Back in 2001, it started as a grid of images, a bit of text, music, and links. It was only one page that never scrolled below the fold, and linked to a page for the "song of the day" and eventually, a page of previous days (and previous songs). It was a format that, while constrained, enabled me to have a visually different home page anytime I updated it.
In 2004, blogging became de rigueur. I was reluctant because I couldn't see how my format would be supported. Everyone everywhere was doing a variation of a two / three / four column page, styled a million different ways. The appeal, of course, was the convenience, and with a subscription to Typepad, a newer erichian.com came into being. The format changed repeatedly. Links, music, video, and text flourished. Pictures remained, but page formats never did them justice. In 2008 my posts became scarce. In 2009 I ended my subscription.
It wasn't just the format that dissuaded me. With the advent of social networking in 2007, Facebook and Twitter allowed for blog-style neverending updates. This astounding level of convenience is a perfect platform for the "post happy" and the "update ravenous" and hey, it's a lot of fun.
However, it also felt like people's abilities to truly express themselves were getting lost. Status updates are much shorter than blog posts, and the lack of context often makes them quizzical. The dominance of the visual formats make everyone's content look and feel the same. It's clear whose platform you were on.
In 2009, I discovered Tumblr and created a primarily links-only version of erichian.com. Nothing personal, just stuff I like in a format I picked. Great platform for that, but as a good friend mentioned, it still wasn't "me." I agreed.
In all my recent sketches of erichian.com, I always came back to the way I did it the first time. It didn't need that much design, per se. It just needed to be a platform to show the content I wanted, the way I wanted.
Enter 2010. Someone's blog posting sends me to Virb. I sign up. I edit. I like. A lot. It's not perfect just yet, but it could soon be a way to bring back the first erichian.com and update it with some newer features. Vintage + modern. Please stand by.