Information Architecture for this Site

Information Architecture for this Site

Core Principle: Flat with Metadata

All content lives at root. Type is frontmatter tags, not folder location.

Inspired by Wikipedia: every page is equal. Search and backlinks handle discovery. Folders impose a decision cost at creation time that isn't worth paying.

Structure

/                    ← everything: notes, essays, concepts, ideas
  economics.md
  Anna Karenina.md
  info-architecture-for-this-site.md   ← this file

/logs                ← daily log only; date IS the identity
  2025-10-20.md
  2026-05-10.md

/projects            ← discrete scoped work with its own lifecycle
  /open-knowledge-foundation

Three buckets. Simple enough to hold in your head. New content → root, no decision required.

Exception: large topics. A topic with many sub-files (e.g. wto/) can have its own folder — but the folder is not a collection type, it's just overflow storage for one topic. The root entry (wto.md) still exists and is the primary page. Folder = size management, not taxonomy.

What Dies

Folders that imposed false taxonomy, now collapsed into root:

  • ref/ — these were just dated notes; they belong at root
  • blog/, post/, writings/, nonfiction/, works/ — same concept, five names

Filenames

Natural language, Wikipedia-style. Title case for proper nouns and titles, lowercase for concepts.

Anna Karenina.md          ← not anna-karenina-book.md
Superintelligence.md      ← not superintelligence-bostrom-2014.md
economics.md              ← concept, lowercase fine
wise society.md           ← or "Wise Society.md"
  • No type suffix in filename — type is a tag, not the name
  • No date in filename — date goes in created: frontmatter
  • No author/year suffix — goes in frontmatter
  • Disambiguation only when genuinely needed: Anna Karenina.md (novel) vs Anna Karenina (1997 film).md
  • Obsidian backlinks stay clean: [[Anna Karenina]] not [[anna-kareninaAnna Karenina]]
  • URLs: publishing layer (Flowershow) slugifies to /Anna+Karenina automatically (and handles links etc)

Daily logs: date only — 2026-05-10.md

Existing kebab-case files (economics.md, wise-society.md): leave as-is, not worth migrating.

Tags

tags: [post]        ← finished, polished — appears on blog feed
tags: [stub]        ← fragment or WIP
tags: [bookmark]    ← link/clipping from elsewhere
tags: [book]        ← book entry (replaces works/ folder)
tags: [film]        ← film entry
tags: [article]     ← paper or essay by someone else

Tags compose: tags: [book, post] for a finished book review, tags: [book, stub] for notes in progress. Add later — don't block capture on it.

Books, Films, Articles

Filename = bare title. title: frontmatter carries the full display title for SEO and page rendering.

# Superintelligence.md
title: "Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom (2014)"
tags: [book]

Disambiguation only when needed: Superintelligence.md (concept page) vs Superintelligence (book).md. Cross that bridge when you reach it.

Fleeting vs Evergreen

Don't decide at creation. Write to root. Things that matter grow through expansion and incoming links. Things that don't — stay stubs. That's fine.

Migration

No big-bang migration needed. Gradually move legacy folder files to root as they come up. Kill empty folders as they empty out. See docs/plans/2026-05-10-info-architecture-migration.md.

Appendix: Key Decisions

A1. Flat structure vs folder taxonomy

Decision: Flat root with tags.

OptionProCon
Folder per type (blog/, notes/, etc.)Familiar, browsableDecision cost at creation; same content fits multiple folders; rigid
Flat + tagsZero capture friction; composable; Wikipedia-provenRequires tag discipline over time

Tags win because decision fatigue at creation time is the real enemy. Folder location can't be added "later" without moving files; tags can.

A2. Filename style: kebab-case vs natural language

Decision: Natural language, Wikipedia-style.

OptionProCon
anna-karenina.mdShell-friendly, URL-safeObsidian links need aliases; unnatural to read/type
Anna Karenina.mdClean Obsidian links [[Anna Karenina]]; matches human mental model; Wikipedia-proven at scaleSpaces need escaping in shell

Natural language wins. URL encoding of spaces is invisible in modern browsers; Flowershow slugifies to /anna-karenina at the URL layer anyway. Shell friction is real but minor compared to daily Obsidian use.

A3. Type suffix in filename vs tags

Decision: No suffix. Type is a tag.

Anna Karenina Book.md vs Anna Karenina.md + tags: [book-review]

Suffix forces a decision upfront and creates naming drift (Book vs Book Review vs Notes). Tag added later, composes with others, easily changed.

A4. Date in filename vs frontmatter

Decision: Date in frontmatter (created:), not filename — except logs where date IS the identity.

Date in filename implies the content is anchored in time and signals staleness to readers. Concepts don't have a birthday worth advertising. Git history is the authoritative record anyway.

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