Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I've seen various bloggers put up reprints of articles when they don't feel much like blogging. My assumption has always been that if you like the blog, and you haven't read the archives, and I'm not writing enough for you, you'll read into the archives. After all, this isn't a daily paper, you can access the whole thing any time you like. I generally try to avoid repeating myself, for the same reason.

What do you think? Do you guys want me to reprint stuff from time to time? Do you ever browse the now ridiculously deep archives?

Labels: blog fu

8:15 AM

7 Comments:

Hey Alex, I've been through your archives and found them very helpful. Once in awhile if I'm stuck on something I'll go looking for any posts that may be related. I enjoy re-posts because sometimes it reminds me of something I haven't thought about in awhile and wouldn't have gone specifically looking for.
Obviously don't replace what you would post normally with re-runs, but if you're busy, they're still appreciated.

By  TREV, at 11:10 AM  

I would love a "Greatest Hits" sidebar, if you can stomach loving some of your brilliant children more than others.

By  Josh K-sky, at 11:56 AM  

Personally, I would prefer their not be reprints from other blogs or reposts from your own. reposts seem redundent when the archives are available. I look for new content in my RSS reader. I understand the point of reposts when your not posting anything new, but perhaps that purpose would be better served by a "Random Post" link that would not take continued effort on your part once implemented and would be available on demand to your readers.

The most important thing I have to say though, is I appreciate all the time and effort you put into writing the posts, and I'll continue to be greatful for that however you decide to proceed.

By  Unknown, at 12:01 PM  

I understand people's aversion to reposts, but I generally don't like wading through archives, unless I'm actually looking for something. It tends to be a little too time consuming (yes, I'm aware of the irony). Personally, I wouldn't mind reposts of informative writing tips from the past. Maybe something on the sidebar, as Josh K-sky mentioned if people get too annoyed with it on the main blog. I don't know how easy it would be in Blogger to do, however. Have you thought of switching over to Wordpress? I've found it much more workable.

By  Tim W., at 1:27 PM  

I put key articles links in the sidebar of my blog. That makes it easier for people to find things rather than sifting through a calendar list of postings. I don't list all articles, just the more important ones.

By  Scott Squires, at 2:43 PM  

What I sometimes do, rather than publishing reprints, is write a new, fairly short, post that links to several related articles and provides some new text to tie them together or fill in some gaps.

Especially when I realize that I've got one or two small things to say that didn't get into an earlier post on the topic, but that don't make much sense without some context, I find that pretty satisfying.

By  Philip Brewer, at 4:02 PM  

I enjoy reposts because (A) I don't visit the actual site and view all blogs through Google Reader and (B) I haven't been reading most blogs since they were created, so there is plenty for the author to repost that I would find new and interesting.

I like to think of it like the "previously on" segments before some shows. I watch every episode of 24 or Lost, but I find the previously on segment helpful nonetheless. It's a good refresher if I've seen that episode and it's even better if I happened to have missed it.

By  Jesse, at 1:57 PM  

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