[2024 UPDATE: Our current Chicago Boyz WordPress theme does not display on its sidebar lists of links to notable discussions, or of links to all of the posts by each Chicago Boyz contributor. However, we still have a search function and it is no longer controlled by Google. You may also search our archives chronologically, using the link at the bottom of the sidebar.]
Chicago Boyz has been around for many years and has thousands of archived posts. Quite a few of these old posts and the reader comments that go with them are still worth reading. Unfortunately, the limitations of blogging software with its journal format and no table of contents or index can make it difficult to find the best of our archived posts. Here are a few suggestions to make the task easier.
First, the blog’s right sidebar has a list of links to “Recent Posts” that displays the titles of the ten latest posts.
Second, just above the recent-posts list there is a list of links to “Notable Discussions” that provides a small and incomplete selection of the very most popular and/or interesting discussion threads from over the years.
Third, note the list of Chicago Boyz authors, also on the right sidebar and just above the notable-discussions links. Many of these authors are not currently active. However, we maintain this list not merely to credit our authors but also to provide quick access to their respective posts. If you like a particular Chicago Boyz author’s work you can click on his name and browse his personal post archive.
Fourth, there is a Google search window near the top of the blog under the Chicago Boyz header. This window is configured to search the Chicago Boyz archive by default. It works very well if you search on a topic, post title or relevant phrase. (Note that if you want to perform a second search you should return to the blog’s home page and search again from there. Otherwise, if you search using the Google window in the search results, you will search the entire Internet and thus your search results will not be very helpful.)
Finally, if all else fails scroll down our right sidebar for a list of post categories, and below that a list of links to Chicago Boyz monthly archives going back to 2003. Our categorization is imperfect and many older posts aren’t categorized at all, but in some cases categorization can help to narrow a search enough to find what you’re looking for. The same is true for the monthly chronological archive links.
If you have any ideas about how we could improve this blog, feel free to share them in the comments.
You are spot on that there is a lot of great stuff here. What leaps to my mind among many others are the America 3.0 discussions and Trent’s fantastic WW2 analysis of the Pacific theater.
Over at LITGM it is funny I just gave up on that and put the 5 most popular posts up in the sidebar and got rid of the categories. At least you are taking on the challenge here.
I was thinking of putting my “25 stories about work” into an e book when I’m done and just giving it away on Amazon as a freebie. Or maybe charging a nominal 99 cents, which means that I will make back about 5 bucks ha ha.
I think to some extent putting these posts into some sort of ebook / ibook form if they are organized is another way to build a combined narrative. I’d surely contribute / pay for something like what Trent has done in ebook form.
Then you have the ideas coalescing into printed books like America 3.0. That is a great achievement!
It is good that you are thinking of this topic but a lot of the solutions that you are looking for are to some extent in consolidation of related topics and moving into adjacent areas.
As far as the links and screen estate and authors and categories… that is really hard. I don’t know what to do about that. It takes up screen real estate and I don’t know if people use them or not. But it is all we have and your call for bringing back best posts of the past is very relevant.
I should do something like that on energy and taxation at some time, but I also run out of time overall as we all do.
Great ideas, thanks. Of course you are right about Trent’s WW2 posts and the A3.0 discussions.
A book version of The John Boyd Roundtable
was published thanks to the efforts of Mark Safranski and Fred Zimmerman. There may be a few more books to be made from the archives, but it’s a big job for whoever puts them together.
I hope you do the ebook version of “25 Stories”.
You might add that the two sidebars you note are not way down at the bottom, under quite a bit of other material.
Also, I don’t see a recognizable “home” button; what am I missing?
Well, that was not proofed well.
The sidebars ARE at the bottom.
Thanks!
I used to receive updates on postings to Chicago boys in my email, but not any more . Why- something I did?
Can I reactivate these?
Mazlo101@outlook.com
Ben, I stopped the updates when I redesigned the blog. I will let everyone know if we start again to provide them.
I wanted to make a comment about David Foster’s article on jobs, but I apparently can’t figure out how to do that. There’s a login page, but no apparent way to register. I’m probably missing something obvous, as I rarely comment anywhere. Appreciate any help.
John Mosier at 1056am–
You made it this far. On my feed there’s a ‘log-in’ on the upper right, but either you did it w/o knowing or you don’t actually need to log in.
Either way, good luck.
There is no need to register or log in. Click on the title of the post that you wish to comment on. Scroll down the post until you reach the bottom comment. Type your comment in the box just below “Leave a Comment”. Enter your name if you wish in the box below that. Then click the “Post Comment” button underneath.
Any reason comments are closed on blog posts?
I often get to something after comments are closed
In particular:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/42452.html
says “This US Army versus US Navy clash in Radar fighter direction data reporting paradigms was a major factors in both the Northern Solomon’s and Okinawa campaigns, which will be the subject of future columns”
I never have found those “future columns”. The author
didn’t do them or I can’t find?
Leather Helmet:
We close old posts to comments because most comments on old posts are spam. If you want to comment on an old post you can email your comment and the post’s URL to jonathan at chicagoboyz dot net and I will post it for you.
If you have a question for the post author you can email your question to me and I will forward it to the author.
I used to read this blog every day but lost track of it somehow.
I just want to say that WordPress is the worst way to organize a site. Much better to have a site organized hierarchically with a landing page and subpages with links. I think your old site was set up more like that.
Thanks, Lillian. Agreed about WordPress. The old Chicago Boyz was indeed easier to navigate than the current blog is. Perhaps one day I will be able to fix the weaknesses of our current layout.