Audience and Tone of tobylam.xyz
Having maintained this website for over 2 years, I’d like to mention some of my thoughts on tobylam.xyz and where I would like to take it in the future.
Audience
I’m aware that the viewership of this website may be very low, yet that doesn’t particularly concern me. I’ve always intended it to be a place for me to write about things I most care about. By making it somewhat public and shareable, it motivates me to flesh out and finish every project I start.
I think it’s also good for me to have a space to release content without too much judgement, at least when I’m still starting out.
And unlike social media platforms, you can catch up on what I’ve written relatively quickly even if you haven’t checked my website in a year or two. I much prefer people spontaneously checking up on it than the artificial timeliness that Instagram or Bereal introduces to foster addiction.
The variety of people that I’m trying to reach out to is also immense. I equally enjoy writing about expository mathematics to people at all stages as well as more casual writing about my personal life at Oxford. Perhaps it makes the blog seems unfocused at times.
All in all, I’m not too concerned about audience figures. I’m aware that I’m putting “Oxford” in some posts to attract an audience in a sense, but I do hope that prospective applicants who know me or otherwise would find value in my thoughts about Oxford without the undertones of self-promotion / outreach.
Tone
I’m increasingly concerned about the tone that this website has. Having seen a lot of content online about the “Oxford experience”, I’m aware of the significant impacts that my descriptions can have on people. While I do believe Oxford is great at best and manageable at worst, I shouldn’t romanticise it either.
I also don’t want this website to be read like an autobiography. Studying at Oxford shouldn’t be a story exclusive to myself. I’m concerned about prospective applicants reading too much into the personal aspects of this website and not being able to extract the more objective information or advice that would be useful to them.