Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog

This slim volume, by Rebecca Blood, is well-written, informative, and engaging. One of the early website creators and one of the first to use what is now considered to be the "weblog" format, Rebecca has a unique perspective on weblogs, online culture, and communication. Although I have had a weblog since 2003 (and have done a lot of reading on the subject) I learned new things from this book.

One of the most interesting things I learned is how much the idea of a "weblog" has changed since the word was coined in 1999. The earliest weblogs were information filters, "Links with commentary, with the new stuff on top".

... most weblogs were designed on the principle of simple functionality. A main area, wide enough for easy reading, was reserved for daily entries. Often a narrow side column echoed [Cameron Barret's] original list of "other weblogs" and this sidebar persists on many weblogs today.
...
Many of the first-wave weblogs updated through the day, providing a real-time record of their maintainer's surfing patterns. They linked to general interest articles, to online games, and often to Web-related news.

The first weblogs were lists of links. They formed a sort of site map to the web.

I started using the web sometime in 1993 or 1994 when a co-worker introduced me to NCSA Mosaic, one of the early web browsers. I created a personal home page. I created a page or two of interesting links.

That's where I diverged from the earliest webloggers. Instead of posting links in the order I found them, I categorized my pages. When I added a new link, I simply stuck it into whichever category it fit best (or I made a new category). I won't say my idea was "better" or "worse"; it was simply different. It fit my mental organizational model.

In addition, while I occasionally "surfed" the web, that was not my primary interest. I was far more interested in creating web pages, especially Intranet sites. When I went out onto the WWW, I was usually looking for something in particular. It would appear, in retrospect, that I was missing something.

In 1999, something big happened that redirected the future of weblogging. Again, I was busy with other things and didn't notice. C'est la vie.

In July 1999, Andrew Smales ... created Pitas, a service that enabled anyone with access to a computer with a Web browser to create a weblog entry by typing into aa blank box and then clicking a button on the computer screen. A month later, a startup called Pyra produced a similar product called Blogger. With the introduction of these two services and the others that appeared quickly on their heels, anyone who could tye and had access to the World Wide Web coould create a weblog, and the bandwagon that had been steadily gaining momentum through the summer shot through the gate.
...
And weblogs changed.

Weblogs were no simply longer lists of links. They were something more (or less, depending on your viewpoint).

Weblogs devoted to short personal entries appeared, usually created with one of the simple new tools. When these sites included links, if they did at all, they pointed mainly to other weblogs. In public and in private, webloggers engaged in vigorous discussions over the definition of the weblog.

I think I'm just as glad that I wasn't part of that discussion! I came on the scene relatively late. Although my email archives show some references to Blogger and weblogging before then, I didn't really pay any attention until early 2002. In May, 2002, one of the members of a technical mailing list I read posted this note:

Someone asked me if they could host their blog on my server; anyone here run a blog?

A What?

That sparked some discussion, with references and links. I was sufficiently interested to research a few of the suggestions. I tried out Greymatter ("the original opensource weblogging and journal software"). I set up a Greymatter weblog for the San Francisco Perl User Group to use for meeting information. I created a personal weblog for myself, into which I posted three entries.

Then I went back to doing other things until 2003.

In early 2003 I was introduced to Ben and Mena Trott at the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies conference. When I went home, I downloaded and installed Movable type. This time, I was bitten by the blogging bug.

When I'm interested in a subject, I want to learn more about it. I learn by experimentation and reading. I have read other books, and recommend them to anyone interested in weblogging. The Weblog Handbook taught me things I didn't expect. I am indebted to Rebecca for her historical perspective, her excellent commentary, and her thoroughness. This may seem to be a small book but it has a lot inside!

I came away from reading The Weblog Handbook with a greater understanding of weblogging — why I do it, why others do it, and how I can improve. I was also personally please to discover that Rebecca understands the difference between the two styles of weblog I write. And, she has names for them! She writes:

... I place weblogs into three very broad categories: blogs, notebokks, and filters.

BLOGS: These sites resemble short-form journals. The writer's subject is his daily life, with links subordinate to the text. ...

NOTEBOOKS: Sometimes personal, sometimes focused on the outside world, notebooks are distinguished from blogs by their longer pieces of focused content. ...

FILTERS: When I think of the classic weblog, ... I think of the old-style site organized squarely around the link, maintained by an inveterate Web surfer, personal information strictly optional. ...

So. My primary weblog, Slightly Off Kilter is in the blog style. This weblog, commentary, is a notebook. For an example of the filter style, see Rebecca Blood's own Rebecca's Pocket.

Thanks, Rebecca!

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The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog; Perseus Publishing, July 2002; ISBN: 073820756X