The ideologies of ‘tims_world’
‘tims_world’ is now in version 5.0 (technically ‘beta’ since one release feature isn’t working yet due to technical issues). It has a long history dating back to who knows when. My site has been founded and runs on three principles that keep it running to this day – even if I have zero readers. The three principles are
- Because I can
- I control my information
- I’m anti-mainstream
One main reason for my own website is because I can. It serves as a prototype/provinggrounds for my web tech skills. It started with HTML, then flash, then php with a mysql db in the background, and now driven with a CMS. I’ve used it to showcase to myself – what I could do. It was never fancy but just proof of concept such as different flash animations, rss readers, db interaction, etc. There have always been better solutions elsewhere that would allow me to do more or do it better. I’ve always shun these because I’m a do-it-myself kinda guy.
Second reason is that I like to control my information. If I use a blogging site or something, they store all my information and it would be a pain to retreive it all if I want to switch. If they close up shop – how would I get it all back? It’s my information and I want to retain all rights to it. I also use my site to tie in multiple streams of information. Facebook has started to do this w/ all it’s capabilities but different sites allow you to ‘have’ different information. I want one place where I can pull that information together and present it in my own way. In the past it’s been blogging, xanga and .plan. Now it’s added on twitter, pictures, movies, etc. Facebook with it’s many applications allow for all of this however I want to control my information and not give it over to Facebook. However, I do like 3rd-party syndication which leads into point three.
I’ve always had a leery eye for the ‘mainstream’. In highschool it was Xanga – the premier azn blogging site. The last couple of years it’s switched to Facebook – the premier collegiate social networking site. When Xanga first came out, I shunned it like the plague because everyone was doing it. It did provide some useful capabilities ahead of it’s time. It allowed people to sign up for subscriptions either on the web or via email – all before RSS came out. Now Facebook allows a great way to share photos, blog (notes), and microblog (fb status). I like to leverage all these capabilities but at the same time hold to my three ideologies.
Thus – ‘tims_world’. Version 5.0 offers many benefits over 4.2; the big ones being tagging, permalinks, rss, and twitter integration. I could do all this myself from scratch but it’s faster to use WordPress. The only capability I’m losing out is Xanga email subscriptions. I’ve added Feedburner email subscriptions but it will just mean that all my xanga readers will need to switch over to that or RSS. Blog entries will also be available via Facebook Notes. Versions 5.0.X will feature theme updates as I can’t do any graphical work on my laptop. There will also be more plugin updates as I dive deepering into the WordPress world. Version 5.1 will feature iPhone support. While I was on vacation, all I used was my iPod Touch for web access and it was great. The only thing missing was access to the blogs I follow. I know I could use Google Reader or something but I figure I could make my website a portal to all the information I want in an iPod Touch/iPhone friendly way. Lots more good stuff to come. Stay Tuned!