Changes to the site

I’ve finally found the time to bring PatternWhichConnects up to scratch, or at least a little closer to what I originally had intended. When I looked back on the first year of running this site it was with part joy over getting friendly feedback and part frustration over not having been able to realise the original idea. During the last couple of months I’ve looked into different options for making the site a little more interactive and spent some time rethinking some of the existing pages.

The main change to the blog is the introduction of an option for commenting. Having looked at different ways of doing this, I went with the idea of having a discussion board attached to the site, mainly because of practicalities/ease but also because that integrates with having a place for broader discussions – ‘the forum’. It is a slightly roundabout way of doing it because you’ll have to type a comment on the discussion board and then I’ll repost the comment here which might take a day or two. But it’s really no different than blogs where you have to wait for a moderator to approve the comment.

So to comment simply follow the link at the bottom of a blog post to the comment section and reply to the relevant thread and the comment should appear here soon enough. If you become a member of the forum you can also sign up to get notified by email when someone comments on the same thread as you. Another new feature on the blog is the blogroll where you’ll find links to some of the blogs I follow – check them out, they have been a huge source of inspiration to me.

I hope the forum will also work as a place for wider discussions. I’m a little unsure if this will work, a lot of the comments/discussions around PatternWhichConnects have been personal and perhaps it isn’t really the same to have those sorts of talk on a public discussion board. But in principle I don’t see why not – the option to drop me an email still exists. I have also set up a guestbook on the forum for more general feedback.

I’ve also started a new blog which is a kind of research diary. Diary #2 is a place where I can reflect on what it means to be doing a PhD in these times, make sense of the research process, try out different styles of writing and test ideas. I’m quite excited about this because I found that simply by setting up this space I feel like I’ve gained a level of freedom which has released a lot of thoughts. As it is a diary it will also be a way for me to remember where I was at certain stages in the process and in this way shape my thesis when it comes to writing it. Right now I’ve been thinking lots about how to see the world and my place in it as well as the role of stories in our lives. I’d be particularly interesting in hearing what you think about this post.

The Library has been been refurbished: I’ve introduced a reading room with some of the stuff I’m inspired by and would like to talk more about (perhaps on the forum?), PatternWhichConnects now has a radio station and a tv channel, and the old pages with articles and resources have been updated. This is also where you’ll find the forum.

Finally, I’ve put up some of the photos from last summer’s trip to Greenland. It was quite a journey which changed my life (literally) in many ways, I hope that you’ll like some of the images I took back with me.

That’s it. Hope you like.

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