If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs • Hacker News Board

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

#621

Post by dewey » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:59 PM UTC

fragmede wrote: post #447

freehunter wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is super awful when you’re trying to have a potentially controversial discussion with someone. Even if both of you are interested in the discussion it gets to a point where why bother continuing because no one is going to see it when they have to click “load more comments” and follow the thread for hours or days. Forums like Reddit and HN actively encourage short pithy sound bites that sound interesting but are…

Reddit, at least, has an active reply notification system, so while this is rare, at least it's possible to have a conversation, even if it's probably only visible to its participants. HN's lack of an active reply notification means that, unless you're checking the [threads] link obsessively, replies can easily go unnoticed, so writing here is more performative. How that intersects with the rest of the site's dynamic…

A lot of people use http://www.hnreplies.com/ for that, it works really well.

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

#622

Post by flyingfences » Mon, May 18, 2020, 1:10 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #449

zhdc1 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with Reddit is that there's little to no user engagement with older content. Comments on posts older than a day in pretty much every reasonably active subreddit are ignored. This is also an issue on HN. This kills informed discussion - some topics need more than one or two minutes of thought for a thoughtful and articulated response. This simply isn't possible when you know that the person you're replying t…

Forums were crap for that, too. If you commented on an ancient thread, a moderator might flame you at best, ban you at worst, for necroposting. Most forums were ran like North Korea and people just dealt with it, heatedly defended the absolute authoritarianism even.

That was an issue with certain moderators, though, not an issue inherent to the platform. A good forum allowed for good discussion.

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

#623

Post by jillesvangurp » Mon, May 18, 2020, 1:15 PM UTC

dewey wrote: post #32

Blogs are still there, just not easily findable through Google as most of the ones you find are low-value SEO blogs aiming at search engine traffic. Discovery is a problem but I just subscribe to blogs when I find them via RSS (Blogs still have RSS, it's hard to find one without which is surprising but I'm glad that's the case), over time I build up my list of blogs I like and they usually link to other blogs and the…

SEO is the problem. Most authors figure out at some point that nobody goes to their website. So, they move to different channels (linkedin, facebook, medium, etc.) and at best might cross post to their blog and those channels.

When it comes to reaching people, the odds are stacked against you on your personal website because of multi billion dollar companies optimizing for ad revenue and vastly preferring directing people to ad equipped channels of their choice rather than your website. This is also the real reason Google killed Google Reader: they wanted to capture the ad revenue and instead force content producers to use those. Which is why all news publishers bend over backwards to ensure their news shows up in Google news.

It's that simple. Any click that goes to your website directs the user away from their money making channels. So, they don't. With RSS readers, most of your potential audience will never find you unless they subscribed to your article or it randomly shows up as a link in some channel they follow. Getting lucky on HN helps. But most people don't get that lucky.

So-called influencers basically try to manipulate the odds by doing what they think yields the best results. That's why clickbait exists, why your twitter and facebook feeds are filled with crap, and why it is so hard to find channels that contain curated content. That's also why we all love HN.

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

#624

Post by josefresco » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:17 PM UTC

> 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.

This happened to me. One of my first blog posts pre-2005 made it to the front page of Digg/Reddit. With only AdSense ads I managed to make $20-$30 day for a few days. I tried writing a few follow ups but never again "caught lightening in a bottle".

IF I had kept blogging consistently, I'd now most likely have a nice side income.

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

#625

Post by abanayev » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:17 PM UTC

Reelin wrote: post #485

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.

That's definitely true, but depending on the usecase it might not matter all that much. Also, that problem already applies to an anonymous blog anyway! Consider the usage of semi-anonymous accounts on HN or Reddit or wherever. There's some risk of deanonymization depending on usage style and how determined the attacker is, but it's still quite different from openly publishing things in a manner that links back to you…

An anonymous blog platform that offers a permanent and trusted Delete button could both let you change your mind about a former opinion and offer a fix in case of accidental slip-up

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

#626

Post by epigramx » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

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…

That is true even for entertainment videos on Youtube. Some people have the delusion it's effortless. PewDiePie said he was for at least 2 years posting videos for ~100 followers and a regular ~1mil views/video youtuber often spends ~12 hours for editing a 5 minute video.

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

#627

Post by passthejoe » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

pmlnr wrote: post #301

mawise wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> The blogs the author misses aren't written to make money off of ad traffic, they were just written to put down ideas. This is what I've been pointing out for years as the lost core of the internet.

It's VERY hard to make money with Google AdSense types of programs. The volume of traffic you need is so high that if you're there, it probably "pays" to sell the ads yourself and keep all the $$$. But that's hella difficult.

Almost all news organizations -- they're not bloggers but chances are they're using blogging software (mostly WordPress) -- have figured this out. And they're still not making enough money from advertising. Hence subscriptions. Bloggers can go this route directly with https://substack.com.

Google-owned YouTube's willingness to compensate those who make popular videos has fueled that service's growth and helped it draw a young audience.

The fact that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have no way of "paying" its top performers, as it were, is interesting. You get paid in eyeballs. In exposure. Since the pay for blogs is usually non-existent, there's some value in the "likes," and most people who envision making money off of their social-media/internet presence need to get a side hustle to their side hustle -- a product they can make and sell.

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

#628

Post by enriquto » Mon, May 18, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

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…

> Then, nothing. You'll check the analytics. Abysmal. Nobody is reading!

> After all, how can you justify more time spent on something that doesn't pay back?

If you think that the value of your writing is measured by the attention it attracts, you are set for a really rough and sad career as a writer.

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

#629

Post by anthonypasq » Mon, May 18, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #334

pmlnr wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The blogs the author misses aren't written to make money off of ad traffic, they were just written to put down ideas. This is what I've been pointing out for years as the lost core of the internet.

It seems like this is a cultural shift in society as well. There are no more hobbies, everything is a side hustle and if you can’t turn a profit from it, it’s not worth doing. I’m not an economist or sociologist so I can’t Even pretend to understand why this is, but it’s a trend I’ve noticed over the past few years.

This seems to be a function of the people you hang around with.

Hobbies for most people are a way to spend money, not make it. No one I know has "side hustles"

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

#630

Post by afiori » Mon, May 18, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #422

rland wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this is why I don’t have a blog. I have a lot of strong opinions that might be interesting to some people, but I don’t want to miss opportunities because some HR person googled my name and found a post they disagreed with. Or, in the future, not a real person but an algorithm.

Anecdotal counterexample: I successfully moved from development into technical writing because I had a blog that a company got in touch with me about and said, "We really like your writing. Have you considered being a technical writer?" My honest feeling is that if you're a good writer and not just posting ranty flamebait -- and "strongly worded and highly opinionated" is not the same thing, although it can be -- blo…

Sometimes I feel like I want to write something I have strong opinions about, then I realize how much research I would have to do to actually justify my unfounded opinions and give up.

It requires work to avoid being flamebaity