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Chris's Weblog

Why blogs are annoying

Posted on November 30, 2008 at 23:17:27 by chris

I have two main problems with "blogs".

The first is the common name (and even worse words like "blogosphere", which makes me cringe every time). That'll probably mostly me being acting old - why make up new words for things which already have them? I expect I use new words in other fields which make others cringe.

The other is that they're backwards, with most recent at the top. I read from top down, and in chronological order. If I want to read the latest few entries I need to:

  1. Scroll down to find the newest post I've already read
  2. Scroll back to the top of the oldest I haven't read
  3. Scroll down that post as I read it
  4. Scroll back up past the one I've just read, and to the top of the following one
  5. Repeat from step 3

By my count, I have to scroll past each post four times, including scanning down to find where I left off. When the posts are short enough to fit on one screen it's mostly only a bit of unnecessary eye movement, but with long posts, or a small screen (I do a fair bit of reading on my mobile phone, so this is a real problem) it's really annoying.

Of course that makes it a bit embarrassing that this weblog is only currently available in reverse. Better fix that...

Related tags: grumpy, weblogs

Comments

1 Abigail (not logged in) says...

Posted 7:46 p.m. on January 10, 2009

Yes, I agree. I'd prefer blogs to work like webcomics. When you load the page, you see the current entry. If you're up to date with the site, that's all you need to see. If you're new to it and want to read from the start, there's an archive, and a link to the beginning of it; each individual entry then has Next and Previous links, so you can step through in order. If you're following it regularly but you've just missed a few days, you can use the Previous links until you come to the first one you haven't seen, then use the Back button on the browser to make your way back to the present. There's still a degree of redundancy, but it's not nearly as annoying; and if you happen to know what the date was when you last looked, it's often possible to jump straight to the first entry you missed.

By the way, is it a breach of etiquette for me to be commenting on old posts?

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