Joelchrono at https://joelchrono.xyz/blog/unpolished-human-websites writes that they want to read rapid, raw thoughts, quickly and messily put down by human bloggers.

Thatʼs fine, but I donʼt. In fact, I take a diametrically opposite view to almost all of Joelʼs opinions (apart from the human requirement).

On the human requirement, like Joel, I do want to be reading peopleʼs direct thoughts, not summaries, not link aggregations, and not the collected notes of some machine non-intelligence.

But I donʼt want to read something which has been thrown down in five minutes. I want to get a deeper understanding of why you are thinking these things, what impact they have on you, and how you think things should change moving forward. In my opinion, a good blog publishes a new post with a weekly cadence. It doesnʼt matter too much if the subject matter has grown old, as long as you are bringing a fresh perspective on it.

I seek out deep thinking on subjects including politics, mathematics, computing, science and the state of planet Earth. This, I feel, enriches my outlook on life, and makes my reading time at the computer worthwhile. It also gives me things I can engage with, responding with my own posts (just like this one!) and becoming part of a conversation.

I want titles which tell me straight away what the post is about. I hate guessing, and I hate it even more if the post bears no resemblance to the title. What is the point of a title if it conveys no useful information?

I like articles to have between 1,000 and 4,000 words, but must be written concisely and efficiently with perfect grammar; to do otherwise will stilt my reading progress (especially spelling mistakes which nab my attention like flies on a tablecloth).

I want the articles to have been developed over a period of a week or two, and to be organized in the conventional scientific way: executive summary, introduction, method, results, discussion, conclusions, as this allows for an abbreviated reading of an article which proves to be less interesting.

I want to see relevant references (with correct URLs!) which allow me to expand my understanding of the issues, if I want to do that. Iʼm not asking for a full bibliography, just a couple or half a dozen interesting and relevant pointers.

I want to read black (or dark grey) text on white (or very light pastel) backgrounds, in a basic clear font. I want to be able to control the line lengths by manipulating the browser window, so that I can scan the article easily in whatever environment I find myself reading in.

Hopefully you see this post, and most of the others on this blog, as an example of all the things I have been talking about (although, if Iʼm honest, I do tend to write shorter and triter posts than I like to read; thatʼs because Iʼm less intelligent than the average intelligent blogger, if that makes any sense).

Thank you (but donʼt worry if your norms are different to mine—I actually like variety almost as much as consistency and Iʼm sure I would enjoy reading your blog, too).

p.s. do please drop me a note if you know of any blogs which you think particularly fit my ideals!

Afterword

This article generated some heated comments and appeared for a time at the top of the Bubblesʼ rankings. I just want to say that, despite the title, the article was never meant to be taken as a demand on anybody to change their posting habits, but as information on the types of posts I seek out. I hope that some people found this information useful to know, and in the meantime Iʼll live happily with people doing their own thing.