posted Apr 20, 2016, 2:36 PM by Boyce Crownover
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updated Apr 28, 2017, 10:38 AM
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I read a lot.
Pretty much all day, every day, I'm reading with short breaks for a few TV shows (on Netflix, or Amazon Prime or the like) and sleep. Most of my reading is on websites. Probably half of what I read is technical or related to work in some way, but the other half is for entertainment alone. I don't think he cares that he is doing it wrong.
I love to read codinghorror and cracked because they are fun. The words and phrasing they use make me choose to read them for recreation. So when I started writing up my thoughts on encryption and the whole bundle of issues that sprang up in the Apple vs FBI and access to the iPhone case, I wanted to make my writing as fun to read as theirs. I know I haven't succeeded (yet) but in the process I started trying to make the page easier to follow. I started adding breaks for pictures like I see other sites do. I started adding sidebar blocks like other sites do. I changed themes and layout and font size. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I checked my favorite sites and, while I didn't try to copy them, I did try to learn from their styles. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Just remember that. In the process, I started looking for interesting and compelling pictures I could break my writing with. I found a couple that I wanted to hang onto in this blog post: I'm also establishing a few rules for what I think makes a website fun to read: - There titles should draw me in (so I've been trying to make more interesting titles)
- Pictures of people are more interesting than anything else. (Something in the human brain connects with other people in ways that nothing else comes close to.)
- Lighten up a little. (My "crazy face" is now the logo for this site and the pictures have what I hope are amusing captions.)
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