Ah, the irony of this being itself a rambling blogpost ending on the front page of HN...
If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
201–210 of 335 posts
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#202There used to be a blog search which listed the top 100 blogs, it was called technorati. The current version is not a blog search.
I used to have a blog that taught people how to create their msn spaces and add features to it. It used to be No. 5. I slowly stopped blogging around 2008. Most people moved onto SN for casual posting as the barrier to maintain is low. Serious bloggers are still there.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#203Just like last time : I'm pretty happy with the many high quality blogs we have these days.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#204The second part is about trying to make a platform that isn't a platform. Platforms are bad ! Don't use them !
(Yes, I know about Substack - I guess it would be more accurate to say that platform inevitably get bad over time, as the public companies that create and/or buy them are driven by short-term profit first and foremost.)
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#205I consume most of my techy stuff here on Hacker News, and occasionally I come across a blog I like, and so subscribe to it using an RSS reader browser extension.
Here are the blogs I'm currently following (one of them is mine):
Feed Subscriptions
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do think the ability to do phone calls is waning, though. I've made 4 phone calls this year: to a buddy, to my wife, to an old friend, and to my fax/voicemail provider (JConnect) which decided to terminate voicemail service on the phone number I've used since the 1990s. (So I may be part of the problem I am describing — that number didn't ring any device, it only accepted voice messages and faxes, which it forwarde…
I agree that phone calls are waning, but I don't personally see the connection to voice mails. I never liked the concept so I've never left a voice mail, nor have I ever enabled it for myself. In my opinion voice calls can only get better if answering machines and voice mails die out.
Hmm, how do you deal with unknown numbers ?
I never answer those on the first go - only if they left a voicemail or a text message...
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
> your audience still comments on social media and so your discussion remains there. Discussion should remain on social media. This avoids the problems of moderation and spam that plagued blogs. > it is far too simple to just use social media directly Yes to succeed the blog platform should be super easy to setup and to link. There are benefits that can then attract people: - if you have several social accounts, on t…
I got distracted by all of the other great comments on this thread and made a mess of my point. What I was trying to say is that I think that ultimately social media will eat your traffic and blog. I think that the peril of using social media to promote your own content is that you will ultimately depend on social media. I think that the best route to take is to find a way to promote your content without it.
It's possible, but the alternative is to depend on google for traffic, which is an abusive relationship at this point.
At least if you have are on several platform, there are multiple entre points for your content. And your blog would allow you to offer things that the platform don't, like code snippets, easy media download, or something more innovative.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
> forwarding all posts to your social networks is essential. I've been talking to businesses for years about this same thing. Using a blog as a way to broadcast to social media but keep the blog/site as the main source of information for your audience. And it never works because it is far too simple to just use social media directly and even if you don't, your audience still comments on social media and so your discu…
> your audience still comments on social media and so your discussion remains there. Discussion should remain on social media. This avoids the problems of moderation and spam that plagued blogs. > it is far too simple to just use social media directly Yes to succeed the blog platform should be super easy to setup and to link. There are benefits that can then attract people: - if you have several social accounts, on t…
> but on your blog, you can do whatever you want
Not if it's on a platform - see part 2 of GP's ramblings.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#209I 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.
How do you mirror the gemlog to HTTP? I've found a lot of methods for like active proxies, but I'd really like something that could create a static site from my gem text files.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs (2020)
#210As 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'm working on a hypothesis that there is something I call the "AM radio effect," which, roughly speaking, is "As communication technologies progress in comfort and convenience, the older generation will become dominated by hucksters who try to take advantage of those who cannot or will not switch." It's my explanation for - what happened to AM radio as FM, satellite, and podcasting came to dominate the American driv…
What happened to landlines?
What I witness was that innovation stopped. For instance landlines could have been upgraded to support text messaging (just as they use a modem to send caller ID they could use a modem to send and receive texts.) Cordless phones, answering machines and such could have all gotten better but they didn't.
Most irksome, landlines don't support deliverability features such as STIR/SHAKEN so if you live in a place where cell phones don't work you might have trouble getting people to pick up when you ring them.
That's different from AM radio which, driving across upstate NY, I came to the impression that the only program you could expect to get reliably was the Rush Limbaugh show. If you were lucky around sunset you might catch a black power show from Philadelphia...