Last Updated on August 5, 2018 by Art
I’ve added a Topic Index to the ArtChester.net website. It’s now easy to browse 20 categories for articles of interest.
My previous Post Index pages listed all posts by Title, Key Word and Date. However, the first two of those lists duplicate the function of the Search box, and I’m not sure that anyone really needs to search by date. There’s also the problem that since there are over 200 articles, how would a person decide what to search for?
By studying my past blogs, I figured out 20 topic categories that cover the articles quite efficiently; I only had to double-list a handful of articles. The resulting Topic Index functions like a Table of Contents: you can choose a topic of interest and see a list of from 4 to over 20 titles that are linked to all the articles that relate to that topic.
I cover a pretty wide range, but I don’t write about all the sciences you’ll find on a comprehensive list:
– Some areas of science are so arcane that I don’t feel confident interpreting them for you.
– Some science topics don’t have near-term application, and for that reason I don’t think they would interest you my readers very much.
– Some areas require dedicated research for many years before enough dramatic results have been discovered to make an interesting story.
– Some topics are like pulling a loose thread on a knit sweater – before you know it, you are buried in yarn! When you see me publish an article that runs over 2000 words, or overflows into two parts, you know that I have lost the struggle to be succinct.
– Once I have written on a particular topic, I try not to return to it until a lot more progress has been reported.
Given these constraints, eventually my rate of posting will slow down. At that time or even before, I think I should make the Topic Index the Home Page, since it will give a quick guide to every article. Right now, however, the Home Page of my domain will continue to display the page that features my most recent posts.
If you like the Topic Index, please use it when you have the time and desire to browse: you can reach it through the Topic Index link in the Footer menu, and also via the link in the Home Page introductory text.
Your feedback is invited – does the Topic Index help you find articles that interest you? If you previously used the Post Index pages, do you want to see them continued as well?
[Note: I created each topic list as a blog post. Oops! I was slow to realize that every newly published post is automatically syndicated to social media and sent to my e-mail subscribers. I finally figured out how to suppress the notifications, but prior to that you may have received a notice or two about a new post that turned out to be just a short list of articles. Sorry!]