Coming to That Time Again

It's been a good three years or so since I redesigned the Longevity Meme, and Fight Aging! has operated in its present format for two years now. That last redesign was prompted as much by changes in focus and actitivies as a desire to update the look and feel; that functional pressure for an update is growing once more.

The aims of the Longevity Meme and Fight Aging! have drifted somewhat over the years, and are usually at least a little out of sync with my own views on what would be the best foot forward at any given time. The high level goals remain much the same as they were at the outset, as expressed in the Longevity Meme mission statement:

  • Educating the general public of:

    • Benefits and possibilities resulting from the ongoing and future development and acceptance of healthy life extension technologies;

    • Ways in which ordinary individuals can make meaningful contributions to the development and acceptance of healthy life extension technologies;

    • Existing healthy life extension technologies, techniques and lifestyles.

  • Supporting the creation, publication, promotion and distribution of educational and promotional material about healthy life extension and related topics;

  • Creating, assisting and supporting healthy life extension communities, organizations and events that share objectives and purposes with the Longevity Meme;

  • Generating positive coverage of healthy life extension issues in all forms of media, with a particular emphasis on the forms of media that reach the greatest proportion of the general public;

  • Advocating the continuing and future development of healthy life extension technologies

My hierarchy of importance and details of implementation have changed with the times, however - last in that list above is presently the foremost of my concerns, for example. Also, I no longer feel much of a need to promote present day healthy life extension methodologies; other people are doing a sterling job for the few that exist, such as calorie restriction.

Beyond these points, communication processes, technologies and - most importantly - culture have shifted quite dramatically in the past few years, and continue to move at a fast pace. If the objective is to effectively deliver a message to as many people as possible as efficiently as possible, you must move with the times ... if that is even still the primary objective. Growth has been pretty flat for a while now, which means it's time to evaluate what I'm up to - and what I think "growth" means, for that matter.

Planning for a redesign moves fairly slowly in this part of the world; the purpose of this post is to let folk know that I'm open to comments and suggestions. My time and resources are limited, and so I would like to be putting them to use in ways that are efficient, effective, and neither duplicative nor wasteful. If you have constructive thoughts on the matter, let me know.

Comments

I would suggest a printer friendly configuration button. Currently this prints on mine losing the last half a word or so on the right. A configuration button would be helpful for me.

Posted by: b weeks at March 23rd, 2006 2:29 PM

These websites/blogs are invaluable because of the stready, relentless stream of quality content. I appreciate their style, but that is not why I read them. Indeed, I usually read the posts through Bloglines. So, instead of offering suggestions for the redesign, my suggestion would be to not take it too seriously, and recognize the real value here: substance, not style.

Posted by: Kip Werking at March 23rd, 2006 4:25 PM
Comment Submission

Post a comment; thoughtful, considered opinions are valued. New comments can be edited for a few minutes following submission. Comments incorporating ad hominem attacks, advertising, and other forms of inappropriate behavior are likely to be deleted.

Note that there is a comment feed for those who like to keep up with conversations.