When I set up My Thermos originally, I did have a basic idea of what I would be writing about. I knew I would focus mainly on music, technology, and other general ramblings but when I got to the category setup page, I was stumped.
It was a blank slate, an open canvas, (add your own personal favorite cliché here). Everything I thought to add seemed so permanent and was creating a structure too rigid. Choosing categories without content seemed too limiting. It also required way too much thought about exactly what would appear.
So I took the easy way out and went with tags. Free form, spontaneous, make it up as I go along - it seemed a perfect way to move forward.
But now I am wondering if that was the best decision. Not only are the tags proving to be difficult to work with (my offline blog writer doesn't handle them well) but I find the whole tagging process sort of pointless. My tags don't really tie in with others, they tend to be either too vague or too specific, and don't really provide any consistent way to view my content. I've already abandoned the cloud as a presentation tool.
The category page is still intimidating and empty but I am thinking that it might be a better, more logical choice than the tagging that I implemented originally. It would require going through the posts and such but seems like it would be worth the effort.
What do you think? Which do you use? What is your preference? How would you categorize the content here on My Thermos?
And my wife isn't allowed to comment here - she was set on categories for her blog before I talked her into tags.
Thanks
SB
I fell into livejournal through other sources, and even though I'm starting to feel a wee bit too old for it, it's been more than fine for my needs. Tags are the only option there, and they've only been available for about two years.
Most people I've seen around LJ started off with witty, free-form tags, but they're hard to remember and there are a lot of nuances to the entries needing to be tagged, and most people found them inadequate.
What I've seen lately is a number of people categorizing their tags. That is, they have tags for personal:lovelife, personal:homelife, personal:money problems and work:busy, work:challenges work:coworkers, etc.
I don't know if that helps you in any way or puts you on the right track for what's best for you, but there's my two cents' worth.
Good luck!
I honestly don't know too much about LJ - but if you do ever want a standalone blog I can set one up for you in no time.
SB
I do notice that "old" is one of the "Obligatory Tags" i your sidebar. I should have thought of that one myself -- but I would have added "fart" to mine, or something like that.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to comment.
I do have a fear that the categories will grow just as cumbersome as the tags - and I doubt that people really use them anyway. It isn't as if there is any common thread or theme to this anyway.
And the "fart" after the old was implied - should I have been more specific?
SB
Switching to categories is just too much work and since I don't really have a cohesive them here, tags really do serve me better.
For a more consistent blog, categories and the method that Phil uses are probably much better.
SB