Is your website sorted chronologically

[glitchlynx]

Inspired by this blog post, I've been thinking about how we organize information on the web, particularly on personal sites where one person is making all the design decisions.

For me, almost none of the content on my site has dates on it. It did at first, but I ended up removing them once I realized that I wasn't going to be updating it very frequently - I tend to add a few things all at once then disappear for months at a time, for better or for worse. This is how I engage with most of my hobbies, and is part of the reason I like having my own website. I used to post photography on instagram, but the algorithm there seems to 'suppress' accounts that post infrequently, to favor accounts that post often. Which makes sense, they want you to post, make content, spend time on the platform, see ads, etc. But whenever I got the motivation to do some photography, it was quickly quashed by an algorithm that didn't like my schedule. Now I have a photography page on my website, and it doesn't matter if I add to it once a week or once a year. There's no outside incentive for either frequency. It's way more casual, in my opinion, which was what the hobby was supposed to be in the first place. Instagram would probably be a better tool if I was trying to start a photography business... but I'm not, so it's not. In other words, being able to sort my website in ways other than chronologically fits way better with how I work on creative projects, but it took making a website to realize that.

That's just my two cents, I'm just curious how y'all think about organization and pacing on your website, and if it's changed as you've spent more time in the 'web revival'.

[cybherspace]

It's funny you should ask! I was just thinking about this. I can honestly only see myself doing something like that with my blog, once it's properly up and running. Regular pages, I don't. I did leave a date on my manifesto because I think it works as a great time stamp for my intentions at that point in time.

I think that the idea of including a date in your HTML might be nice, though. In a comment in the header, for example? Or a log of updates in the header not really for good practice so much as just to look back on all the changes - whether many or few.

[rhenn]

This is an interesting question! For me, the only part of my site that's properly sorted by date is my blog page. I think for something like e.g. an archive I'd want to sort chronologically but otherwise I just guess it depends on the use case. For my book reviews page I like to sort by author! And I think photography is neat in that there are a lot of potential ways you could organise stuff.

Also; totally agree re: posting hobbies on social media. It's nice not to feel the need to associate your art with metrics like views/likes/etc, and just focus on making what you enjoy.

[arcus]

My Gemlog is, which I don't mind since they're long form and not supposed to be frequent; rather, they give a general summary of what I've been doing up to the point I posted an entry.

My Toki Pona blog on the other hand, is in order but without dates. Instead, entries are broken up by season.

Everything else I'm planning for my site won't have dates on it, unless it's a guide I'm going to be working on long term, or something that could go out of date (such as a privacy guide.)

[wygolvillage]

My blog, art page and games page, etc. are sorted in reverse chronological order (so whatever's newest is at the top of the page).

[glitchlynx]

I think that the idea of including a date in your HTML might be nice, though. In a comment in the header, for example? Or a log of updates in the header not really for good practice so much as just to look back on all the changes - whether many or few.

I really like this idea! I think there would definitely be cases where visitors to the website would not need to know when the information was posted or what on the page was most recent, but the person creating the site would like to keep track of these things.

[itspencilz]

I use my site mainly as a portfolio so any pages where I showcase my work (art and other projects) are shown from newest to oldest, usually by year.

[varve]

My art gallery pages are sorted chronologically within each category, but otherwise, no. I have a "created" and "updated" date on quite a few pages, because not everything has to be fully formed and finished before it's posted. I find categories and the like more useful for organizing things.

[brisray]

Some sites lend themselves easily to be sortedby date, I don't think can be and still make sense as it's more about subjects. Like @varve my pages have created and updated dates.

Over time, my pages and folders have been renamed or moved around. It crossed my mind the other day to add that information to the pages and maybe add links to them on the Internet Archive. I'm still undecided about that as I'm not sure if it's useful or worth my while.