Thanks for the bookmark, hopefully I’ll find time to post more so it’s actually worth reading. Anyway, Campus Corner is still here along with most of the same old AA institutions that were probably here in your day, whenever that day was.

It would be interesting to apply “desire lines” to a blog dynamically. Plugins like Popularity Contest can be set to display popular posts for a given period, for example. But a simpler approach is just to use something like Crazy Egg to find where the “desire lines” are for your site, then tweak your design based on that. I test every design I create to see how people are using it.

BTW, like your site. Bookmarked. Hey, is Campus Corners still there?

I currently go to the University of Michigan and I never really thought about the “desire lines” thing never really even as much as I walk the diag. I do think this would be pretty cool if applied to blog design though. It’d be pretty sweet if you had a blog that would dynamically restructure itself based on how the traffic flowed, and not just on a “this link is more popular so we’ll put it on top of the list” way.

Hmm.

Yeah, I’m rethinking the author tag. I’m such a minimalist that when I design a theme I try to get rid of everything that isn’t absolutely necessary. Then everything creeps back in. The author tag seems redundant to me if I’m the only one writing. But what I’ve learned is that my blogs probably aren’t personal enough in their design. My avatar in my header is miniscule compared to your picture in your header, for example. I still mulling it over, but my next design will be very different, I think.

Also thanks for the great overview.

On the issue of author tags I can come at it two ways at both support having them. One: when I go to a new blog I look to see who wrote the post I’m reading. It’s nice to have a name. It’s name to be able to say “Hi Jim, Joe, Louise, Ann,” etc. in the comments to recognize the writer that way. After all I’m talking to the writer not the blog. Two: the author tag automatically tags the post with your name. I would think that would be SEO friendly and leading toward more authority as a blogger for bloggers who write strong content.

Again, I really enjoyed this one. Thanks for sharing your experience — especially all of the quotes. :)