mirror of
https://github.com/wezm/wezm.net.git
synced 2024-11-18 12:52:47 +00:00
123 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
123 lines
5.6 KiB
Markdown
To date I've posted 718 posts to [Read Rust]. I can't profess to having read
|
|
every single one completely (although I have read a lot of them) but I have at
|
|
least skimmed them all and extracted the information required to post them to
|
|
the site. Some blogs make this easier than others. In this post I cover some
|
|
things you can do to make your blog, and the posts upon it, easier for readers
|
|
and myself alike, to read and share with as many people as possible.
|
|
|
|
I'll cover four areas:
|
|
|
|
1. Tell a Story
|
|
1. Sign Your Work
|
|
1. Make It Easy to Read Future Posts
|
|
1. Provide Metadata
|
|
|
|
<h2><img src="/images/2018/noun_Book_1561008.svg" class="heading-icon" alt ="" /> Tell a Story</h2>
|
|
|
|
A story has a beginning, middle, and end. Blog posts benefit from this
|
|
structure too. The beginning sets the scene, and provides a shared starting
|
|
point for the main content of your post. When a post just dives straight into
|
|
the details without context it can be hard to follow the topic,
|
|
the background, and the motivations behind the work.
|
|
|
|
Once you've set the scene in your introduction, you can dig into the details
|
|
knowing your readers are on the same page, and more likely to follow along. This
|
|
is where the bulk of your post is written.
|
|
|
|
At the end of your post wrap up with a conclusion. This may include a
|
|
summary, details of future work, or unsolved problems.
|
|
|
|
<h2><img src="/images/2018/noun_write_1560855.svg" class="heading-icon" alt ="" /> Sign Your Work</h2>
|
|
|
|
Writing a post takes time and effort. You can be proud of that and sign your
|
|
work! I'm aware that some people prefer not to use their real names online. A
|
|
pseudonym, or handle, work well too. When posting to Read Rust it's important to
|
|
me to attribute the article to the original author. When there is no
|
|
information on a post it's hard to work out how to credit the post.
|
|
|
|
<h2><img src="/images/2018/noun_Transmitter_1560979.svg" class="heading-icon" alt ="" /> Make It Easy to Read Future Posts</h2>
|
|
|
|
If you've written an interesting post that readers have enjoyed, often they
|
|
will want to read future posts that you write. You can make this easy using an
|
|
RSS feed. Pretty much all blogging software supports RSS. If you aren't already
|
|
generating a feed I highly recommended adding one.
|
|
|
|
If you already have an RSS feed on your blog ensure it's easily discoverable by
|
|
linking it. Perhaps in the header, footer, sidebar, or about page. Additionally
|
|
include a `<link rel="alternate">` tag in the `<head>` of your HTML to make the
|
|
feed automatically discoverable by feed readers. MDN have a great tutorial series
|
|
about RSS covering these details: [Syndicating content with RSS][rss].
|
|
|
|
When looking for posts for Read Rust it would be impractical for me to manually
|
|
visit the websites of every interesting blog to see if there are new posts.
|
|
RSS lets me subscribe to blogs in my feed reader of choice ([Feedbin]),
|
|
allowing me and other readers to discover, and read your new posts all in one
|
|
place.
|
|
|
|
<h2><img src="/images/2018/noun_Tag_1560911.svg" class="heading-icon" alt ="" /> Provide Metadata</h2>
|
|
|
|
There are actually two audiences for your content: humans and machines. The
|
|
humans are the readers, the machines are computers such as [search engine
|
|
indexers][ddg], [web archivers][archive], and the Read Rust tools! Ideally your
|
|
content should be easy for both to read.
|
|
|
|
The [add-url tool in the Read Rust codebase][add-url] looks for a number
|
|
of pieces of metadata in order to fill in the details that are included
|
|
in the entry for every post:
|
|
|
|
* **Title** in a `<title>` tag.
|
|
* **Author Name** in a `<meta name="author" …>` tag.
|
|
* **Author URL** in a `<link rel="author" …>` tag.
|
|
* **Date Published** in a `<time>` tag, typically nested within an `<article>` tag.
|
|
* **Post Summary** (excerpt) in a `<meta name="description" …>` tag.
|
|
|
|
The tool looks for these in the post itself, as well as in the RSS
|
|
feed if found. Often it still turns up empty. You can help your
|
|
content be more machine readable by including this metadata in your
|
|
HTML. The example below shows all of these properties in use.
|
|
|
|
```language-html
|
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8" />
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0" />
|
|
<title>Post Title</title>
|
|
<meta name="description" content="The design and operation of the little Rust content aggregator I built.">
|
|
<meta name="author" content="Wesley Moore">
|
|
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.wezm.net/feed/" type="application/atom+xml" title="WezM.net - All Articles" />
|
|
<link rel="author" href="http://www.wezm.net/" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<!-- header, nav, etc. -->
|
|
|
|
<main>
|
|
<article>
|
|
<h1>Post Title</h1>
|
|
<time datetime="2018-06-03T07:34">03 June 2018</time>
|
|
|
|
<!-- post content -->
|
|
</article>
|
|
</main>
|
|
|
|
<!-- footer, etc. -->
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
So that's it. Four things you can do to help make your blog more readable,
|
|
attributable, and discoverable. Your readers, human and machine will thank you.
|
|
|
|
With thanks to Gregor Cresnar from the Noun Project for the icons used in this post:
|
|
|
|
* [Book](https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=book&collection=46510&i=1561008#)
|
|
* [Tag](https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=tag&collection=46510&i=1560911#)
|
|
* [Transmitter](https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=signal&collection=46510&i=1560979#)
|
|
* [Write](https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=write&collection=46510&i=1560855#)
|
|
|
|
[Feedbin]: http://feedbin.com/
|
|
[add-url]: https://github.com/wezm/read-rust/blob/d41672caaa269fc7f4584e5db2154bd9b3bd3c92/src/bin/add-url.rs
|
|
[Read Rust]: https://readrust.net/
|
|
[ddg]: https://duckduckgo.com/
|
|
[archive]: https://web.archive.org/
|
|
[rss]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/RSS/Getting_Started
|