Professional pet peeve here:
When I click on the "Blog" option on the site's top page, I sure wish I'd be taken directly to today's entry as the default, and then offered the option to click on "Older entries" and "More recent entries."

It's a little tiring having to page back and forth between an ascending list and a blog page, when this interaction can be streamlined considerably. If anyone's listening: thanks!!

here here! sort the IA out, chaps!

hi adam.



rik

...how about a "Preview Post" option? Just so one can spot those nasty hiding typos and check the URLs are properly tagged...

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/blog.asp

just bookmark that link, it'll always take you to the most recent blog entry.

UniteArtists.org

Why should I have to do that? With all due respect, my kromium friend, a site that was built around a better model of user interaction might account for the fact that the following is a common scenario:

1. User checks board for recent activity
2. User replies to threads of interest
3. User checks to see what Good William has to say today

Surely, this shouldn't take three clicks to achieve from that point, right? You shouldn't have to click "William Gibson Books" > "Blog" > "Current Blog" to do this. Clicking "Blog" should deposit you by default onto the current entry, from where you should be able to either navigate backward in time, one entry at a time, or click through to a master archive.

And ideally, this archive should be ordered so that the most recent entry is at the top, and the user scrolls down for older material. It's just a more natural interaction.

I'm not implying that this site is particularly messed up; believe you me, corporate Japan has much, much, MUCH worse on offer. It's just that it's a reasonably simple site, and the experience of using it could be improved greatly with relatively little effort.

Hi Rik!

well you do have a point, if you come to the boards first, a link straight to the current blog would be nice. But I go to the blog first, then use the link to the boards from there.

other than that though, I think that for new users, a link straight to the archives is nice, as I just recently found this site (after giving up looking for an official Gibson site long ago, I found it quite accidentally) and it was nice to see that list of reading by the man himself greeting me upon first arrival. Though since i've read it all already, I've no need to go back just yet. Maybe Gibson wants it geared to welcome the newbies? Who knows...maybe if you can wrestle his email out of the cold expanse of these hinterlands, you could ask him...
UniteArtists.org

I'm going to agree with Adam here. The blog could work better. I'm a big fan of Movable Type, myself. And there are plenty of free-to-use forum apps out there to choose from (phpbb, etc.) that are as easy to install as a lightbulb, if this one has particular constraints that limit usability. Too much clicking. My personal solution is to keep two tabs open in Phoenix, one for the current blog and one for the message board - but I'm still clicking too much.