Lengthy Personal Pages

For a while, I had a short article up on my site saying that everyone should have a web page. I still think it's true. While there are bazillions of personal pages out there, they give the ultimate excitement to the owner: your opinions are instantly available for all to read.

And, we were all new at this at some point. Everyone, without exception. Sure, making a page is easier today due to tools like HomeSite and FrontPage 98. But there is one thing about some personal pages out there that really gets me annoyed quickly: when the entire site consists of one very, very, very, very long page.

There is nothing wrong with having one page be your personal site. That is fine. But when it starts getting REALLY long, you'll probably want to consider doing up a table of contents. There is a reason I have one: pages are a lot easier to navigate with them than without. What if I just had one big page welcoming you with all sorts of info, followed by a link saying "now onto the next page"? It is okay to begin with, yes, but after a while you'll come to see that it's difficult to move about with your site like that.

One thing I have started to strive for across my site is a consistent look and feel. Originally things were a scattershot. But I try to have a sharp, nice look and good navigation while changing things up a bit. If it was one long page, people would check out how small their scroll bar has gotten and say, "Wow!"

So, if you're putting up a page on the web for the first time, by all means do so! But keep in mind your audience, too. -pm