Comments on: Archives Are Like Wednesday’s Meatloaf http://cre8pc.com/2006/10/04/archives-are-like-wednesdays-meatloaf/ News & Commentary on the Holistic Approach to Web Site Usability, Search Marketing, Internet Communication, Accessibility and Organic, People on Purpose Web Design, est. 2002 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:23:36 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: The Cluetrain Manifesto and What it Means for Your Business » 10e20 - Search, Design & Social http://cre8pc.com/2006/10/04/archives-are-like-wednesdays-meatloaf/comment-page-1/#comment-3897 The Cluetrain Manifesto and What it Means for Your Business » 10e20 - Search, Design & Social Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:02:24 +0000 http://cre8pc.com/blog/archives/107#comment-3897 [...] Internet, information gets outdated pretty darn quickly. Months pass and old blog owners consider pruning old posts that seem outdated. However, there’s one piece of information that has remained [...] [...] Internet, information gets outdated pretty darn quickly. Months pass and old blog owners consider pruning old posts that seem outdated. However, there’s one piece of information that has remained [...]

]]> By: Markus Merz http://cre8pc.com/2006/10/04/archives-are-like-wednesdays-meatloaf/comment-page-1/#comment-184 Markus Merz Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:58:36 +0000 http://cre8pc.com/blog/archives/107#comment-184 1st of all thanks for mentioning my article at p.com which started (!) about the attraction of tag clouds. And thanks for bringing up the question before! 2nd the thread on that article develops as my tag implementation on my local news site (link behind my name - be warned it's German) developed. Yes, I am still using tags and tag clouds but I see the clouds more as a playground for uninspired readers seeking inspiration. The most important part concerning tags (not the clouds) is the SE love which I already find a little too strong but I don't have the guts to forbid SE access to tag search result pages as I am fearing the (unknown) consequences. Right now I am using tags (beside sections and categories) as a kind of mini-index or mini-abstract for articles and headline lists. My site structure has three main reading levels: 1. Homepage - only Headlines plus metadata below (section, categories, tags). I did this to make the page fast and deliver an overview. Beside that only a small percentage of readers come to the homepage (~10%). 2. Category/tag/fulltext search The first two will deliver an excerpt list thus allowing a more in-depth view of the content. These pages receive huge SE love (40% to 60% of the SE traffic). Content is Headlines plus metadata (section, categories, tags) plus excerpt. As many readers might already take this for the real thing I have added huge 'read more' links if there is more :-) Fulltext search will deliver excerpts from the body where the search words are marked bold. Pretty effective. 3. Full article view The full article view is the article body with all the whistles and bells above and below. Below the article I have older/newer navigation, I repeat the tags, I have related articles and I have an excerpt of the complete tag cloud only containing tags which have been used more then two times. With this three level reading structure accompanied by the three level organizational structure (section, category, tag) I feel that that site can grow 'forever' without loosing transparency regarding the 'one click' research results. What do you think? 1st of all thanks for mentioning my article at p.com which started (!) about the attraction of tag clouds. And thanks for bringing up the question before!

2nd the thread on that article develops as my tag implementation on my local news site (link behind my name – be warned it’s German) developed. Yes, I am still using tags and tag clouds but I see the clouds more as a playground for uninspired readers seeking inspiration.

The most important part concerning tags (not the clouds) is the SE love which I already find a little too strong but I don’t have the guts to forbid SE access to tag search result pages as I am fearing the (unknown) consequences.

Right now I am using tags (beside sections and categories) as a kind of mini-index or mini-abstract for articles and headline lists.

My site structure has three main reading levels:

1. Homepage – only Headlines plus metadata below (section, categories, tags). I did this to make the page fast and deliver an overview. Beside that only a small percentage of readers come to the homepage (~10%).

2. Category/tag/fulltext search

The first two will deliver an excerpt list thus allowing a more in-depth view of the content. These pages receive huge SE love (40% to 60% of the SE traffic). Content is Headlines plus metadata (section, categories, tags) plus excerpt. As many readers might already take this for the real thing I have added huge ‘read more’ links if there is more :-)

Fulltext search will deliver excerpts from the body where the search words are marked bold. Pretty effective.

3. Full article view

The full article view is the article body with all the whistles and bells above and below. Below the article I have older/newer navigation, I repeat the tags, I have related articles and I have an excerpt of the complete tag cloud only containing tags which have been used more then two times.

With this three level reading structure accompanied by the three level organizational structure (section, category, tag) I feel that that site can grow ‘forever’ without loosing transparency regarding the ‘one click’ research results.

What do you think?

]]> By: Adrian http://cre8pc.com/2006/10/04/archives-are-like-wednesdays-meatloaf/comment-page-1/#comment-183 Adrian Thu, 05 Oct 2006 09:45:23 +0000 http://cre8pc.com/blog/archives/107#comment-183 If things are tagged well, it can help, but great posts can be easily lost in the ether of old archives. If you're after specific information on a topic, there may well be some really useful blog posts out there. But it can be difficult to find at times. Unless you land on the right page form a search engine, it can be very difficult to find specific things within a blog. As I commented on Dave's blog, the same is true of forums. How many amazing threads have we had at Cre8asite that have mostly drifted off into the ether? And the way we've tried to keep them noted in stickied threads etc... It was something I thought about when we setup the 'new' forums (2002 was it?!), about how we might collate good threads into a place for safekeeping etc... 4 years on, I'm still not sure how to solve it! If things are tagged well, it can help, but great posts can be easily lost in the ether of old archives.

If you’re after specific information on a topic, there may well be some really useful blog posts out there. But it can be difficult to find at times. Unless you land on the right page form a search engine, it can be very difficult to find specific things within a blog.

As I commented on Dave’s blog, the same is true of forums. How many amazing threads have we had at Cre8asite that have mostly drifted off into the ether? And the way we’ve tried to keep them noted in stickied threads etc…

It was something I thought about when we setup the ‘new’ forums (2002 was it?!), about how we might collate good threads into a place for safekeeping etc…

4 years on, I’m still not sure how to solve it!

]]> By: Tamar http://cre8pc.com/2006/10/04/archives-are-like-wednesdays-meatloaf/comment-page-1/#comment-179 Tamar Wed, 04 Oct 2006 23:15:33 +0000 http://cre8pc.com/blog/archives/107#comment-179 Depending on the quality of information provided and the frequency of useful information posted, it can be months back and maybe even years. I have only started digging through archives (I have a LOT of reading to do) and I'm beginning to see a lot of value posted in blogs from 2005 and 2006. I haven't hit as many blogs that are dated 2004, but I'm just beginning my quest. :) Depending on the quality of information provided and the frequency of useful information posted, it can be months back and maybe even years. I have only started digging through archives (I have a LOT of reading to do) and I’m beginning to see a lot of value posted in blogs from 2005 and 2006. I haven’t hit as many blogs that are dated 2004, but I’m just beginning my quest. :)

]]> By: cre8pc http://cre8pc.com/2006/10/04/archives-are-like-wednesdays-meatloaf/comment-page-1/#comment-178 cre8pc Wed, 04 Oct 2006 22:13:50 +0000 http://cre8pc.com/blog/archives/107#comment-178 Thank you Tamar. You raise good points. I wonder how far back people are willing to go into archives? Days, months, weeks, years? Thank you Tamar. You raise good points. I wonder how far back people are willing to go into archives? Days, months, weeks, years?

]]>