Do you read archives?

[llcoolvad]

I've been reading online journals and/or blogs since 1998, when Patrick started keeping one. When I'd start reading a new person, I would always read their archives, and generally I'd start at the first entry and read forward -- an especially lengthy process with daily updaters like Kymm, but I persevered. It was kind of like reading a novel with really really short chapters, and I usually found it much more fulfilling than just reading current entries. How has the writer changed? What's new in his/her life?

However, it's now 2006, and starting to read a "new" blog/journal means (usually) that there are many years of entries that I'd have to read to fulfill my compulsion. So now I usually read at least the last year, but sometimes no more than that. Now this only applies to personal or journal-style blogs. I don't back-read political or links journals like Daily Kos, BoingBoing, Metafilter, or kottke. But if I started reading your blog this year, for example, I'd go back to January of 2005 and read forward until I got caught up. This still feels incomplete to me, though, and makes me wonder what everyone else does.

So my question to you is: Do you read archives? Do you skim archives? Do you just read current entries?

BTW -- I've discovered a fairly easy way to read LJ archives: navigate to the first entry using the "calendar" option, but then once in the first entry click on "comments" -- that will allow you to navigate just using the arrows at the top of the comments view page (plus you'll get to see all the comments, too). There are a few bugs that way, but easy enough workarounds. (If you know a better way please share!)

Comments

[sarcasticah.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I read archives. Sometimes I read backwards, sometimes I start at the beginning and work my way through. It depends on the journal, I guess.