About the Format

I’ve disappeared from here for a bit for the holidays. Family emergencies and celebrations have gotten in the way. Still I’ve been thinking about what I’m trying to do here and how best to accomplish that. Part of what I’m asking myself is what are these things I’m posting here.

Obviously, this seems to be a blog. There’s an Atom feed. There’s a reverse-chronological index page. Entries are dated. Hell, it even says “Blog” on the home page and the navigation bar. (Or it does today, anyway.)

But I am thinking about these things a little differently. If I have more to say on a topic, I think I’m just as likely to go edit a page instead of posting a new one.

So maybe it’s really a wiki?

Borrowing from Martin Fowler, I’m leaning toward thinking about this as a cross between a blog and a wiki. He’s called them a bliki.

There’s still a lot to fill in, though. I need to think about how to allow readers to navigate through previous versions of posts. I need to think about how to be transparent about changes in a way that doesn’t intrude on the reading experience. I need to think about better ways to navigate through time and across time.

But be warned. Posts are unstable. Words will change.