On default sort orders and wasting my time

October 13th, 2008

I have this weird annoyance with the way things are ordered – if you’re the BBC or CNN, I understand why the latest happening is shown first – but for anything else I want to see the story from the start right?
The presidential debates which people have been blogging are a good example – everyone seems to think you should run the notes backward in time – what exactly is the point here? Your snarky joke about a previous point made is lost because – and this should be obvious – “I HAVEN’T READ THAT YET”.
Google reader finally allowed sorting by oldest a few months ago which was a godsend – Blogs which are not news based often post multi-part entries and it’s really annoying to get to part 5 first.
My point: Think about how people might read this stuff – not how easy it is to type in or that fact that you think you’re a “News blogger”. Stories have timelines and they rarely work backwards.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized