It had to be done. After hosting pages on various free services for ages, then paying for a virtual server and sub-domain for six months, I finally succumbed to temptation and bought myself a domain name.
The choice was more difficult than I thought. The best one, giles.org, was taken, and all the turnbull.* domains were taken too. One idea was flimsy.net, which sounded quote cool, was still available, and I could justify by saying that I'd always had a flimsy excuse for getting a domain in the first place.
But in the end I plumped for this one in the hope that it might easier for my pals to remember. And the "gilest" name has become something of an online identity for me anyway, so that's how it's gonna stay.
I had to think long and hard about what kind of site I wanted to emulate. There are sites whose design I admire (like Netcetera for its simplicity) and whose structure is clear and obvious (like jwz.org), and it is these that I have chosen as role models.
Apart from lacking the time to write new content for my site, my biggest problem has always been fiddling with the look of the front page, something which I am almost compelled to do whenever I come across a design that I like the look of - which seems to happen most weeks. This is a habit I am determined to cut down.
If there's one thing I have learnt while being paid to explore the Internet, it's that looks count for nothing if there's nothing there to see. Bring on them stories.
Filed under: computers
(12th March 1999)