About Me
December 1, 2013 9:55 AM
I'm working on a new website for my professional activity. There will be a bio page, as well as a blog section. Can anyone suggest possible titles/headings for these sections that would be more original than "About Me" and "Blog"?
The blog will be a combination of my own writing, videos from people related to my profession, and info about the rare event I might sponsor (so "News" wouldn't really apply as a title). The bio page is 4 paragraphs of how I got where I am, with a photo. I'm looking for titles that are frank, direct and original while avoiding smarmy, cute or obnoxious.
The blog will be a combination of my own writing, videos from people related to my profession, and info about the rare event I might sponsor (so "News" wouldn't really apply as a title). The bio page is 4 paragraphs of how I got where I am, with a photo. I'm looking for titles that are frank, direct and original while avoiding smarmy, cute or obnoxious.
I think "about me" is to be recommended, although I have seen some people use "colophon"
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 10:08 AM on December 1, 2013
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 10:08 AM on December 1, 2013
That's pretty difficult to suggest without knowing what profession it is. But I would say avoid trying to be too clever if your goal is to use the site as an online resume/networking tool. You can never go wrong with a professional, straight-forward presentation. Anytime you try to be funny or cute, there's a chance people won't get it or think it's silly.
I vote no to colophon. Not familiar with that word and it looks colon-related to me. Haha.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:10 AM on December 1, 2013
I vote no to colophon. Not familiar with that word and it looks colon-related to me. Haha.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:10 AM on December 1, 2013
You want to call the sections by the names people will use when they want to find them. If I'm looking for your blog, I'm going to be scanning the page for the word "blog," not for "musings" or "the latest" or "the things I'm thinking about, written down on this website," or whatever. The point of headings is to make things easy to find. So I'd use "Blog" and "Bio" or "About the Author." Otherwise, it's not especially helpful to name them at all, since the names won't make the sections any easier to find.
(This is my biggest pet peeve about professional websites: people seem more concerned with being "creative" or "innovative" than about being informative and helpful. Restaurant websites are the worst offenders, but I also see it frequently on websites of creative types. Yes, I want to see that you're creative, but it's more important to me to be able to find how to contact you to purchase your work, or what your credentials are, than it is to prove that you're the most original. The main focus of your website should be the information, and the design elements should be tailored to make that information as easy to access as possible. /rant)
posted by decathecting at 10:12 AM on December 1, 2013
(This is my biggest pet peeve about professional websites: people seem more concerned with being "creative" or "innovative" than about being informative and helpful. Restaurant websites are the worst offenders, but I also see it frequently on websites of creative types. Yes, I want to see that you're creative, but it's more important to me to be able to find how to contact you to purchase your work, or what your credentials are, than it is to prove that you're the most original. The main focus of your website should be the information, and the design elements should be tailored to make that information as easy to access as possible. /rant)
posted by decathecting at 10:12 AM on December 1, 2013
I have a friend whose professional site had very clever, appropriately-themed headings for the different sections. The result was that almost nobody ever clicked on them. When she changed them to "About Me" and "Blog," then people started clicking on them; it was clear that folks WANTED that information, but they didn't want to hunt for it or think.
posted by KathrynT at 10:12 AM on December 1, 2013
posted by KathrynT at 10:12 AM on December 1, 2013
frank, direct and original
You can be frank and direct. Or you can be original. Pick one. If you're frank and direct, you'll use the kinds of words you'd use if you were talking to someone about this. The words you've used in talking to us about this are "bio" and "blog."
I'm not saying it has to be "About Me" and "Blog." But there's a limit to how many synonyms there are, and some of them may have unintended connotations:
"About Me" — "About the Author" (but do you want to emphasize that you're an "author" rather than some other profession?), "Bio," "Biog" (looks too much like "Blog"!), "Biography" (sounds more like a book than a webpage), "Me," "Myself," "Self-Portrait" (might be too artsy), "The Story of My Life" (cliche), etc.
"Blog" — "Weblog," "Journal," "Diary," "The Daily [something]" (but then you're implying a commitment to post every day). Sara C.'s suggestion of "Just for Fun" seems too frivolous if you're using this to promote your professional work, announce the occasional event, etc. You don't want to present yourself as someone who's unreliable in how you describe things. Let's face it: if what you want to communicate to people is "This is the webpage where I post a variety of content in a format where the most recent items are on the top and you can scroll down to see my earlier posts," there are only two words I know of to sum that up in a frank, direct way: "blog" and "weblog." If you come up with some kind of exotic substitute for "blog," the most you're going to do is make people stop and think: "Oh ... you mean, this is your blog?"
One thing to avoid is using a self-deprecating blog title like "Incoherent Babblings," which seemed to be everyone's approach to naming their LiveJournal, back when people had LiveJournals. "Musings" is trite. Considering how many blogs there are, anything you come up with will have probably been done by someone else, making it unoriginal.
posted by John Cohen at 10:55 AM on December 1, 2013
You can be frank and direct. Or you can be original. Pick one. If you're frank and direct, you'll use the kinds of words you'd use if you were talking to someone about this. The words you've used in talking to us about this are "bio" and "blog."
I'm not saying it has to be "About Me" and "Blog." But there's a limit to how many synonyms there are, and some of them may have unintended connotations:
"About Me" — "About the Author" (but do you want to emphasize that you're an "author" rather than some other profession?), "Bio," "Biog" (looks too much like "Blog"!), "Biography" (sounds more like a book than a webpage), "Me," "Myself," "Self-Portrait" (might be too artsy), "The Story of My Life" (cliche), etc.
"Blog" — "Weblog," "Journal," "Diary," "The Daily [something]" (but then you're implying a commitment to post every day). Sara C.'s suggestion of "Just for Fun" seems too frivolous if you're using this to promote your professional work, announce the occasional event, etc. You don't want to present yourself as someone who's unreliable in how you describe things. Let's face it: if what you want to communicate to people is "This is the webpage where I post a variety of content in a format where the most recent items are on the top and you can scroll down to see my earlier posts," there are only two words I know of to sum that up in a frank, direct way: "blog" and "weblog." If you come up with some kind of exotic substitute for "blog," the most you're going to do is make people stop and think: "Oh ... you mean, this is your blog?"
One thing to avoid is using a self-deprecating blog title like "Incoherent Babblings," which seemed to be everyone's approach to naming their LiveJournal, back when people had LiveJournals. "Musings" is trite. Considering how many blogs there are, anything you come up with will have probably been done by someone else, making it unoriginal.
posted by John Cohen at 10:55 AM on December 1, 2013
How about just "About"? I agree, no good way around this because you do want people to know what they're clicking on.
posted by belau at 11:14 AM on December 1, 2013
posted by belau at 11:14 AM on December 1, 2013
For Blog, try Journal. For About, maybe Who is Paris Elk, but About is standard and useful.
posted by theora55 at 11:24 AM on December 1, 2013
posted by theora55 at 11:24 AM on December 1, 2013
I agree with many above, attempts to rename the “About” section comes off as trite. Concentrate on making the content of the section original and interesting rather than the title (for example NPR’s new About is still brilliantly clever, informative, and beautiful even if it’s still called plain old “About”.
Titles for your blog are a little more flexible depending on the type of stuff you will be posting. “Articles” or “Writings” are indicative of original longer-form writing “Journal” or “Diary” of (usually) shorter pieces as well as content from elsewhere. However, good content will be far more memorable than clever microcopy.
Do not use “colophon”, it is about the production notes (such as typefaces, paper stock), in digital it’s used describe the fonts and technologies used. Not the author.
posted by thebestsophist at 4:46 PM on December 1, 2013
Titles for your blog are a little more flexible depending on the type of stuff you will be posting. “Articles” or “Writings” are indicative of original longer-form writing “Journal” or “Diary” of (usually) shorter pieces as well as content from elsewhere. However, good content will be far more memorable than clever microcopy.
Do not use “colophon”, it is about the production notes (such as typefaces, paper stock), in digital it’s used describe the fonts and technologies used. Not the author.
posted by thebestsophist at 4:46 PM on December 1, 2013
There's quite a consensus here, so I'll go with simple and direct. Thanks everyone!
posted by Paris Elk at 3:52 AM on December 2, 2013
posted by Paris Elk at 3:52 AM on December 2, 2013
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As for "Blog", I think that depends on what the blog is for. Is it for news? Call it "News". If you're a writer who publishes stuff online and want to use the blog to link to your stuff, you could call it "Latest Writings" or "Current Projects" or the like. If it's "behind the scenes" sort of personal anecdotes, call it that. If it's just your own thoughts about whatever, "Musings" or "Just For Fun" or the like might work.
posted by Sara C. at 10:06 AM on December 1, 2013