Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I still blog after 15 years

jonashietala.se

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 230 posts

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#31

Post by ozim »

felideon wrote: post #28

> I worry that if I add statistics to the blog it’ll change from an activity I perform for the activity’s sake, to an exercise in hunting clicks where I write for others instead of for myself. If I ever finally find the motivation to start a blog, I think this is a key point. Vanity metrics would be demotivating.

That is how YT creators were getting burn outs they got hooked up on vanity metrics but then if one of your videos bombs you are hit quite badly so your metrics for following 10 videos is going to be bad. So they had to pump the content like crazy and there is no vacation time, because then your metrics also go down.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#32

Post by codegeek »

"I keep this blog for me to write, not necessarily for others to read."

This is the key to do anything over a long period of time but certainly applies to blogging. Nothing is better than intrinsic motivation and something you do for yourself. I have a blog that I try to keep up with. I fail to be consistent and one reason always has been me asking "Who should I write it for" instead of "What do I want to write about for myself". Something to take away here.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#33

Post by jsheard »

ozim wrote: post #31
felideon wrote: post #28

> I worry that if I add statistics to the blog it’ll change from an activity I perform for the activity’s sake, to an exercise in hunting clicks where I write for others instead of for myself. If I ever finally find the motivation to start a blog, I think this is a key point. Vanity metrics would be demotivating.

That is how YT creators were getting burn outs they got hooked up on vanity metrics but then if one of your videos bombs you are hit quite badly so your metrics for following 10 videos is going to be bad. So they had to pump the content like crazy and there is no vacation time, because then your metrics also go down.

For career YouTubers it's hard to blame them when those metrics are directly tied to their paycheck, which could easily fall below what they need to make a living if they don't pump the numbers enough. The system is practically designed to make them neurotic about making Number Go Up at any cost.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#34

Post by criddell »

pocketarc wrote: post #4
jmmv wrote: post #3

Nice presentation and nice recap! A couple of observations from the text that resonate with me: * "Blogging helps me become a better writer, which in turns helps me become a better developer." Yes. Writing is super-important as a developer, particularly in a corporate setting, because communicating ideas clearly is critical in convincing others and in showing your contributions. And to be a better writer, well, one h…

> Other platforms like Twitter have captured the space of short form writing Does this ever feel like a waste? Are there good thoughts, ideas, and quips you've written and shared, that were then essentially lost to time? Since those thoughts are not archived on your website, when (if ever) do you (or anyone else) ever get to see them again?

Do conversations you have throughout the day with people in your neighborhood feel like a waste?

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#35

Post by ryandrake »

codegeek wrote: post #32

"I keep this blog for me to write, not necessarily for others to read." This is the key to do anything over a long period of time but certainly applies to blogging. Nothing is better than intrinsic motivation and something you do for yourself. I have a blog that I try to keep up with. I fail to be consistent and one reason always has been me asking "Who should I write it for" instead of "What do I want to write about…

It’s a spirit from the old Internet that we’ve all but lost. Replaced with the toxic “write for engagement” spirit that brought us SEO, blogspam, influencers, “YouTube Face” thumbnails, ragebait, and now AI slop.

Same for writing and releasing open source software. Write software that you want to write and don’t worry about how many users you have or how many pull requests you get or how many GitHub stars you have. These are empty vanity metrics, and another side of the same “write for engagement” coin.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#36

Post by JohnMakin »

> "I keep this blog for me to write, not necessarily for others to read."

This is now to me the "old school" internet creator attitude (that I still possess). I don't blog as much any more but do create content elsewhere - a lot of it is for my own enjoyment and creative outlet, to blow off steam, whatever - the fact that other people may want to watch it is secondary. I do try to do things people want, but only if I want to do it.

The only reason I highlight this is that the up and coming generations absolutely do not see content creation in the same way. I got in an absurd argument with an early 20 something on a social media platform about how annoying ads were that were disguised as content. The response was overwhelmingly "Well, how else do you expect content creators to make a living?"

I do not disagree that creators should be able to monetize their content however they please, but the fact that people see that as the end and only goal of content creation is baffling to me and almost certainly making it worse. This same person tried to tell me it's been the same way since the earliest days of youtube - which they would have been in diapers around that time - is absolutely not true. The idea of content creation as a full time career is relatively new, and I hate it. The worst part is if you don't participate in the type of obnoxious engagement hacking or buried ads that these "professional" creators do, the algorithms punish you for it.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#37

Post by kstrauser »

CharlieDigital wrote: post #5

I've kept a blog for almost 20 years now. I think author missed #8: I've personally benefited so much from the writings shared by others that it feels amiss to not share back things I've learned and little tips and tricks. One of my most viewed blog posts is a really short and simple one on simulating drag-and-drop of files with Playwright automation. I found no such information when I ran into this problem so the on…

I never can tell what will resonate, either. My top posts getting traffic right now:

- How to fix a Casper Glow Light charger

- What I think about various email apps’ privacy policies

- How to put FreeDOS on a USB stick on a Mac

Why those got popular is beyond me. I’m just glad someone else but me found them useful.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#38

Post by kstrauser »

pocketarc wrote: post #4
jmmv wrote: post #3

Nice presentation and nice recap! A couple of observations from the text that resonate with me: * "Blogging helps me become a better writer, which in turns helps me become a better developer." Yes. Writing is super-important as a developer, particularly in a corporate setting, because communicating ideas clearly is critical in convincing others and in showing your contributions. And to be a better writer, well, one h…

> Other platforms like Twitter have captured the space of short form writing Does this ever feel like a waste? Are there good thoughts, ideas, and quips you've written and shared, that were then essentially lost to time? Since those thoughts are not archived on your website, when (if ever) do you (or anyone else) ever get to see them again?

If I know I’m going to like them later, I post them to my blog first and let it crosspost to Mastodon for me. If I post to Mastodon first and it catches more interest than I expected, I’ll pull it back to my blog and maybe expand it into a bigger post.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#39

Post by Kye »

JohnMakin wrote: post #36

> "I keep this blog for me to write, not necessarily for others to read." This is now to me the "old school" internet creator attitude (that I still possess). I don't blog as much any more but do create content elsewhere - a lot of it is for my own enjoyment and creative outlet, to blow off steam, whatever - the fact that other people may want to watch it is secondary. I do try to do things people want, but only if I…

It's the flip side of every other employment possibility having such poor prospects. Do you spend 4 years getting a degree no one will hire for so you can bag groceries to pay off debt, or do you bag groceries to live while trying to break through as a creator?

For most people, there aren't many options available. All the best opportunities are in cities no one can afford to live in anymore.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#40

Post by karaterobot »

I started my blog when I went to college in the late nineties, and if I don't count the few years after grad school when I stopped altogether, it's been updated fairly consistently this whole time. It's changed a lot: I used to write full articles and short stories every week, but now that is rare (though it still happens: I just did one a few days go). It's evolved into being mostly a commonplace book now.

What's more, all search engines are disallowed, and there are no comments, so it's just for me and a few people who know about it. Design-wise, it's just a single file with minimal HTML, and thousands of entries, sorted by time. You can search it with cmd-f, or have the page scroll to a random entry. It loads in about a second. There are at least two ways it gives me value: in having an archive of 25+ years of things I thought were important, and giving me a reason to keep my eyes open for things to think and post about.

I think that's an unusual reason to have a blog, but I also think the people who started blogs to make money or get hired are probably out of the game by now, too.

Post reply on HN