This is a simple blog

Blogs that suck

When I say this blog is simple, I do not mean technologically. It’s that as well, but I mean that it is simple in that it is simple minded. It simple mindedly wants to not suck.

It seems inevitable that any web developer will eventually end up building a blog. Much like the nuclear interpretation of the “Great Filter” hypothesis, any sufficiently advanced web developer seems to create their own downfall. This is far from my first blog. By my count, I may be approaching the double digits. I say blogs are our downfall both because we can’t seem to stop remaking them, and they reveal how incompetent we truly are.

Without a profit motive, an idiotic ‘ideas guy’, or an abstract library to implement, we all seem to be a bit hopeless. Of course, there are those who manage to implement incredible personal blogs (much to the chagrin of the rest of us). However, most of us end up creating some inaccessible overly colourful thing which is either too derivative or not nearly derivative enough. We become like children, so excited to do the exciting stuff that we forget the fundamentals.

How many times have you actually designed a typescale? And no, generating one with a numeric ratio doesn’t count. Actual design. How many times have you genuinely considered your font pairing instead of just slapping Roboto and Open Sans together? How many times have you implemented high contrast styling, or low motion accessibility? How many of the websites you’ve made a fully and easily tab navigable? Comparatively, how many times have you added some additional UI element to your blog or portfolio before doing those things?

As web developers, we have rare opportunities to embody the very best of what the internet can be. I hope I’m not alone in genuinely loving the web and enjoying building for it. However, all too often we just end up representing the worst of the web. Derivative sites purely built as a push for financial gain, absolute behemoths which look pretty at the expense of accessibility, and overly bright websites abound.

Build with care

A blog is not the place to show off. I repeat, do not show off when building a blog. Blogs are content websites, and developer blogs in particular are special. Unlike so many content-focused sites on the internet, we aren’t trying to sell some service with SEO spam. The number one focus of your blog should be readability.