of existence. You need a CMS, there's a thousand of them out there. Want to change the design and layout? There's a million templates. Need shiny buttons? Billions. Widgets, snippets, whatever.

We're at the point now if you know how to cut&paste, you can have a cutting edge site up and running in a manner of minutes. Honestly, I'm not exaggerating here.

Absolutely amazing. Thrilling too. Now after years of designers talking about "content is king", it might actually be coming true.

The funny part, however, is that even with all of these templates and generators, you'd think we had open-sourced ourselves out of existence. Luckily, the only people who know these things exist are the people they would normally replace.

Thank god the average user is usually overwhelmed, easily confused, and a touch lazy. Otherwise we'd be extinct.

Shit. Is this a rant?

Comments

[propopdan.livejournal.com]

I am extremely happy that web publishing has become so easy.

[krowface.livejournal.com]

Oh I don't know.

I've had this adage for the past few years now: "Just because you have a worldwide audience, doesn't mean you have anything to say."

But yeah, it is nice. I've gotten quicker to frustration in my old age when it comes to coding.

[propopdan.livejournal.com]

"Just because you have a worldwide audience, doesn't mean you have anything to say."

That's true, but I don't mind having 1000 crap sites up there in exchange for one excellent site. My friend Jeff is a great example:
http://baltimore-taper.blogspot.com/
http://av.beatbots.com/

this is an old hippie that goes out and records pretty much every local Baltimore band. He knows next to nothing about computers, but thanks to Blogger and Wordpress he can share these recordings with the world for free and with no coding knowledge.

[krowface.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is definately an exception to the rule.

Even if it does fuck up the noise-to-signal ratio, as long as something good comes out of it, it's ok with me.

[andrew-jp-reyes.livejournal.com]

Dude, isn't it always a rant? ;-}