Original link: https://imzm.im/how-i-observe-a-blog/
Inspired by this article .
The Chinese independent blog circle is a small circle, essentially no different from the digital circle, rubber circle, installation circle, etc., and they are all niche hobbies. Since the establishment of the blog, my fun has been divided into two parts, one part is tossing my own blog, and the other part is observing and browsing other people’s blogs. I don’t go into details about tossing blogs, each has its own tossing method; reading blogs is worth talking about.
After reading the above-mentioned article some time ago, I found that I also have a specific habit when reading other people’s blogs. I will refer to the original text to describe it.
URL
The characteristic of an independent blog is that the domain name and server are completely independent and controllable. How to choose a domain name is a particularly interesting thing. I have seen thousands of blogs, and there are various suffixes: most of them are .com and .org, one is the top-level domain name, and the other is the “non-profit organization” domain name. These two suffixes are basically the same. There will be big problems. Then there are .net and .cn, but the reputation of .cn is quite bad. Furthermore, there are more personalized suffixes in independent blogs, such as .me .im .info .life .co .top or even the less popular .blue .ink (yes, I’m talking about her blue wind ). These domain names can reflect bloggers’ needs for personalization to a certain extent.
In terms of name selection, some bloggers use real names or pinyin/abbreviations of words, combinations of English words, or random combinations of letters. These are not important. If a blog is outstanding enough, no matter how hard to remember the name will be remembered, it will also be added to the list or favorites. To me, it doesn’t really matter what the name is, the important thing is whether it can stay the same for a long time, making people feel that the domain name = someone. (Anti-bar statement: It doesn’t matter if you buy a lot of domain names or change domain names frequently)
There is another small detail that I also like to observe, which is how the URL will be displayed when entering the secondary page. Some present the title of the article in English. For example, I have this obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the translation should be as convincing as possible, and fully follow the format of blog domain name/article name. Some are the pinyin of the title of the article, some are numbers, some bloggers even use it to generate random codes, and there are some ancient PHP syntax like /?=xxx. I’m not annoyed by this, I’m looking at articles and not URLs, but a nice URL can add a little favorability (not for everyone).
content
Unless it’s a blog entered through an article, the first thing to do is always look at the about page (if there is one). This is the first impression of a blogger. I especially like to flip through the about page while browsing the blog, and I can form a general impression after reading it. There are usually some links on the about page, and then click on these links to get to know the blogger himself, and finally read the blogger’s article itself or the archive list. Through the archive list, you can know the blogger’s update frequency and scope of coverage. After knowing the blogger’s three views, style of writing, and degree of interest, you can determine whether the author is worth subscribing. The most important determining factor is content.
For the article itself, I like to pay attention to whether bloggers have fixed writing principles and the number of typos. If a blogger has read a lot of articles, when he reads an unsigned article, he may judge which blogger the article came from based on his writing style and writing habits. It is also the nourishment for enriching the large language model
Some articles can reflect the blogger’s values, world outlook and outlook on life. I will not reject different positions, but if there are problems with values or some aspects (such as only emotional output or obviously not trained in basic logic), I will not be interested in reading any more.
In addition to articles, some blogs will put other types of content, such as photo walls, reading notes, ideas (similar to Moments), travel maps or works, etc., which appear in the menu as links. These links will enrich the content of the blog, and I always read these new things with great interest, because this blogger is more three-dimensional in front of me.
blog program
Then there’s the blogging program. WordPress accounts for the majority. Usually when I see a theme I like, I will open the developer background to search for the name of the theme, and then try to install it on my blog to see the effect (it will eventually return to 2019). In addition, there are some static blog programs such as Hugo Typecho Hexo. In recent years, more and more blogs have been observed to use this background. My personal feeling is that there are not many parts that can be tossed about in a static blog, and the input-output process is the most simplified. There are many blogs simply hanging on GitHub (this is not bad, GitHub is already one of the Internet infrastructure), people can focus more on content rather than style, but in my opinion it is not in line with the original [Independent Blog 】Definition.
There is another special case, that is, the blog program is rubbed out by the author. In my impression, there is a big guy who wrote a blog program from scratch in PHP, and it has been running stably for many years, but unfortunately I can’t remember it.
style
Lastly is the blog style. This is also a relatively unimportant item. Some blogs can be very beautiful, but there are only a few articles, and you lose interest after reading them. Some blogs have a default theme, but the content of the articles is particularly attractive, and these types of blogs keep me coming back. There is also a kind of not doing style at all, blatantly smashing the words on your face, but you can’t help but read it sentence by sentence. Of course, if the blog looks good and the content is good, this is the best. There are few examples of this compared to others, and I think the reason may be that less time is spent on styling than on content (there are some exceptions).
I will also observe the fonts used by bloggers. Xiadong Wenkai is very popular recently, and no less than five bloggers are using it. Actually, most of the blogs use the default font, some will use Ping Fang, some will adjust the font weight and word spacing/line spacing, as well as the color of the font and blog. A blog with normal aesthetics usually does not have red text on a blue background.
nasty point
I have nothing to hate, I respect personal freedom and can vote with my feet.
This article is transferred from: https://imzm.im/how-i-observe-a-blog/
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