How to read a blog
I have never ever thought to explain how to read a blog. From the time of my very first, and very ugly, website [tck] (a Matthew Good Band fansite) which came before blogging was a thing anyone had heard of, to my now erased from existance uJournal site to my current personal blog [jks] and professional blog [teotw] the idea that readers would need a website explained to them never crossed my simple mind. Yet technology writer and cranky TWITer [twit] John C. Dvorak decided that his blog needed a users guide [jcd].
With five million or more bloggers out there and even more readers it is assumed that everyone knows how to read a blog, or how they work. From my blogging experience I can say that this is definitely not true and hopefully this short article will describe the process for newcomers. This article is for the readers of blogs, not the writers.
The guide is actually super helpful, and even if you’ve been able to find your way around Metroblogging Vancouver without water-wings for awhile now it might be handy to read up and discover just exactly what things like permalink mean.
Of course Dvorak’s blog probably needs a users guide since I find it so busy and confounding that I rarely visit it. I tend to just skip ahead to his PC Magazine stories [pcm] instead.
I am astounded at how many people don’t “know” how to read blogs. I had to teach someone what links are, even - this person can handle his own “website” but not a “blog.”
Weird, I picked it up right away.