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Have a personal web site

writing.markchristian.org

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Re: Have a personal web site

#171

Post by boomlinde »

ben_w wrote: post #108
Matty1992 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the opposite problem, I share the name with someone else working in the tech field who is academically and professionally my senior. I frequently get emails and phone calls from recruiters offering positions with a salary up to 200k more than I'm expecting at my level because they think I teach at Stanford

I have a more minor issue, in that my mum once mistook a SciFi/horror film director for me, because of his website. I also share a name with a Victorian era author. As I’m now writing a novel, I’m going to have to publish with a pen name.

Perfect opportunity to add a mysterious initial. Ben Ÿ. W...

Re: Have a personal web site

#172

Post by somecallitblues »

Symbiote wrote: post #86
jzzskijj wrote: post #28

In Finland it is illegal to google for applicant's online presence, because of the possibility of judging the candidate because of misidentification. You have to have applicant's permission to that. And I am glad, because one of my name doubles isn't very representative person according to their online presence.

I started a personal website because the other person with my name was a cannabis legalisation advocate. This was the early 2000s, and I was easily able to knock him from the top spot on the major search engines.

Drugs are bad mkaaaay

Re: Have a personal web site

#173

Post by astura »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #61

I don't judge a person's technical skill through this metric (or at least I make an attempt not to), but it's rather noticeable when someone has nothing going on online. A blank GitHub, no website, no projects, etc. For an employed person, eh, whatever, maybe they just have a life. But for a student? I'll admit I get a little suspicious. I'm not saying students should have a huge roster of projects and crazy extracur…

Uhhhh... I'm so glad GitHub didn't exist when I was a student.

Re: Have a personal web site

#174

Post by stOneskull »

stakhanov wrote: post #135
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main thing you should have in mind when you make a personal website is to not have any expectations. Nobody cares, nobody will read your words, etc - until they do, until you're suddenly discovered, and people go back through your years of posts and find a lot of gold stuff. I think that was the core of the "old" 97 websites - I mean Google didn't exist back then, so finding a page when you search for a n…

My own recollection of the pre-Google era of Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos, etc was that search engines already accounted for the lion's share of content discovery online. My gut feeling would be that it might have been even larger back then than it is now, considering the role that social media play nowadays. What it was like before then I can't say as I'm not that old, but I imagine that URLs would have been made known t…

web-rings

Re: Have a personal web site

#175

Post by Spare_account »

johnisgood wrote: post #168
Spare_account wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm lucky that I share a first and last name with someone who is a successful Social Media influencer, also with a professional photographer, a journalist and and an amateur model (Haha, I wonder if that is enough for an Internet detective to work out my name!). This helps because they all have very searchable content online. I've tried to strike a balance between anonymity and retaining 'placeholder' accounts with m…

Be careful. You might leave a trace of yourself by searching for yourself on new, and perhaps even non-trusted devices. Streisand effect came to mind, too.

You've changed the subject slightly, away from searchability and online presence/self promotion, to tracking by Big Brother.

I concede that Google track me everywhere, I can't stop it so I live with it. I aim for a managed level of visibility.

I use uMatrix and uBlock Origin to reduce some of my digital footprint.

Re: Have a personal web site

#176

Post by RandomInteger4 »

caymanjim wrote: post #151

I don't want a personal web site. I've had a handful of them in the past, and I've thrown together a couple shitty blogs over the years, but there are three big reasons why I don't anymore: I'm not that interesting; I don't have anything to show off; and inevitably it'll either become a chore or go out of date. Like everyone, I harbor fantasies about how interesting I am, and if I run into you at the pub, I'll talk y…

You should be more positive about yourself. You're interesting. I believe in you.

Re: Have a personal web site

#177

Post by [deleted] »

_hardwaregeek wrote: post #79
stormbeard wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why a student should be measured differently when the developers with full-time jobs are excused with "maybe they just have a life". Some students have jobs outside of school or obligations/hobbies that take precedence over coding projects. I just think everyone should be held to the same bar, even students.

Well, the developers have full time jobs programming. Students don’t. At best they get a few CS classes that provide hands on, real world programming (albeit usually outdated). I agree that there are certainly students who have time commitments which prohibit them from doing extracurriculars. But I’m not talking about a huge commitment (heh) here. 50 commits over a year is like a few weekends worth of work. If you wo…

[deleted]

Re: Have a personal web site

#178

Post by brightball »

caymanjim wrote: post #151

I don't want a personal web site. I've had a handful of them in the past, and I've thrown together a couple shitty blogs over the years, but there are three big reasons why I don't anymore: I'm not that interesting; I don't have anything to show off; and inevitably it'll either become a chore or go out of date. Like everyone, I harbor fantasies about how interesting I am, and if I run into you at the pub, I'll talk y…

I just enjoy writing and when a topic is really on my mind it gives me an outlet. I honestly never thought anyone would read half the stuff I write but several things have made it here for big discussions. It was pretty fun and encouraging so I kept doing it.

Re: Have a personal web site

#179

Post by astura »

kire456 wrote: post #99
_hardwaregeek wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the developers have full time jobs programming. Students don’t. At best they get a few CS classes that provide hands on, real world programming (albeit usually outdated). I agree that there are certainly students who have time commitments which prohibit them from doing extracurriculars. But I’m not talking about a huge commitment (heh) here. 50 commits over a year is like a few weekends worth of work. If you wo…

I can't speak for where you live, but being a student is a full-time job here. And your last statement makes no sense. If you don't expect students to work after work , then don't follow it up with the remark that you'd see them jobless.

I agree - I had less free time as a student than I do as an average adult with a full time job.

Re: Have a personal web site

#180

Post by astura »

buzzert wrote: post #12
PopeDotNinja wrote: post #7

> You should... Except for all the reasons you shouldn't. The biggest reasons is that if putting up a website doesn't feel like a good use of time, it's probably better to just not have one. An alternative way to think about it is this... is it a good business decision to de-prioritize talking to people who don't have a website? I'd be real surprised if the answer was yes.

One of the benefits not mentioned in the article: it serves as a good personal record of accomplishments or thoughts (similar to a diary). How often does the new year come around and you think to yourself, "where did the year go?"

So then keep a diary?
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