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If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

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Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#521

Post by Digit-Al »

okareaman wrote: post #62
pmlnr wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I blog on Facebook That is not a blog. You don't have control over it, you don't have archives, and it's not world readable. None of what you listed is a reason to not to use a real blog.

I'm not sure how you define a blog. Could you clarify? I often delete or edit posts, so I have control. I download my FB data so I have an archive. I have a link to my FB on my Twitter and all my posts are public and I get people from Twitter reading it. I have 60 followers I don't know who read it. Not sure what else it needs to be to meet your definition of a blog.

No true blog \s

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#522

Post by mrbenns »

I have used RSS every day for years - far more controllable than social media as I can filter out anything I wish. With RSS-Bridge, RSSbox and the likes I use it for everything, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, HN, Reddit etc etc I recommend Bazqux as the aggregator- much more power user friendly than Feedly

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#523

Post by kebman »

mawise wrote: post #199
aazaa wrote: post #178

The best way to bring back blogs is to start with your own. It looks like this is the author's fourth post and s/he hit a home run with the top post on HN. But that's rarely how things work. The thing few people tell you when you start blogging is how futile it will seem - for a long, long time. You'll start by posting something you put a lot of work into. You'll publish, thinking of all the comments and emails you'l…

Those blogs from the time before were written for the purpose of writing, not for the purpose of getting lots of viewership. The blogs the author misses aren't written to make money off of ad traffic, they were just written to put down ideas. Today that need is filled with Facebook/Twitter/... and even there with the currency of likes/comments those motivations get twisted. Some of the internet has also shifted to a…

I wouldn't put an idea on Twitter or Facebook. That's where I put a short joke, or a pun, or some political troll meme. Then I watch the mentions and likes roll in. That's not to say that it never happens, but they aren't really well made platforms for it, outside posting a link to an actual blog.

Personally, I think the blogosphere is covered pretty well for me by the likes of Medium. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but they've made a damn good job at cornering that part of the market for those more serious posts that were previously relegated to the blogosphere. That's a place I'd put a more well-formed idea. A great example is the article, "Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now" by Thomas Pueyo.[1]

Outside that, blogs still exists! I still even have my own. I think the complaint is rather that they're hard to index or search. And to that end, there are many solutions and ways around it that still exist, such as syndication or even RSS.

[1]: https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-peop...

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#524

Post by AmericanChopper »

mirimir wrote: post #519
101404 wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sad, but that's the reality of things in our "politically correct" modern world.

When are you thinking it was better?

The world hasn't had enormous user generated content platforms (where it's reasonably common to use your real name) for very long at all. But I would say it started out in a much better state than it is now, and has been progressively getting worse. It's reasonably common to have somebody held in high esteem by the various groups that are highly concerned with political correctness, suffer catastrophic falls from grace after some ancient tweet is discovered, from back in a time when it was OK to have opinions and make jokes. Personally, I would never risk publicly voicing an opinion on any topic that was strictly technical.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#527

Post by jasonlfunk »

It seems to me that blogs have been replaced with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Social Media platforms let you express yourself in similar ways that blogs did, with the added benefit of immediate and easy feedback from your followers. I don’t see blogging returning unless it becomes far more interactive then traditional blogs were.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#528

Post by pferde »

Reelin wrote: post #496
larsrc wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hi! It looks like you're trying to solve complex social problems with technology. Would you like some help in your futile endeavour?"

What complex social problem? All I see are a few technical problems regarding security, anonymity, and interrelations between nodes on a graph. There's also a closely related ease of use (ie UX) problem regarding the convenience (or rather lack thereof) of publishing things in a reasonably anonymous manner. All the social problems, such as the underlying reasons for wanting or needing anonymity in the first place, re…

It is a social problem because even the strongest, most bullet-proof cryptography solution can't prevent people slipping up and making mistakes, which a motivated attacker can then use to de-anonymize and connect their various identities together.

And people will slip up and make mistakes. A lot.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#529

Post by pferde »

langitbiru wrote: post #474
adrianN wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That won't be safe for very long. De-anonymization based on writing style is pretty good already.

Maybe AI that changes the writing style to monotonous style would help. Say, you always write like Yoda speaks, "Great you are." Then the AI would change it to, "You are great." I know, I know, it's a tall order.

I suspect that resulting articles would be, while probably reasonably safe from style analysis, awfully boring and difficult to read. Good and interesting writing style is a skill.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

#530

Post by stagas »

langitbiru wrote: post #474
adrianN wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That won't be safe for very long. De-anonymization based on writing style is pretty good already.

Maybe AI that changes the writing style to monotonous style would help. Say, you always write like Yoda speaks, "Great you are." Then the AI would change it to, "You are great." I know, I know, it's a tall order.

You could pass it through a Google Translate, or maybe a couple, then back - correct for minor errors and style has changed (maybe not that much, but enough to scare AI).
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