In this post I want to exlain to you why I have set up this blog in the way I have. There is method in the madness and I want to explain the reasoning behind the choices I have made. So lets begin
Why WordPress?
There are a plethora of options out there so like everyone else I had many options to choose from. The first thing I decided to do was to whittle it down to a select few that I had some (minimal) experience with. In the end I narrowed it down to be between using an instance of wordpress or an instance of tiddlywiki. I can hear what you are saying, “Is tiddlywiki really a viable option for use as a blogging platform?” And the answer to that is Yes it is. With a bit of customisation a tiddlywiki can be set up and be ready to use as a blog rapidly. It’http://colmjude.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=19&message=10s highly customisable nature is appealing and it’s incredible versatility and portablity would be hugely beneficial. Two great examples of blogs using the tiddlywiki platform are Ben Gillies and Jon Robson’s respective personal blogs.
WordPress’ virtues are well documented so there is no point in me listing them here, I’ll just explain the main 3 reasons why I chose it. Firstly, it’s size and following are attractive, with well over 200 million users, any time I have an issue or want to do something with it help will be close at hand. Secondly, it is written in PHP and PHP is a language I have some experience with. It is probably the first language I learnt to use to decent level and I want to continue developing my ability. I don’t get to use it that much at work at the moment so I wanted to make sure I use it outside of work. Thirdly, it is an opensource project and with my work revolving around open source projects it would only be right to continue this outside of work.
Right enough of that boring bit.
Why is the design so so basic?
I’m glad I asked myself that, I did want to clear up why the design is so so plain. It was on purpose, I intentionally chose the most basic theme I could find. I think I can learn a lot from creating my own theme and gradually adding additional functionality. And what I learn I can post on here. It seemed like a sensible approach to me. When pick the simple theme I almost went for a theme with tabbed navigation but I decided that was just too much styling for this early stage. Too advanced. It just wasn’t in keeping with the super minimalist look I was going for. It would have been cheating. I want to learn how every facet works.
Why is that in the Sidebar?
Well I couldn’t start without anything in there could I?
We start off with a short about section that leads to the About page. Reason, because I always prefer it when a blogger has a short about section visible on their posts. It allows the user to know a little about the author without having to active search out and visit the about page. Next is the Search section. Pretty standard and in my opinion a necessity for any site. Simple as that.
Following that is the Pages section which I included here because currently there is no other navigation available – due to the fact I picked the most basic theme I could find and purposefully discounted any that had clear navigation. Next up is the blogroll (rubbish name), it currently has 4 links that I use extensively. I plan to use this section to share useful sites that I visit and I intend to update it regularly. Hopefully at some point there will be something useful for you on there.
Finally we have the “Where Am I” section which lists all the places that you will be able to find me on the lovely interweb. Again as I spread my wings I expect this list to grow.
I think that has everything covered. If not feel free to point it in the comments… Now time to write something slightly useful
