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If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

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Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#81

Post by Matthias1 »

butterisgood wrote: post #53

I kind of miss the days when people had servers and ".plan" and ".project" files that folks could read via finger servers. We used them in college, but I guess folks would need shell accounts on unix systems to do that today? I miss lightweight internet stuff. Maybe gemini will bring some of that back? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)

I know Gemini has encouraged me to start a blog.

Of course it’s possible to blog over HTTP. (I mirror my gemlog to my website.) But it’s so much more enjoyable to write and browse in an ecosystem that’s designed for it.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#82

Post by rawoke083600 »

Yea I want the "readability" of blogs (nice text, little JS and no tracking) and the "discoverability of "reddit"

I can pick any topic/genre and just go find the appropriate subreddit. Sort by "Top (month,year,all time)" and immediately be served with "good content"

Just "searching" for any topic on Google can quickly lead you down a rabbit hole of SEO-focussed-thin-content !

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#83

Post by erklik »

lonk11 wrote: post #79
d3nj4l wrote: post #56

As a minor counterpoint: I've come to dread blogs and newsletters because so many of them are written by grind culture freaks who only write faux-insightful SEO'd content as a way to build an audience to sell snake oil to. These days the only blogs I trust are the ones I see on the top of HN or lobsters, which is unfortunate because I have interests beyond tech and I find it very, very difficult to find good blogs I…

Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention? To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's feed…

> Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention?

> To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's feed) and to other users that upvoted this link before you. When you downvote - your connections to those who upvoted become weaker.

> The strength of your connections to other feeds and users represents how useful their content recommendations have been to you in the past and they could be used as a measure of how likely their future recommendations will be worth your time (ie, trust that they won't waste your time).

> The content is ranked according to the connection weights - so you get information from the sources that have shown to be content curators for you.

> I did a Show HN recently for this project that has more details: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28405643

> [1] - like my comment here tries to draw your attention to my hobby project.

I find this so interesting. OP complains about people constantly trying to sell him something which is why he was turned off of blogs. And what happens? Someone tries to sell him something for his problem of too much selling.

Ah. What a world. Solution to too much selling is more selling.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#84

Post by m-i-l »

fsflover wrote: post #2

Blogs are still there. Try search engines which discourage cluttered web design to find them: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28550764 and https://wiby.me/

You can also search personal websites on https://searchmysite.net/ - kind of like wiby.me, but searching whole sites rather than individual pages, a little more transparent about what is in the index (e.g. queries to list all indexed domains), and with a moderation layer.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#85

Post by wizzwizz4 »

erklik wrote: post #83
lonk11 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention? To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's feed…

> Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention? > To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's…

LinkLonk is free, and it solves the problem. I've only used it for about 15 minutes, because in that time it fed me enough interesting stuff that I overwrote (and then closed) the tab.

This isn't somebody trying to sell something. It's somebody trying to help.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#86

Post by mkr-hn »

erklik wrote: post #83
lonk11 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention? To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's feed…

> Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention? > To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's…

HN is a place full of people working on solutions to problems shared by a lot of people on HN, so it's common and normal to to offer that thing up to someone with the same problem.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#87

Post by elliekelly »

giansegato wrote: post #26
vlkr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many (personal) blogs were killed by social media. You don't blog about your last weekend anymore, you just post some pictures on instagram or in your whatsapp groups.

Which means - whether we like it or no - that social media were and are superior products when it comes to this specific use case, otherwise people won't be using it.

Inferior products prevail all the time. The free market is far from perfect. Especially when one product exploits negative externalities.

Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)

#89

Post by varrock »

d3nj4l wrote: post #56

As a minor counterpoint: I've come to dread blogs and newsletters because so many of them are written by grind culture freaks who only write faux-insightful SEO'd content as a way to build an audience to sell snake oil to. These days the only blogs I trust are the ones I see on the top of HN or lobsters, which is unfortunate because I have interests beyond tech and I find it very, very difficult to find good blogs I…

I've always wanted to blog because I love to write. However, I've been very hesitant to do so because of exactly what you described: the grind culture. I've felt immense pressure to make every post academic, but I realized that the blog should be for me first and foremost. In fact, my first blog post ever is describing the purpose behind my blog and _why_ I started it. It will help keep me accountable.

However — I do wonder about this hypothetical: my blog (for whatever reason) blows up. Would I start to feel pressure to deliver content that starts trending towards "grind culture"? Or would I still be able to blog _for me_? I'm sure this is what some other content creators have faced before, especially in the YouTube community. If anybody has had this experience, I'd be curious to hear what you did.

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