It was last February twenty-seventh that I said “Hello” from ongoing to the world; herewith my impressions and future plans.
Thank You! · This has filled a hole in my life that I didn’t know was there, and has helped with the job-hunting too, and I don’t think I’d have the courage to go on writing if some of you weren’t reading. So to all of you, my heartfelt thanks.
The Bargain · I think a blogger makes a bargain with the world: first, you give something: it can be useful information, or powerful writing, or pretty pictures, or a glimpse inside a compelling personality that people want to spend time with. Or some combination of these (information and pictures, here). In return, you get something: the privilege of telling the world what you care about. Simple enough, really.
Is It Work? · A year in, it still doesn’t feel like work. Occasionally, when I’ve run dry for a day or two I feel vaguely guilty. And recently, when my creative juices have been flowing mostly into job-hunting and Genx, I think I’ve been kind of boring here and that bothers me.
For now I’m trying to keep an amateur feel, that is to say not write anything unless there’s some writing trying to get out.
Statistics · I’ve reported statistics here a bit over the year; not much has really changed. ongoing is most popular when it’s at its geekiest, but since getting that CNN link in January, the audience has become a bit more mainstream; I can tell because the proportion of people using Internet Explorer is back up to just under 60%.
Changes in the Plans · There are a few things around here that need to happen or are going to anyhow, to wit:
Getting A Job · I suspect I’ll be working for someone within a week or two, and whether or not I want it to, that’ll affect what happens here. How? Who can tell?
Fixing Bugs · There is some breakage in the date displays, and the Print Stylesheet idea never really worked, and there are some other minor irritants that I’ve been going to fix for weeks now, and I will.
Width and IE and All That ·
When I added Google ads on January 1st, it screwed up the picture for
people who read ongoing in windows narrower than 850
pixels or so, making the content column irritatingly small.
I’ve been meaning to fix this but haven’t, for several reasons.
First, I haven’t been able to find a really good fix that doesn’t make ongoing uglier for the majority of people who
aren’t in a small window.
Second, for IE users with big screens, the ads have actually improved the
display; since IE stupidly doesn’t support the CSS max-width
property, big-screen IE users have been seeing ongoing
rendered way too wide; the ads squeeze the content very satisfactorily for
those people.
Third, I do plan to get a job, and when I’m actually earning a salary it
seems a bit over-the-top from both my point of view and my future employer’s
to be selling ads too. So they’ll go.
Search · Yes, ongoing needs a search function.
Here you go.
Works great, right? All I need to do is hook that up to the Google API so the result looks like ongoing rather than Google, but I’ve been meaning to do that for like six months now, so maybe I should just put one of those boxes in the left margin.
Going Mainstream · If there’s one impossible dream around here it’s breaking out of the geek ghetto and writing essays for people who totally don’t care how HTTP works. Impossible, because I don’t think people will read writing that isn’t lived-in. Technology is where I live; when I give up all this hacking for politics or poetry, full-time, then I’ll be able to write about politics or poetry and maybe make someone care.
Same Time Next Year · Anyhow, once again, muchas gracias to you, dear readers. And special thanks to Lauren for editing and sanity-checking and love.
