On The Use of Code in Weblog Titles

I've always considered this practice of putting "code" in your weblog title to be profoundly annoying. It's almost as bad as using the words "random", "rant", or "rambling". Or listing your interests separated by periods, with the one "wacky" option at the end: "Ruby. Startups. Math. And lots of cat pictures."

10 "read my blog now! ";:goto 10

I feel kind of dumb chiming in on this because it really is a very trivial dumb thing to criticize... but I'm as human as the next guy and I get it so here goes...

I totally relate to annoyance with those cute, clever, pithy blog titles but after thinking about it for a second I realize it isn't the titles themselves that are annoying, it's actually my perception of the author that makes it annoying. Sounds like a no-brainer but not really. We can sense the sincerity in people by how they speak and write. So when I come across a blog with one of those cute-pithy-clever titles the deciding factor on whether the title is annoying or not is whether the author comes across as being genuine in the sense that the cute title really is a reflection of his personality and it wasn't over thought and thrown up to be a cool coder hipster like the others.

Over thought titles are another thing. The ones that are cute-pithy-clever and come across as spontaneous don't annoy me so much while others come off as if the author spent a week thinking of clever titles to be super cute and hipster. It sounds weird but I really believe we all have that sixth sense that alerts us to insincerity in writing.

Then there's the notoriety factor. A blog with a cute-pithy-clever title that I come across randomly is bound to the guidelines I talked about above while blogs with the same clever titles that are well known or have been recommended by trusted people don't get that same scrutiny.

Wow. Talk about over thinking something. Looks like I spend my days thinking about really deep and important stuff, huh? I'll go get a life now.

I find it hilarious how some of the mentioned bloggers have 0 sense of humor. Why so serious?