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February 20, 2008 9:35 PM Subscribe
What is the best way to not bore people interested in reading my research blog with my posts on research methodology? (Far better explanation inside)
I have a research blog that deals both with a substantive topic (the interaction of armed conflict and public health) and the methodologies I use in my research (statistics, R code etc...). I think 90% of my visitors are interested only in the former topic since the later is highly technical and contain large chunks of code. However, I want to be able to publish posts on both topics on the blog.
To be clear, I am not looking for coding advice. I know enough code to have wordpress do whatever I want. I am asking the hivemind for ideas on what is theoretically the best way to organize the site so that readers interested in only the substantive posts are not bored by posts on advance statistical coding, while at the same time allowing readers interested in both to see them.
The idea I am kicking around right now is: All posts appear on the homepage, but there are two RSS feeds. One RSS feed contains all posts (both substantive and methodological) and another RSS feed for those those just interested in the substantive posts.
Does this sound good? Any other ideas? Does anyone know good examples of other blogs dealing with this problem?
I have a research blog that deals both with a substantive topic (the interaction of armed conflict and public health) and the methodologies I use in my research (statistics, R code etc...). I think 90% of my visitors are interested only in the former topic since the later is highly technical and contain large chunks of code. However, I want to be able to publish posts on both topics on the blog.
To be clear, I am not looking for coding advice. I know enough code to have wordpress do whatever I want. I am asking the hivemind for ideas on what is theoretically the best way to organize the site so that readers interested in only the substantive posts are not bored by posts on advance statistical coding, while at the same time allowing readers interested in both to see them.
The idea I am kicking around right now is: All posts appear on the homepage, but there are two RSS feeds. One RSS feed contains all posts (both substantive and methodological) and another RSS feed for those those just interested in the substantive posts.
Does this sound good? Any other ideas? Does anyone know good examples of other blogs dealing with this problem?
Display just the titles of the methodology posts. Have them be links to the full content of the post. That way anyone uninterested in them can quickly skim over them.
posted by Asymptote at 9:50 PM on February 20, 2008
posted by Asymptote at 9:50 PM on February 20, 2008
Put the methodology posts as links in a sidebar.
Also, I would have three RSS feeds: one for each style and one for both together. (This will save the people who want both a bit of aggravation by making things more streamlined for them.)
posted by oddman at 10:10 PM on February 20, 2008
Also, I would have three RSS feeds: one for each style and one for both together. (This will save the people who want both a bit of aggravation by making things more streamlined for them.)
posted by oddman at 10:10 PM on February 20, 2008
Another option close to Asymptote's: put not just the title but a couple of lines of the methodology post on the main page, the rest "below the cut", so people can get a feel and go there if they want, otherwise skim over it.
posted by londongeezer at 11:13 PM on February 20, 2008
posted by londongeezer at 11:13 PM on February 20, 2008
Yeah. I'd either go with a "below the fold" (extended entry) approach, or use categories and let your readers subscribe to feeds with/without the category. For my own blog, when I post a long entry of limited interest, I put the bulk of it below the fold.
posted by adamrice at 7:35 AM on February 21, 2008
posted by adamrice at 7:35 AM on February 21, 2008
How about tabs, similar to Wikipedia? One for Research, one for Methodology, one for Footnotes?
posted by zueod at 10:32 AM on February 21, 2008
posted by zueod at 10:32 AM on February 21, 2008
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posted by null terminated at 9:43 PM on February 20, 2008