The About page - blurb debate
This post comes from a conversation on twitter with Meilin. As an avid promoter machine I argue that every story should have a decent about-page, and at least a short blurb explaining what the story is about.
Why isn't the first chapter enough promotion wise you ask?
Because I still believe the leap people have to take to start reading online fiction is big. We already how awesome it is, but most people don't.
So people might not start reading a first chapter when they find a link. They probably will read an about page or a blurb when they find it, and if that's good they'll probably feel inclined to try the first chapter out.
Not only that, but sites like Stumbleupon, Digg and so on don't do well with with fiction. Articles about fiction often do great though.
On a personal note, if you don't have an about page about your story, this means I have to have read your story before I can say anything about it. If you do and I find the about page, I'll probably be able to recommend it to someone, as in "I haven't read it yet, but this looks like something up your alley."
After all, I can't read all web-fiction that's around 
You say it so much better than me 
I'm actually surprised there's a debate. Well, wait a minute, no I'm not... writers will debate anything! Since I wasn't party to the original discussion, I could very well have the wrong idea of what the negatives of having blurbs are. Or maybe I'm just misreading Jan Oda's OP.
Anyway, from a reader's POV, I don't buy books without looking at the back cover or knowing what the story's about from reviews et al., and I'm no different when it comes to online fiction, free or not. In fact, I usually want a look at the story basics, a general primer of the characters if possible, and something about the author, just to get a sense of the mind behind the work. That's why I read online--it's deeper, more personal, less anonymous, than picking up a book.
As a writer... hell, I'm the worst blurb-writer in the world, and my own work is so rambly and serialized that it's hard to sum up, but I still provide one because a crappy summary is better than no summary. On my site there's a FAQ page, a description on the homepage, a section of the current episode, and links for first-timers to dive in however they choose (via the first episode, recaps, current episode, or season summaries).
Obviously it'll be different for writers whose work is a novel where you don't want people joining in any old way, but still, offering a general idea of what the story is like is pretty much a gimme for any site.
If you have a book trailer, that can be fun to put on your landing page as well. I have done that for Breathless (http://vjchambers.com/breathless.html) and am doing that for Mischief (http://vjchambers.com/mischief.html).
I agree with the wall of text bit, however. My main page simply features links to my books in the way of covers. I'm hoping that it's intuitive enough to figure out what the site's all about. (http://vjchambers.com) I figure if you click on the cover, then you're committed enough to wonder what the book's all about and at that point would like a blurb or something.
Still, it's all a guessing game, really, isn't it? Who really knows what makes people stay on a site?
Blurb believer here
>writers will debate anything!
No, we won't. YOU'RE WRONG! 
Jan, thanks for making me think about this, because it's given me ideas. For my website upgrade, I plan to do an about page with a blurb and several fulsome lines from reviews on it... to create excitement, get a feeling of buzz and "wow".
I am totally aping the dead-tree people here. They've had centuries to find out what works to entice readers. The route you take into a dead-tree book is like this: title/front cover illo... author's name (unless author is prominent, in which case it's bigger than the title). Possibly a few fulsome review cites on front cover. Then you turn it over or open it to check inside jacket, depending on whether it's hardcover or paperback. You read the back cover or inside-jacket blurb, more fulsome review cites, possibly "about the author". Then, if you're sold, page one.
I think we need to learn how to adapt this path to the Internet well. Not only has it been proven to work, but it's going to provide a pleasing familiarity to readers also.
To learn how to write blurbs, I suggest studying back-cover/inside jacket ones from dead-tree books you like. The idea is to be both descriptive and intriguing. They generally give the premise, i.e. the problem or problems posed at the start of the plot, and make it sound as interesting as possible.
Kira, I struggle over blurbs too. In the dead-tree world, they are written by the editor, not the author. As authors we are so close we don't see the forest for the trees, and a blurb is about the forest by definition. As well, insecurity can kick in. That sure as heck happens to me. Doing this is going to be a challenge.
YAY for the real book analogy, let me take it one step further.
The homepage is your cover, as in People who have never read your stuff , or read online should easily find what it's all about. But regular returning visitors, can't be put off by information overload. They need the feeling a nice and simple cover will give, a feeling of coming home to an old friend. However when people will look for a new book to read, most do judge by the cover, but then they read the backcover to judged whether they will like the story. So obviously the about the story page should be obvious to find from the homepage. Ideally you'll refer people straightly to the about page instead of the homepage.
Way to many people promote there homepage, but because that page often has links to various stuff this can be quite confusing for the first time reader.
You wouldn't promote a book with posters of the cover only neither wouldn't you?
Edit for Kira: It wasn't really a debate. I tweeted Meilin that she should put together an about page, and she asked her followers what they thought of that. I wanted to argument why I believed so, but tweets wouldn't cover it. So I thought I'd make the advise more general.
2nd edit to add some problogger links more or less on the subject. A lot of Blogging tips work for web-fiction too. They often need a bit adjustment, but the general ideas behind the post I deem very worthwile.
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/12/19/develop-a-twitter-landing-...
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/11/02/3-alternatives-to-promotin...
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/04/19/the-importance-of-landing-...
We have separate home pages for Peacock King depending on if a user is logged in or not. If you're not logged in, there's a picture and some blurb text and an explanation of PK's update schedule and that we are Infernal Shenanigans and we mean business. That's mostly for people who aren't reading the story yet. Logged-in visitors get a main page that shows all the recent updates, blog entries, and site announcements. We figure they're already sold on PK and just came back to the page because they wanted to see what's new.
So if you ever want to toss somebody to a blurb on what PK is all about you can just link them to http://peacock-king.infernalshenanigans.com and the rest will take care of itself! Most of the other crap you can get on the site (which is important, yes, but not important enough to clutter things) you can just navigate through the top menu for. We plan on further improvements down the line, but basically we don't like a whole lot of distractions from the main content - if people want more, they will look for it (and we will make it findable).
Yay! I did that, except not on the front page thanks to the miracle that is PHP and the Views module! Thanks, Irk!
ETA: It also gave me a good idea for hiding TopWebFiction.com stories unless people have voted. If I figure it out all the way, I'll share it with you Drupal-usin' folks.
I've now got it so there are mini-blurbs on my 'front page' as it were. Whether that will help or not, I don't know. The same mini-blurbs appear on the tables of contents for each story - which is the main link I hand out.
My problem for writing blurbs - besides the typical lack of self-promotional ability - is that I'm a pantser, as in I write by the seat of my pants. So I don't know for 100%, or even 90%, where the stories are going. This makes blurb writing a little daunting.
I was just thinking about the blurb too as I'm redoing my blog and things. I wanted to think of the blurb a bit like a query letter and a bit like reading the back of the book. It's a lot harder to summarize the story up in such a small amount of space.
I was in a blurby mood today and so I jacked up a couple of ones I'd worked on previously and wrote a couple of new ones, for a total of four: asa kraiya, Eclipse Court, and two future books Shirley & I are planning.
Alas, I could not bring myself to do Philosopher in Arms. I have to be in the precise right mood, and it's very fragile. It also doesn't help to be so darn close to the book. Blurbs really are about stepping several feet back and looking at the whole canvas.
I'll post one here if anyone wants to see one.
Hum, yeah, my About page is an 'about me' page.
My front page has an introduction to the site and a very brief blurb for the two serials (including links). I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'm not sure how to improve it.
The intended landing page for Dragon Wars has a blurb for the first book/story arc and an ever-growing table of contents. Other info like a character list and such like will be there as well. As each arc starts it'll be added to the page. Once I start posting it the Haventon Chronicles page will have the same. (I'm actually a smidge irritated at the moment because the editor at WFG who vetted Dragon Wars linked to the first chapter even though I put the link as the blurb/t-o-c page when I submitted. True the blurb is also up on WFG entry but still.)
Anyway any feedback on making the page more sticky would be appreciated.
Becka
I don't like landing on a page with no table of contents/no way out but forward. I feel oddly cornered. I like seeing ahead of time how many chapters are done and what it's all about, so the table of contents page with a blurb above it of what the setup for the story is tends to help me. That's how I feel as a reader.
As a designer, I feel uncomfortable slamming first-time visitors with a wall of text. In studies, human eyes tend to veer away from large blocks of text or just skim over them, and they gravitate towards larger type and smaller bodies of text - the mind basically auto-generates a hierarchy of what content to look at first and then you look through it in order. (This is um, in general. We're not robots. OR ARE WE?) All that leads up to: I like a short bit of explanatory text before readers dive into that tank of story. Call it a shallow zone where they can just stand there with their feet in the water.
And yes, it is handy for people just taking a glance to give recommendations, or for people who are not ready (due to time constraints or being at work and not home or war injury or whatnot) to start reading just yet. They can get an idea of what's in store and then they can bookmark or email themselves a link or whatever.
Summing up a story can be a real pain, I know, but I think it does help.
The Peacock King - Is a mere servant a match for the ruler of half the known world? Probably not.