Medium 7- the metaphorical web

in the process of remaking my web site i’ve been thinking about the metaphors used for the ‘web’ —
metaphors interest me —

WEB - NET — these are good metaphors
spider webs - fishing nets — traps and snares — easy to get tangled up in
predator devices for capturing prey
are you - am i —on the web or in the web

webs and nets are basically 2 dimensional — networks are 3D

neural nets — traps for neurons ?

snares and snaring — sneer

BUILDING - CONSTRUCTING - TECHNOLOGY
build - construct - under construction - architecture
building a web site -(i disliked the way some sites used a little man with a hard had stating ‘under construction’)
under construction - over construction — one under takes this but one doesn’t under construct things —

undertakers

to build — ARCHITECTURE is not a good metaphor — architecture is a much different undertaking than designing a web site

(SOFTWARE ENGINEERING is a contradiction in terms -
not an oxymoron)

to weave a web site

warp and weft

use reality as a warp and words as a weft —

to waft - to waver

SITE
LOCATION
NAVIGATION
HOME
VISIT
site - location - place — a node in a network

who do i visit when i link to a commercial web site
who do i visit ‘on’ a personal web site — is one in or on the site

where am i and where are you
where are the sites - where’s the prey

home — i dislike this metaphor — my website has ‘home’ links but i’ve been replacing them with ‘hypology’ (the site name that links to the index page —i was going to use ‘index’ which is the browser term for the home page - but that’s confusing — most people think of the index page as a ‘home’ and not an ‘index’ — it’s really not an index and it’s certainly not a home —

(homes are overrated anyway — homely - unheimlich) —

to come home
to go home
a home can be a house
a house can be a home

but is not necessarily one

HYPOLOGY — names are something one gets stuck with

hypology home
hypology index
hypology start — continue — go on - get out - go home - enter (anyway)

are you at home on the web or in the web at home

on line — in line — lined up

SCREEN
WINDOW
one looks through windows
computer screens contain windows — they open and close — just like the windows of a house - sort of

(’screen’ has too many meanings — it can be a verb and a noun)

to screen something — a movie — a movie screen — a TV screen

the images are projected onto one and out of the other

screen tests
screen texts

SCROLL
PAGE
BOOK
i don’t like scrolling — i like the metaphor of page — book pages don’t scroll - scrolls don’t have pages — i don’t like book (actual books not metaphorical books) pages because the text flows from page to page — i think each page should be a complete unit — (this is a subject for another post (my ideas on this are somewhat self-contradictory)

FLOWS
FLAWS

one doesn’t turn a metaphorical page — one links to a different part of a code or a different code — whatever
a book (usually) has pages that are all the same size — web site pages can be any size
one can’t flip through the pages of a web site
i like the potential for web technology to change the concepts of book and page — the metaphors of book and page — the metaphorical web ‘page’ can be any size and can be scaled — and scrolled but in a different sense that a rolled scroll — 3D not 2D

LEVELS
LAYERS
OPACITY
SITE MAPS
in the computer or on the computer — what is in front and what is in back
pages can be anywhere —

what is a layer

i like using layers as metaphors — different levels in the different sections of the web —

nodes

POINT
CLICK
what do you do - you move a ‘cursor’ to a spot on the screen and press a button
you use a device like a ‘mouse’ or a pad to change the location of a pattern of light on a screen then push a button or press the pad to cause the computer to ‘execute’ some code (to execute — words are interesting (to me))— a click isn’t necessary — it’s just a haptic feedback so you know you’ve done something

you can spend a lot of money pointing and clicking

speaking metaphorically is easier even when i’m writing and not speaking

SPEAKING OF METAPHORS — what does it mean to ‘speak’ what does ‘to speak’ mean — is speaking the same as talking - the same as writing — am i speaking to you — (what does ‘you’ mean) — am i speaking to myself — or am i myself speaking to me (who am i)
is one ones self — am i myself or is myself i
the brain acts before consciousness is aware of the action — thinking is a complex process that involves more than just the brain — what move my pen as i think - say - write this
moving my fingers as i type the notebook page
writing on the mind — my mind — my body
a drink of coffee — does the mind spin — what moves

speaking of metaphors
speaking in metaphors

metaphorically speaking
speaking as a metaphor for writing

what is the voice i hear when i read a Medium text — i’m sure it doesn’t sound like her or she doesn’t sound like it