everything in its right place
By anders pearson 30 May 2002
i’m probably not the only one who’s noticed that postings to the main part of this site have slowed down a bit lately.
<p>it seems to me that part of this is that people have been discovering and utilizing the diaries more and more.</p>
<p>this isn’t a bad thing, but i thought i’d try to take a moment to clarify what my original intentions were for the different sections. i loathe playing dictator so please don’t take this as a mandate; just suggestions. </p>
<p>in my eyes, the diaries are a place to post things that are probably only interesting to people who specifically care about you and are curious what you’re up to. i added the section because i wanted somewhere to post mundane stuff without cluttering the front page.</p>
<p>anything that may be interesting to a wider audience or is likely to spark a good discussion should go on the front page where it will get seen by more people with less effort. eg, jP’s recent <a href="node.pl?nid=3576">analog</a> post and tuck’s ongoing series on martial arts and mental states and their relationship are the kinds of things that i would envision going on the front page. </p>
<p>it’s a fuzzy distinction sometimes. the acid test i’ve been using is that something goes to the front-page if i can really give it any topical keywords other than ‘the uneventful life of anders’. </p>
<p>just knowing that people are using the site, posting things and reading is enough to warm my insides, so don’t feel bad if you prefer to keep stuff off in your diary. </p>
<p>i find the intricacies of how online communities like this grow and evolve and interact with the tools infinitely fascinating. so i’m curious: how does the feature-set and design of the tools that thraxil provides influence how we interact with and communicate with each other? how do you think the thraxil community has reacted to and changed with the addition of new features like diaries, bookmarks, images, keywords, or threaded comments?</p> Tags: meta online communities