CSS & Templates

This is one of the things I hate about using web templates, and Blogger specifically.

I wanted to use a blockquote in the previous post, so I used the blockquote tag. But the Blogger templates are broken; all text after the blockquote tag had improper leading between the lines, resulting in ugly compressed text after this quote.

I had noticed this problem on other Blogger default blogs; "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs" suffers from this broken code, for example.*

This kind of issue is why default templates get so much crap. They tend to be barebones in their technical execution, and excessively overdesigned in their appearance. Like an inbred peacock, you get a messy and defective genotype, with a gaudy and excessive phenotype.

You can tell I was a geek in school, right?

I mean, I don't love this template. At this point, it's a stopgap until I can design my own CSS/PHP template to use instead; I just need time to do that. It has a lot of graphics that have nothing to do with me or my blog (aside from the fact that there are lighthouses in Maine). And since I didn't make it, it isn't personal.

That's not to say that templates are a bad thing; they are what let 90% of web users/bloggers get started, myself included. Coding is hard and time consuming to learn to do and execute, or expensive to pay for. Templates allow the Everyman to access the web as a producer of content, not just a consumer.

But dammit it's frustrating when the templates aren't that good.

Anyway, I dug into the code and gave this site a quick blockquote fix. I like the look; not the most original or beautiful, but functional, individually coded, and not broken.

Hallelujah.


[*This is a fantastic website, and deserves to be read early and often. Wonderfully commentary not just on Apple, but the whole tech industry. Hilarious and insightful, a rare combination.]