What’s a minimalist blog? One that doesn’t say much, but has a high signal-to-noise factor. Nick Baum demonstrates. (He’s the product manager of the Google Reader team, too — the video interview and demo of him should be up on ScobleShow tonight if all goes well).
Who else has a “must read” minimalist blog?
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Robert Scoble works at Fast Company.TV (title: Managing Director). Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here.
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November 1st, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Meg from CuteOverLoad :)- and she ranks on the top 100 on t’rati !!
Who sez blogs have to be only technical eh ??
November 1st, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Never been to NickBaum.com until now. After doing so I can cleary see what you mean by “minimalist blog”.
If you’re talking high signal-to-noise factor you’d almost have to throw in 37 signals (http://www.37signals.com/svn/).
November 1st, 2006 at 5:56 pm
Shawn, yeah, but 37 Signals often has essays that are hundreds of words, if not thousands, so it doesn’t fit into what I’d call a “minimalist” blog.
November 1st, 2006 at 6:00 pm
No suggestions, but you’ve got me thinking about reducing the amount of clutter on my own blog. I think over time there’s a tendency to add more features instead of taking them out, which leads eventually to the classic MySpace blog (virtually unreadable with lots of flashing icons).
November 1st, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Minimizing noise is likely the same from one blog to another — in every case it’s about sticking to a defined topic without intra-post digressions and “fluff” posting intermixed with more topical posts. The strength of a “high signal” blog is probably most related to its focus on a well-defined (even narrow) but “meaty” topic.
As an in-house attorney who deals extensively with copyright, one blog which immediately comes to mind as “high-signal-low-noise” is “The Patry Copyright Blog” (http://williampatry.blogspot.com/). This blog is written by William Patry, a senior copyright counsel for Google, and is a model for focus on and insight into a sometimes-difficult topic without extraneous filler.
This points out a particular problem in defining “minimalist” blogs, however — that assessment (at least the way I put it above) is largely subjective. Rather than defining “minimalist” blogs by looking at signal-to-noise, it might be better to consider what such blogs really are — authoritative within their respective fields — and note that such authoritative blogs, amongst many characteristics, generally have a high signal-to-noise ratio.
Again sticking to what I know better, legal blogs, I’d point out the “Sentencing Law and Policy” blog (http://sentencing.typepad.com/) as an example of the “authoritative” minimalist blog; this blog is not only authoritative in its coverage of its chosen topic, but its analysis of pending issues — its signal — is so strong that it’s frequently cited in cases and legal journals. What’s more high signal, after all, than influencing the direction of the field you report upon?
November 1st, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Mine is very minimalist, I hate all the wordpress themes because they give extensive space at the top of the blog to a header. I wanted mine to show the blog title, tag phrase, and the pages, but also want the majoirty of the first article or two to show, as well as my widgets. :) I’m always playing with the css, though, too…
November 1st, 2006 at 6:21 pm
My vote goes to Matt Mullenweg. Often his blog entries are only one line long, but I find a lot of interesting links there.
November 1st, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Mine is pretty minimal. I like to keep it short.
http://mofata.blogspot.com
November 1st, 2006 at 6:54 pm
scripting.com ;)
November 1st, 2006 at 7:54 pm
I’m going to have to recommend Qarl (Qarl Fizz in Second Life):
http://www.qarl.com/qLab/
Looks like a modified Hemingway theme, just about every post a veritable gem.
Perhaps it might be a contradiction to some that by saying a little, you’re infact saying a LOT, but that comes through being able to focus on the good stuff.
Nick does have a tag cloud, and those tend to look noisy — but at least his is unobstrusive, at the bottom!
November 1st, 2006 at 8:02 pm
mine of course… just white and grays..
and no, i did not based on a “apple” look it was actually based on the way live.com white with gray version looked like.
November 1st, 2006 at 9:01 pm
Mine is somewhat minimal: http://cg.urbantwelve.com
Lots of hearsay though, which is really just noise …
My old one’s @ http://urbantwelve.blogspot.com/ which is very different.
November 1st, 2006 at 10:29 pm
http://www.tsudohnimh.com/blog
Always has been, always will be
November 2nd, 2006 at 12:27 am
I just wanted to wade in and note that Nick Baum’s blog is done in WordPress.
November 2nd, 2006 at 4:19 am
Maybe it’s just me, but my first impression of Nick Baum’s blog is that it’s far from minimalist. Lots of tags crammed in around images in one half of the page says crowded to me rather than minimalist. From your introduction, I was expecting to see a series of pithy two line entries and lots of space. Just goes to show that people have different interpretations of minimalism.
November 2nd, 2006 at 6:12 am
Dave’s!
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:24 am
Indeed, Nick Baum’s blog is far from what I would call minimalist. I’m quite a fan of Scott Wallick’s WP themes: http://www.plaintxt.org
My site implements one of his themes, and tries to stay true to the concept of minimalism, whilst, by necessity, containing lots of information. Lots of words does not mean it is not minimalist. It is how those words are packaged that is determinate.
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:54 am
Just stumbled across Unphotographable.
November 2nd, 2006 at 11:20 am
TNL.net is pretty minimalist in its look and it’s not getting posts too often but they are generally pretty substantial.
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:54 pm
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned robotwisdom.com. The undisputed King of the one line blog post.
March 1st, 2007 at 8:20 am
I think my blog qualifies, both in the minimalist design department, and must-read content department. But hey, that’s just me :-)
http://smpl.se
June 20th, 2007 at 5:59 am
Mine is the most poorly maintained blog in the cloud, I think… If you look at the dates, I didn’t write something for SIX MONTHS until last week, when I finally was able to set some time apart for it. If the number of posts counts as a minimalistic quality, I would probably take that prize home! But seriously, as far as the design goes, I’ve been trying to make it as minimalist as possible, while maintaining usability and accessibility. It’s curious how trying to get to the simplest expression of your design is usually a way harder job. I’d like to read your opinions about it ( http://www.minusfive.com ).
Thanks.
March 9th, 2008 at 2:54 am
Here’s mine: http://bh2go.blogspot
I’m quite impressed (not by my own blog, of course) but by what can be done with a google blogspot.
It’s my first real attempt and very fresh (as in only just created) so there isn’t an awful lot on there right now.
March 9th, 2008 at 2:56 am
Oops. And now for the correct URL!
http://bh2go.blogspot.com
Incidently, I’m especially proud of the inline comments system.