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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)

#271

Post by PaulHoule »

shadowgovt wrote: post #216
PaulHoule wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> What happened to landlines The majority of incoming calls on landlines now are people trying to scam the callee. [ https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/almost-half-your-phone-ca... ]. And the majority of AM radio content now is low-audience long-tail content (or mass-commodified syndicated content, like Rush Limbaugh) that is a medium for pushing low-quality bulk advertising for questionable products. To expand upon…

I thought people got spam calls on cell phones too.

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

#272

Post by ElectricMind »

People start with "hey I love this topic. Let me write about it and I don't care what anyone else think or fame or money"

*1-2 years later success

Same people "Let me write something so I can milk the cow. I stop writing about code but instead how to make cheese from the milk which I am about suck from the cow organically"

As soon as your "passion" becomes "full-time" job , it is over. Any way I have to find my cow. Cioa

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

#273

Post by shadowgovt »

PaulHoule wrote: post #271
shadowgovt wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What happened to landlines The majority of incoming calls on landlines now are people trying to scam the callee. [ https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/almost-half-your-phone-ca... ]. And the majority of AM radio content now is low-audience long-tail content (or mass-commodified syndicated content, like Rush Limbaugh) that is a medium for pushing low-quality bulk advertising for questionable products. To expand upon…

I thought people got spam calls on cell phones too.

They do. I believe it's less common than landline spam right now, but more importantly: people see it less because modern smartphone (really, modern smartphone phone apps) have features to do aggregate spam-signal detection and sharing. A phone number that originates a lot of calls that people flag as "spam" eventually gets picked up in Google or Apple's top-level filter and preemptively flagged as "Probably spam" when they call other people.

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

#274

Post by ngngngng »

kowalevski wrote: post #121
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…

btw does anyone have invite to lobste.rs? i have technical blog (not great but i try to improve it) and i'd like to share content on lobsters to have feedback.

I'm new to this, but looks like you need to start in their irc chat and get to know people to receive an invite. #lobsters libera

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

#275

Post by tablespoonsruby »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #257
tablespoonsruby wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

blog+microblog on your domain, and that automatically forwards the content to social platforms Micro.blog does this!

Not really, it does not provide a blog feature, only a bridge.

It absolutely does provide a personal blog, you just have to pay $5/month.

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

#276

Post by fleddr »

Blogging will not return to its former glory when you think it's a blogging platform problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with the product.

What happened is mobile. People consume the vast majority of digital content via their phone, therefore short form content wins. Tweets and 5 second videos, not lectures. Besides the content being short form, "engagement content" wins. Say something stupid, controversial, rude...you win. You'll get seen. Your reasonable and balanced take....crickets.

The other thing that happened is that the internet got a lot more crowded. Which basically means that everything gets gamed. All eye balls on 0.001% of content and no eye balls on 99.999% of other content creators.

Even in what little remains of blogging, everything is gamed. Have a look at blogging platform Medium. Every single category and topic is spammed with low effort garbage, burying genuine and more serious authors. The genuine reader can no longer find their jewels, and the genuine author considers it all pointless now.

No blogging platform can fix any of the above problems.

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

#277

Post by jamesvandyne »

Blogs like the author is looking for still exist (I write one at https://jamesvandyne.com) and there's heaps more on https://micro.blog.

Blogs that aren't SEO fluff to get adsense money just don't appear in the search results. Discovery is the real issue. Finding these blogs independently or outside is nigh impossible.

I've been thinking it might be fun to make a GeoCities-esque neighborhood directory site that you could add your blog to help with discovery. But could you (I) change my habits to stumble upon sites in the neighborhoods instead of opening HN/Twitter?

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

#278

Post by dSebastien »

Over the years, I collected hundreds of RSS feeds. It all started with Google Reader, then moved all around the map. I remember Feedburner, tt-rss, ... Finally I stuck with Feedly.

Like many others, I hoarded feeds and consumed articles at random. I enjoyed using StumbleUpon to discover new sites on the Web, it was fun and I miss that vibe.

I used to explore my feeds every single day. I would pick 5-10 articles, print them out at work (oops) and read those during my train commutes. I learned a ton that way.

At some point I hit Feedly's free tier upper limit (800 or 1K feeds?) and stopped caring. Over time, I completely stopped checking the feeds and just let it go. I migrated over to Twitter and started following people rather than blogs; which has interesting benefits compared to just looking at articles through a feed reader: social interaction!

As the flood of content keeps getting worse, I feel like it's harder and harder to find the interesting content, which is drowned by the long tail. I feel like we need better means to curate content collaboratively (a delicious 2.0? :p). Wonder what exists out there that isn't focused on a specific niche.

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

#279

Post by BiteCode_dev »

tablespoonsruby wrote: post #275
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, it does not provide a blog feature, only a bridge.

It absolutely does provide a personal blog, you just have to pay $5/month.

I missed that, their offer tamk about wordpress.

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

#280

Post by ikr678 »

mattlutze wrote: post #93
varrock wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you'd like to blog and write, maybe just write for yourself, don't put any trackers on it, don't put any ads on it. The grind culture thing comes from people trying to make money off of their blogs. So, don't do it for the money :) If you get to a point where your hosting provider comes knocking because you're generating too much traffic, you'll have a good inflection point to determine if there's some way to get…

Unfortunately, if you are quietly producing quality text content on a topic and not monetising it, someone else will steal it.

I've seen this a few times in very non-technical domains, eg Fishing hardware and ceramic glazing. https://www.alanhawk.com/reviews/reviews.html has frequently had content stolen and republished on seo gamed listicle sites or used verbatim in youtube videos.

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