I was reading the other day about smart web design techniques, and one of them impressed the importance of using only as many aesthetic elements as you need to convey the message of the site. That is to say that if you feel like adding a little doily in the background, you’d better be sure that it helps express the reason for the page and takes nothing away from the same.

It’s no surprise that the same is true with words; over and over again we are told that “less is more.” Best friends can convey many sentences’ worth of information with a single glance, filled with nuance and poetry, but a lot of business communication can require a paragraph to explain a single point.

Many people are still getting used to the “weblog thing.” Bloggers don’t use legalese, unless it’s to be funny, and at the same time, they’re not likely to share an inside joke, realizing that their audience is potentially much greater than the intended reader(s). Weblogs adopt a friendly and casual tone, though their subjects can often be quite serious.

They are not to be confused with online journals. A journal will share with you the author’s heartaches and epiphanies, his trials and cheese sandwiches, or her adventure hitchhiking through Nevada. A typical weblog is little more than a filter of information. Your favorite blogger will provide you with her own sense of what’s important/funny/annoying, etc. about the world today, gladly importing her own bias into the mix, with no shame at all, and there should be no shame. Bloggers are not paid to be impartial, and at the same time, with maybe a couple dozen exceptions, no blogger has an editor-in-chief looking over his shoulder, either. As a reader, you’re getting what you pay for.

I haven’t done the “group blog thing” for a few years, but I remember it being fun, and this one is turning out just the same way. It’s fun to see what sort of topics are important to this particular group of web developers / businesspeople. That being said, I’m going to take the next post to discuss a little grammar.