As promised, my friend J. Nathan Matias has redesigned his website, Notebook of Sand. He writes primarily about hypertext, and uses Tinderbox to process his information.

The Notebook of Sand still has a very distinctive “Tinderbox” look to it, like some of the other tinderblogs out there: (Mark Bernstein‘s and Diane Greco‘s among them) but I suppose that is okay. I have noticed that blogs tend to bear the mark of the software that makes them. After a while, a reader can eyeball the things that make something a Blogger blog or a Moveable Type Blog, or whatever.

If Blogger’s designs look better to you, keep in mind that this is only the presentation. You’ll find that the content can be much more precicely arranged in one of the more advnced kinds of blogs out there. Still, Blogger, really knows how to appeal to an audience.

The best part about Nathan’s new design is, he made it himself. I, on the other hand, have cheated.

I use Kubrick for the presentation of this site. What I like about it is that it really is easy to adapt and personalize like crazy, without damaging the core presentation. (There is a design for the main page, the category/archives pages, and for single posts, with room to grow) That’s a lot for a template to do, and it is “plug and play” for newer users, so I like it. While something like Kubrick could surely be ported for use with Tinderbox (it has already been used with most other blog tools) it doesn’t have to be Kubrick.

Mark Bernstein has done the same kind of thing with his blog, where a post is just a post (I like a single post unobstructed by a sidebar) — and where archive/category pages are distinct from the main blogpage.

Whever the day comes that I can make the switch to Tinderbox for my information processing (instead of, or with, wordpress) One of the things I would like to contribute to the tinderbox community is something like what the blogger templates or kubrick offer: something that “pops” to the eye.

I think that having some very appealing Tinderbox blogs out there would make Tinderbox a more appealing thing, which is something I would like to see. I was drawn to WordPress based on two critera:

1. does it organize my information well (or suitably, in this case)
2. does “come with” or “are there” appealing designs to keep the readers’ eye.

Nathan’s new design and arrangement are leading me to suspect that Tinderbox would be the best way for a blogger to satisfy both critera.

That said, presentation really isn’t most important. I msut always remind myself of that. It’s content that counts, at the end of the day.