How the Blog Broke the Web

Here’s the crux of the problem: When something is easy, people will do more of it.

When you produce your whole site by hand, from HEAD to /BODY, you begin in a world of infinite possibility. You can tailor your content exactly how you like it, and organize it in any way you please. Every design decision you make represents roughly equal work because, heck, you’ve gotta do it by hand either way. Whether it’s reverse chronological entries or a tidy table of contents. You might as well do what you want.

But once you are given a tool that operates effortlessly — but only in a certain way — every choice that deviates from the standard represents a major cost.

Source: How the Blog Broke the Web (archive) / Noted: 2025 March 10 / Discuss: On Dreamwidth