Okay Okay -- The Long And The Short Of It

A number of people have already "pushed back" about my assertion that short blog posts are best. Okay, okay, it's true, sometimes going long and detailed is cool.

I guess what I want to say is that making your front page full of short bits with links to the "rest" of a post is ideal (no matter how long it is). Also when you're in the mood to write a essay-long piece, that's reasonable, but I think managing it makes sense. What do I mean by "managing it" exactly? Well, check out the way Dave Winer will put a link to a "DaveNet" piece which people understand is a kindof "shelf" where he stores longer, thoughtful posts. If you're in the mood (or have the time) to read a longer piece, you can do that, but it's a courtesy to readers to mark the post in that way, allowing them to choose. (And notice if Dave does a long post on his front page, you often feel like he's going on too long there. His own "good housekeeping" has set expectations on how he will manage text.)

I think managing many short posts, mixed with longer posts is a challenge. Visually, I like a blog that has lots of posts with "jump pages" to a second page -- much like a magazine when I come to think of it. [Of course, I break the rule here all the time.]

Feel free (and I can see from my email you do) to disagree with me.