Category: @About Chairblog and More

More about Chair Blog and its authors

On Tumblelogs

Via nostrich [post disappeared since]:

I’ve been using Tumblr for about 6 months now. In that time, I have come to this decision: tumblelogs are the way forward. They are going to change the way we blog. (Important distinction: I am not equating Tumblr with tumblelogs here, it just happens to be the service I use to publish mine, and probably the most popular one.)

At the moment, long-form blogs are the norm. And why not? There are a lot of smart people out there documenting various things on blogs. Be it anecdotes, the latest gadgets, or lengthily-researched essays. Over the last ten years, the number of people blogging has, quite literally, exploded. But here’s what I think: they’re going to be facing stiff competition from tumblelogs within three years. Tumblelogs are still a bit of a gimmick and aren’t really taken very seriously at the moment on which I’ll expand on shortly but that is going to change.

Consider this, as an analogy. You might read your newspaper everyday, and watch the news in the evening, and perhaps read a few magazines. These activities are what better us a individuals. They keep us current, and they expand what we know. But wouldn’t it be boring if that’s all we ever did? Even the most studious of persons needs a break. In between all this bettering ourselves, our lives are punctuated by advertisements, off-the-cuff quips with friends, and the funny pages in your favourite newspaper. And that’s what tumblelogs do or will do provide the in-between.

It’s not like that at the moment. It’s still a young concept. It’s too self-referential for one thing which I would be so bold as to blame on Tumblr. Many tumblelogs consist of the same old rehashed stuff we’ve seen before, with countless people reblogging everything else, and producing very little unique content. Reblogging is ok in moderation, but not to the extent it’s happening at the moment on Tumblr.

People will start to realise this soon and start producing more original content. They’ll stop just re-posting stuff they saw elsewhere, and discover their own cool stuff instead. To go back to my analogy: it’s all good and well repeating a joke you heard somewhere, but the same jokes over and over get boring and stop being funny.

If you want to see what a tumblelog can be you only have to look at Kottke or Fimoculous. They don’t market themselves as such, but they’re tumblelogs. And they’re brilliant ones. Perfect examples, in fact, of what I hope tumblelogs on a larger scale will mature into.

I’m not proposing that the long-form blog is dead in the water. Just that it will reach a point where it’s frequently punctuated with the sort of content currently restricted to tumblelogs. We’re going to see a sort of amalgamation of the two becoming commonplace. With the long, thought out posts punctuated with other short content.

I’m that confident of this that I’m going to replace my blog – currently residing at nostrich.net [ed: disappeared since] – with this tumblelog soon (the resolution of a few technical considerations pending). I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I think it’s a natural move to make. I wonâ’t get into boasting numbers, but I now have roughly the same amount of people following or subscribed to my tumblelog as I do subscribed to my regular blog it humbles me to admit that, because I always secretly hoped my blog would become hugely popular, but it never happened (not that I’m complaining at all). And you know which audience I prefer? Of course you do. It’s you! I’m sure I’ll lose some readers in combining the two, but I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do. For me, at least. So look out for a few changes around here in the future.

The tumblelog is going to take off, and mature, and become mainstream. I’d put money on it. I pretty much just staked my readership on it.

I just wrote this at 9am, after an all-nighter. I’m sorry if it’s incredibly dull or riddled with mistakes.

I considered the idea, but finally went against it, mainly because Tumble lacks the tools of navigation you have in WordPress.

Update

I’ve had contact with Nostrich @Nostrich via Twitter. His site is still up, but when tring to find the post back via his archive you will see (as I see) that the time involved in wading throught his archive proved me right in stopping with Tumblr in time.

Chair Blog | Tumblr

Chair Blog | Tumblr

My Chair Blog | Tumblr front page as at March 13, 2008.

About Tumblr, First Impressions

Recently I noticed Tumblr.

Its a a service to set up a Mini Blog. Its site doesn’t divulge much. It has a Blog, but that is updated scantily. For one reason or another I got curious plunged into it, started with an account and found out that it is really 1 2 3… and you have a mini blog up and running. It provides information about how to host it on your own hosting service. It has a couple of disadvantages: No archive that you can easily organize or navigate and no possibility to comment.

Prior to Tumblr

I am a slow 2 finger typist and have far more ideas and pieces of information that I like to share with my readers than I can find time for to write, or cut and paste, neatly in a well organized entry here on Chair Blog.

Getting enthusiastic about Tumblr

I believe any post on a Blog should go together with at least one photo or picture as they say much more than words.

I found out that you can make a widget of a mini Tumblr Blog with photos.

Frequently there are chairs shown at fairs or exhibitions among other furniture or art. I want to pick them up. Chairs are auctioned among other items: I want to pick them up.

The quick and easy way of Tumblr got me hooked. Over a very short period of time I was able to collect photos and links of over 300 chairs.

More about Tumblr

Before I dug into it I missed it, but Tumblr has its own Wiki Tumble Log If you read that and the posts they refer to you get a reasonable idea of what it is about.

Gina Trapani at Lifhacker had a nice entry about it. If you look up Tumblr on Mashable you get some more background information. I for instance learned that only in November 2007 they came around with the present version 3 that works as it does now.
Last, but not least this Read Write Web Interview with Tumbler founder David Carp gives some additional information.

Conclusions

  1. For Chair Blog I can now rapidly create overviews of chairs exhibited at fairs, exhibitions and to be auctioned. From time to time I then can summarize various developments here in the Blog. If you are as curious as me, take a RSS subscription for Chair Blog | Tumblr
  2. I see it as a temporary solution, because when you cut and paste stuff from elsewhere on the web, it can disappear. For instance when you refer to newspaper or auction sites there is the risk that they move their content around or hide it behind a subscription bar so that your links get lost. In order to keep your content intact it is always better to have a self hosted blog and to keep a copy on your own hard drive (with a backup off course)
  3. I am more Happy now that I am a bit more organized
  4. What do you think?

Update October 20, 2009:
After a couple of months Tumblring I decided it better to have all my finds here in the blog with proper navigation. I then started using a WP plugin Quickpost to quickly post. Thereafter I discovered Clipmarks…even better. So I’m now slowly but gradually folding Chair Blog | Tumblr back into this blog.
Enjoy

Hans Wegner Sawbench Chair

Photo thanks to Danish Furniture

I post this chair as a tribute to my father. This was one of his favorite chairs. You don’t need cushions for a comfortable seating. It kept you for hours uninterruptedly very comfortably, even when you are tall (I am 6’4, or 1.90 m). That is a sign of good design.

With his love of natural materials and his deep understanding of the need for furniture to be functional as well as beautiful, Hans J. Wegner (1914) made mid-century Danish design popular on an international scale. He began his career as a cabinetmaker in 1931 and subsequently entered the Copenhagen School of Arts & Crafts. After receiving his architectural degree in 1938, he worked as a designer in Arne Jacobsen and Erik Mølle’s architectural office before establishing his own office in 1943.

With more than 500 different chair designs Wegner is the most prolific Danish designer to date. His international breakthrough and greatest sales success came in 1949 when he designed the Round chair. The American magazine Interiors featured the chair on the cover and referred to it as the world’s most beautiful chair. The chair rose to stardom when used in the televised presidential debates between Nixon and Kennedy in 1960 and has since been known simply as The Chair.

The real beauty of Wegner’s genius must be seen in context with his collaboration with master cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen. The attitude with which Johannes Hansen accepted the young designe’s ideas was the perfect combination between designer and craftsman. Their collaboration went on for many years, and they presented their work at the Cabinetmaker’s show every year from 1941 – 1966.

Hello world! The birth of ChairBlog

Cut Out Chair
This is the first post when you install a WordPress based Blog and the birth of ChairBlog.

I hope the readers will welcome Chair Blog.

It will mainly be a photo Blog with photo’s of all sorts of chairs.

I’ve started with the Cut Out or Puzzle Chair

Thanks to The Cool Hunter.

I’ve created an About Page to give you more background.

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Chairs!
gje