baldysblog.co.uk

I have been doing a lot of studying and experimenting with web design and technologies over the recent past but mainly to do with my picture web site, not having an academic brain, I have to work on ‘real world problems’. However, this blog too is a web site but with slightly different features built in so inevitably, I have ended looking at the technology behind this too.

However, this has also led me to look at both the content and the style of what I have done to date with this blog and that has led on to me asking myself what I want to do with it in the future and what, if anything, I can achieve with it. Of course the moment you stop and look at it afresh, you inevitably end up with more questions than answers…

Where It Began

I have always from young been ‘politically aware’ and held my own opinions so it became fairly natural when I moved down to Somerset to look after my Parents, to take part in the on-line comment forums of the Daily Telegraph which was great fun.

In the late Summer of 2007, I ‘came across’ WordPress which is the blogging system this is built upon. There are many others of various kinds but I think that of its type, WordPress is probably the best known system. I started writing my own blog in November of 2007, in many ways it was an experiment, it is one thing to fire off replies to an article or another commentator, quite another to write your own pieces from scratch.

Also the key question; Would I sustain it, would I be motivated to keep making fresh contributions or, as with so many people, would my interest flag quickly… Blogs and websites generally are marked by an initial enthusiasm that quickly peters out, a sort of “Many are started but few sustained…”

Looking back at my existing ‘content’ was my first step and essentially that broke down into some original essays but more often, essays driven by the “current news stories” running in the media and is that where I want to be ? Is that where a single ‘blogger’ could be easily ?

Just a calm picture I thought I might share…the bigger version

The Changing Patterns

Whereas the “Times” and the BBC were always niggardly with the number of characters allowed for any comment, the Guardian and Telegraph in particular were very generous. However, all good things must come to an end at the DT appears to have changed it’s ISP and system so that there is considerably less fun in it all anyway.

Censorship has increased on the main articles leaving just the self publishing blog section which can be “cosy” bordering on the claustrophobic. It has also become increasingly clear that many contributors, don’t read other people’s contributions which to me was most of the fun and are anyway people who just like to piss and moan, taking action to change anything, not being on their agenda.

So on both the technical and the content front, I feel as if change is definitely on the agenda but a little technical background to explain my new but as yet not ‘firmed up’ direction.

WordPress

WordPress is an interesting system, essentially it is an interactive web site, driven by an underlying database. The truth is that you don’t have to get involved too much in any of that, the system has a default presentation anyone can use – but there are 100s probably 1,000s of alternative designs available for free and changing layout is a simple process as is, changing it back again if you don’t like it.

However, because I’ve been working on web technologies, I inevitably have ended up looking at the web site design potential behind WP with the view of creating something unique to my requirements. When I’ve finished doing that, I’ll will publish the experience and methods for anyone who is interested.

The Content

In considering a ‘new’ design, I also started thinking about the format and what I wanted to do. I also realised that “reacting” to the current news stories was not what I wanted to do too much of in the future if only because often the “story is suspect”. A good example was the recent Prince Harry stunt by the News of the World, why then and for what purpose was this story bought out ? There is far too much media manipulation designed as part of the Smoke & Mirrors that became the hallmark of New Labour – “A good day to bury bad news…” indeed.

But there are specific “Themes” that I am always interested in so perhaps my way forward lies in concentrating on them, building a body of relevant background research and “publishing” on a regular cycle weekly (tough) or monthly and in a “magazine” format.

The Past

As the Eels song says: “Wake up the dying, don’t wake up the dead. Change what you’re saying, don’t change what you said…”

What I will do is continue writing short pieces as I work on the new format. Past articles that fit in with my handful of key themes may well get recycled and reworked but the originals will be archived so that they are still available. I imagine it will take a little time because once I have the site design nailed down, I also want to move the content away from just text into pictures and multi-media so that I can make it more “engaging” – well that is the plan !