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The Garden vs The River – Chris Coyier
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Photograph is in the dramatic tin type black and white style."> </div> <div class="home-header-tile-name"> <div> <a href="/"> <div class="home-header-tile-name-chris" style="view-transition-name: tile-chris;">Chris</div> <div class="home-header-tile-name-coyier">Coyier</div> </a> </div> </div> <div class="home-header-dots"> <button data-dot="1" class="active">1</button> <button data-dot="2">2</button> <button data-dot="3">3</button> <button data-dot="4">4</button> </div> </div> <nav class="site-nav"> <p>The<br>Navigation</p> <a href="/interviews/">Interviews</a> <a href="/archives/">Archives</a> <a href="/speaking/">Speaking</a> <a href="/timeline/">Timeline</a> </nav> <search class="site-search"> <form method="get" action="/"> <div> <label for="s"> <span class="screen-reader-text"> Search 20 years of drivel... </span> </label> <input type="hidden" name="post_types" value="page"> <input value="" type="search" name="s" id="s" class="search-input" placeholder="Search 20 years of drivel..."> </div> </form> </search> </header> <div class="content"> <main> <div> <article id="post-11992" class="entry post-11992 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-uncategorized" style="view-transition-name: article-11992"> <div class="article-header"> <div class="meta" style="view-transition-name: meta-11992"> <time>January 16, 2025</time> </div> <h1 style="view-transition-name: header-11992;">The Garden vs The River</h1> </div> <div class="article-content"> <p><a href="https://robinrendle.com/notes/digital-gardening/">Robin Rendle quoting Chris Armstrong</a>:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p> … Chris [Armstrong] argues that personal websites could become more like wikis instead:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>With digital gardens, every new piece of content in the network has the potential to add depth and context to every other part. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.</p> </blockquote> <p>I truly love the idea that topics might grow over time with constant refininement [sic]. Expand! Condense! Connect!</p> </blockquote> <p>I have these two opposing thoughts:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li><a href="https://chriscoyier.net/2025/01/04/slash-pages/">I like blogs posts over static pages.</a> The syndication is part of it. The idea that it’s a blog post is a little pin in history is part of it.</li> <li>Big meaty pages over drips and drabs tend to be more useful. When people think of CSS-Tricks they think of the Flexbox Guide because it was a big meaty page that had all the stuff you needed to know in one place. There are <a href="https://css-tricks.com/tag/forms/page/2/">82 articles about Forms on CSS-Tricks</a>, but not one page that just explains the crap out of them. </li> </ul> <p>The difference, I suppose, is that a personal blog and a site designed to get people technical information, have different content strategy goals.</p> <p>There are tweener answers as well. <a href="https://rknight.me/blog/on-transient-slash-pages/">Robb Knight has a thought</a>:</p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>I like the idea of redirecting <code>/now</code> to the latest post tagged as <code>now</code> so one could see the latest version of what I’m doing now.</p> </blockquote> <p>Topical URLs like these “slash pages” don’t have to be static pages. They could be tag listing pages. They could be redirects. They could be generated summaries. We’re using computers, after all. </p> <div id='jp-relatedposts' class='jp-relatedposts' > <h3 class="jp-relatedposts-headline"><em>Related</em></h3> </div> <div class="asks"> Thoughts? <a href="mailto:chriscoyier@gmail.com?subject=I%20was%20just%20reading%20The Garden vs The River">Email me</a> or comment below. Also <a href="https://codepen.io/features/pro">CodePen PRO</a> is quite a deal. 🙏 </div> </div> </article> </div> <section class="comments-area"> <!-- You can start editing here. --> <h3 id="comments"> 2 responses to “The Garden vs The River” </h3> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft"></div> <div class="alignright"></div> </div> <ol class="commentlist"> <li class="comment even thread-even depth-1 parent" id="comment-68355"> <div id="div-comment-68355" class="comment-body"> <div class="comment-author vcard"> <cite class="fn">Abdullah Numan</cite> <span class="says">says:</span> </div> <div class="comment-meta commentmetadata"> <a href="https://chriscoyier.net/2025/01/16/the-garden-vs-the-river/#comment-68355">01/21/2025 at 10:58 pm</a> </div> <p>I suppose, you’re likening a blog to the river and a technical site to the garden. That’s a very interesting analogy!</p> <div class="reply"><a rel="nofollow" class="comment-reply-link" href="https://chriscoyier.net/2025/01/16/the-garden-vs-the-river/?replytocom=68355#respond" data-commentid="68355" data-postid="11992" data-belowelement="div-comment-68355" data-respondelement="respond" data-replyto="Reply to Abdullah Numan" aria-label="Reply to Abdullah Numan">Reply</a></div> </div> <ul class="children"> <li class="comment odd alt depth-2" id="comment-68701"> <div id="div-comment-68701" class="comment-body"> <div class="comment-author vcard"> <cite class="fn">Seba Zelonka</cite> <span class="says">says:</span> </div> <div class="comment-meta commentmetadata"> <a href="https://chriscoyier.net/2025/01/16/the-garden-vs-the-river/#comment-68701">01/28/2025 at 5:20 pm</a> </div> <p>I think the opposite way. I thought a blog as a flower in the garden vs small ideas/dinámica pages like the flow of a river</p> <div class="reply"><a rel="nofollow" class="comment-reply-link" href="https://chriscoyier.net/2025/01/16/the-garden-vs-the-river/?replytocom=68701#respond" data-commentid="68701" data-postid="11992" data-belowelement="div-comment-68701" data-respondelement="respond" data-replyto="Reply to Seba Zelonka" aria-label="Reply to Seba Zelonka">Reply</a></div> </div> </li><!-- #comment-## --> </ul><!-- .children --> </li><!-- #comment-## --> </ol> <div class="navigation"> <div class="alignleft"></div> <div class="alignright"></div> </div> <div id="respond" class="comment-respond"> <h3 id="reply-title" class="comment-reply-title">Leave a Reply <small><a rel="nofollow" id="cancel-comment-reply-link" href="/2025/01/16/the-garden-vs-the-river/#respond" style="display:none;">Cancel reply</a></small></h3><form action="https://chriscoyier.net/wp-comments-post.php" method="post" id="commentform" class="comment-form"><p class="comment-notes"><span id="email-notes">Your email address will not be published.</span> <span class="required-field-message">Required fields are marked <span class="required">*</span></span></p><p class="comment-form-comment"><label for="comment">Comment <span class="required">*</span></label> <textarea id="comment" name="comment" cols="45" rows="8" maxlength="65525" required="required"></textarea></p><p class="comment-form-author"><label for="author">Name <span class="required">*</span></label> <input id="author" name="author" type="text" value="" size="30" maxlength="245" autocomplete="name" required="required" /></p> <p class="comment-form-email"><label for="email">Email <span class="required">*</span></label> <input id="email" name="email" type="text" value="" size="30" maxlength="100" aria-describedby="email-notes" autocomplete="email" required="required" /></p> <p class="comment-form-url"><label for="url">Website</label> <input id="url" name="url" type="text" value="" size="30" maxlength="200" autocomplete="url" /></p> <p class="form-submit"><input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" class="submit" value="Post Comment" /> <input type='hidden' name='comment_post_ID' value='11992' id='comment_post_ID' /> <input type='hidden' name='comment_parent' id='comment_parent' value='0' /> </p><p style="display: none;"><input type="hidden" id="akismet_comment_nonce" name="akismet_comment_nonce" value="677ba1c1d6" /></p><p style="display: none !important;" class="akismet-fields-container" data-prefix="ak_"><label>Δ<textarea name="ak_hp_textarea" cols="45" rows="8" maxlength="100"></textarea></label><input type="hidden" id="ak_js_1" name="ak_js" value="79"/><script>document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );</script></p></form> </div><!-- #respond --> </section> </main> </div> <footer id="the-footer-ok"> <div class="footer-name"> <strong>Chris Coyier</strong> <em>Coming at ya live from Bend, Oregon. <a href="https://smashburgers.chriscoyier.net/">🍔</a> <a href="https://breakfast-burritos.chriscoyier.net/">🌯</a></em> </div> <a href="mailto:chriscoyier@gmail.com">chriscoyier@gmail.com</a> — <a href="https://email-is-good.com/">Email is good</a> — <a href="/feed/">RSS</a> <br> <a href="https://codepen.io/chriscoyier">CodePen</a> — <a href="https://front-end.social/@chriscoyier" rel="me">Mastodon</a> — <a href="https://github.com/chriscoyier">GitHub</a> — <a href="https://instagram.com/chriscoyier">Instagram</a> — <a href="https://www.threads.net/@chriscoyier">Threads</a> — <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/chriscoyier.net">Bluesky</a> <br> <a href="/random/">🔀</a> </footer> <div class="jetpack-instant-search__widget-area" style="display: none"> <div id="jetpack-search-filters-1" class="widget jetpack-filters widget_search"> <div id="jetpack-search-filters-1-wrapper" class="jetpack-instant-search-wrapper"> </div></div> </div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://c0.wp.com/c/6.7.2/wp-includes/js/dist/hooks.min.js" id="wp-hooks-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://c0.wp.com/c/6.7.2/wp-includes/js/dist/i18n.min.js" id="wp-i18n-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="wp-i18n-js-after"> /* <![CDATA[ */ wp.i18n.setLocaleData( { 'text direction\u0004ltr': [ 'ltr' ] } ); 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