[1.] Most of the wikis I know use a variable width for the body text, rather than a narrow fixed width that is common on many websites (including blogs)
[2.] Most of the wikis I know have a separate discussion page, whereas most blogs have a comments section on the same page as the content
[3.] I think wikis tend to have smaller font size than blogs
[4.] Wikis make a hard distinction between internal links (wikilinks) and external links, going so far as to discourage the use of external links in the body text in some cases
1. I’ve haven’t seen blogs with a fixed width for body text. (I’ve seen blogs which have a (front) page of fixed width views of articles, each which conclude with a “Keep Reading” link.)
2. Wikis think they’re a paper—similar works may be referenced via a number, that references a list of sources. (Perhaps there’s an official style guide they’re following/imitating that’s external.)
3. This seems to boil down to “Wikis are longer than blogs.” (Might also be the cause of 1.)
4. I don’t think I’ve seen this outside Wikipedia. It could be caused by wikis imitating encyclopedias/papers, or wikipedia. It could be an attempt to capture/hold attention.
I’ve haven’t seen blogs with a fixed width for body text. (I’ve seen blogs which have a (front) page of fixed width views of articles, each which conclude with a “Keep Reading” link.)
(All links are to individual post pages, not the blog’s front page.)
That’s ten examples, including a cooking blog, a tabletop RPG blog, a naval history blog, a regular history blog, an economics blog, etc. All have fixed body text widths.
I mixed up width and length, my bad. So variable width is when there’s text, and occasionally stuff on the sides like diagrams, and the text goes further out when the stuff isn’t there, and is pulled back when there is?
Fixed width vs. variable width simply has to do with the way in which the width of the main text column changes when you change the width of the viewport (i.e., the browser window).
To easily see the difference, go to GreaterWrong.com, click on any post, and then look to the top right; you’ll see three small buttons, like this:
This is the width selector. Click on any of the three icons to select that width. The left-most button (‘normal’) and the middle button (‘wide’) are fixed-width layouts; the right-most button (‘fluid’) is a variable-width layout. Try resizing your browser window (changing its width) after selecting each of the options, and you’ll see what I am talking about.
Variable-width is the web’s default, so it’s definitely not harder to do. Many very old websites (10+ years old) use variable width, before anyone started thinking about typography on the web, so in terms of web-technologies, that’s definitely the default.
1. I’ve haven’t seen blogs with a fixed width for body text. (I’ve seen blogs which have a (front) page of fixed width views of articles, each which conclude with a “Keep Reading” link.)
2. Wikis think they’re a paper—similar works may be referenced via a number, that references a list of sources. (Perhaps there’s an official style guide they’re following/imitating that’s external.)
3. This seems to boil down to “Wikis are longer than blogs.” (Might also be the cause of 1.)
4. I don’t think I’ve seen this outside Wikipedia. It could be caused by wikis imitating encyclopedias/papers, or wikipedia. It could be an attempt to capture/hold attention.
Most blogs have a fixed body text width. Observe:
The Alexandrian
Naval Gazing
The Scholar’s Stage
Ribbonfarm
Slate Star Codex
The Last Psychiatrist
The GiveWell Blog
Xenosystems
Overcoming Bias
Averie Cooks
(All links are to individual post pages, not the blog’s front page.)
That’s ten examples, including a cooking blog, a tabletop RPG blog, a naval history blog, a regular history blog, an economics blog, etc. All have fixed body text widths.
I mixed up width and length, my bad. So variable width is when there’s text, and occasionally stuff on the sides like diagrams, and the text goes further out when the stuff isn’t there, and is pulled back when there is?
Fixed width vs. variable width simply has to do with the way in which the width of the main text column changes when you change the width of the viewport (i.e., the browser window).
To easily see the difference, go to GreaterWrong.com, click on any post, and then look to the top right; you’ll see three small buttons, like this:
This is the width selector. Click on any of the three icons to select that width. The left-most button (‘normal’) and the middle button (‘wide’) are fixed-width layouts; the right-most button (‘fluid’) is a variable-width layout. Try resizing your browser window (changing its width) after selecting each of the options, and you’ll see what I am talking about.
Variable-width is the web’s default, so it’s definitely not harder to do. Many very old websites (10+ years old) use variable width, before anyone started thinking about typography on the web, so in terms of web-technologies, that’s definitely the default.