While doing my monthly skim of a couple of hipster websites that my tragically overeducated buddy has exposed me to, I came across an interesting satire piece on the phenomena of weblogs.

A raised eyebrow and a couple of minutes later, this got my rusty old wheels turning about independant web publishers and their motivations. Do people put up free content out of some altruistic wish to further the boundaries of human understanding? In an attempt to further the understanding of a beloved pet topic?

For some web developers a personal website serves as a sometimes-veiled advertisement for professional services. I would apply this rather broadly to any people whose means of support rely largely upon web, graphics, or writing.

Would you really want to hire a web developer whose site sucks? Frequent updating of content encourages frequent revision, updating, and refining of the structure as well, allowing a web professional to showcase his talents where any search engine can find it. Frequent updates also make links to your content more likely, again improving search engine results for your site, reinforcing the illusion that you are “on the map.” In some way. Go ahead and google for Ben Brown, Jeffrey Zeldman, or Mark Pilgrim and you’ll find the right one right away.

But what can account for the manic-depressive personal sagas that litter the web? Tales of employment and romantic woe abound out there. Are the folks that maintain such pages just miserable spirits looking to escape the suffocating nightmare of this world through self-expression? Are they seeking the kind of virtual notoriety that web personalities (such as those listed above) enjoy?

This brings me to my own page. Bereft of social angst or burning passion for a web-related topic, where do my musings on D&D, Computers, Cartoons, and the Web fit in? Simple: personal vanity.