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Why I still blog after 15 years

jonashietala.se

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Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#161

Post by llm_trw »

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #64
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…

Genuine question: If you write only for yourself, what motivates you to actually finish, and more importantly, polish a post? I write for myself all the time, in private: I have a journal, a paper notebook, thousands of notes in Obsidian. Yet doing a blog post feels like a massive undertaking every single time, especially the later writing and editing: explaining stuff that is obvious to me and no one else, replacing…

> If you write only for yourself, what motivates you to actually finish, and more importantly, polish a post?

Because I will eventually have the same problem again and if it's not documented to hell and back it will take me days to figure out what I did the last time to solve it.

The third time you find a 10 year old post by yourself asking how to solve the same problem you're having now and posting "nvm - I got it" is the time you appreciate documentation and run books.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#162

Post by Boxxed »

bityard wrote: post #95
jl6 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

I can't explain why, but I always cringe a little when I hear someone say that they "consume content." Maybe its because I can't tell if brings up animalistic connotations (a pack of feral hipsters picking at the remains of an endangered podcast on the Serengeti), or if they are intentionally being elitist ("It would be a waste of time to simply read Chomsky's work, an educated person would make the effort consume it…

A friend of mine was playing the game Slay the Spire and was loving it -- he said something along the lines of, "It's very well designed, and there's so much content!" That always kind of skeeved me out. I think because there's this odd self-awareness of it all?

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#163

Post by jodrellblank »

jl6 wrote: post #62
ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> content creation I seriously hate the term "content" used for "creative output". It is a terrible, derogatory word, that makes me sad. Content is only there to have something to sell, to fill the blank space around ads, the actual content of the content doesn't matter. That people refer to themselves as "content creators" is a sign that they see the value of their creative output only to make money.

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

Loads of people think "it's film night" or "I want to watch a film" and then "what shall I watch?"

The same with music: "I'll put some music on ... what should I put on?"

And with food: "I want to eat something, what shall I eat?"

People turn the radio on while driving, or the TV on in the background, for 'company' without caring what's on it.

People pick up something - anything - to read while on the toilet, not caring if it's literature, magazine, or the ingredients of the shampoo bottle.

The desirable feature is entertainment, distraction, novelty, escapism, sound instead of silence, activity instead of rigor mortis, ideas instead of void, life instead of death. Not just actionable facts to be studied.

People think that, just not in those words.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#164

Post by jeremyjh »

ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #48
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…

> content creation I seriously hate the term "content" used for "creative output". It is a terrible, derogatory word, that makes me sad. Content is only there to have something to sell, to fill the blank space around ads, the actual content of the content doesn't matter. That people refer to themselves as "content creators" is a sign that they see the value of their creative output only to make money.

Content is absolutely the best word for most of the shit they are shoveling. I would never use this term to describe a musician or author though I admit it isn't possible to objectively prove the difference and I wouldn't be surprised if younger people can't tell at all.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#165

Post by codetrotter »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #147
wisemang wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, my brother-in-law have described “content” as being the “love language” of our boomer dads.. the sharing of material (surprisingly often on TikTok these days) that none of us really care about yet continually gets sent out to us. Seemingly the favoured way to keep in touch.

Not a boomer but honestly every year that passes I can tell my cognitive decline by how much harder it is to not send these things to my kids. I have a folder full of them marked 'inheritance' so that I can be assured my kids will find it when they scour my computer after I'm dead. They are going to be so stoked!

Have you considered opening a high interest account for the inheritance?

Inflation is a sad fact of life.

A funny picture that would get a heartfelt laugh out of most anyone this year, could be eliciting as little as a sensible chuckle 30 years from now!

That’s why it’s important to not just shove all your memes onto some USB drive and sticking it in the mattress. Think wisely, let the Meme Bank be the custodian of all your funny pictures and videos.

Just by looking at a period of 10 years back compared to now, we can see a stark difference between the meme collections that families kept at home vs the meme collections of families that kept their memes in Meme Bank.

There are two factors that contribute by an outsized amount to the lowering of value of the meme collections of average Joe over the years:

Firstly, resolution and compression artifacts. Where ten years ago a 640 by 480 pixels jpeg would have garnered applause from the people you showed it to, the people of today expect more. And all you’d be getting today for that once glorious meme, would be responses asking you “y’all got any more of them pixels?”

Secondly, stale pop-cultural reference. That meme you’ve got referencing a scene from a movie from last year. Yeah, it might still be funny today. In thirty years, usually not so much.

Here at Meme Bank, we take care of these things and that’s how we’re able to keep your meme collection as funny as ever.

“But…”, I hear you say, “these memes hold sentimental value to me, and they are reflective of my kind of humor and of my personality.”

Believe you me when I say, we know that and we respect that. That is why our Meme Experts here at Meme Bank work tightly with our customers to ensure that your meme collections remain true to your individuality.

So don’t hesitate, call us today at 555-MEME. That’s 555-MEME.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#166

Post by cookiengineer »

JohnMakin wrote: post #96
cookiengineer wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality content gets punished. Investigative journalism went down the drain for the same reasons. Clickbait content is so much cheaper to produce and has the same effect, because you can produce hundreds of clickbait articles in the same time. Soon every video has to have Mr.Beast's ADHD inducing video cutstyle because otherwise the algorithms will punish you for producing too slow content. I miss the old days where…

It always seems to me there’s room for a platform like the “old” youtube that doesn’t behave this way? Or maybe youtube just has too much critical mass for that ever to work.

A lot of producers that want to make longer content about a topic at some point dual upload or switch to nebula, as far as I can tell in my interest niches. Not sure if there are other platforms.

(I also like to watch a lot of those oldskool slow nature documentaries while coding. In Germany, arte, NDR and WDR have some nice ones in their media platforms.)

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#167

Post by hengheng »

ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #48
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…

> content creation I seriously hate the term "content" used for "creative output". It is a terrible, derogatory word, that makes me sad. Content is only there to have something to sell, to fill the blank space around ads, the actual content of the content doesn't matter. That people refer to themselves as "content creators" is a sign that they see the value of their creative output only to make money.

Content describes a place in media in a formal way, by saying where it goes and what its role is. This way to categorize "content" makes it a form.

It's similar to how Content Management Systems used to manage the layout and navigation of a website, but never managed the content. They accessed the content that came out of the database, but surely there had to be an author to manage the content. The CMS did everything but.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#168

Post by stavros »

sivers wrote: post #107
jl6 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.

I know my up-vote of this comment is supposed to be enough, but I just have to add, as an extra praise @jl6 here: That's the funniest sentence I've heard in a long time. “Nobody ever thought to themselves: I sure could go for some content right now.” Love it love it love it.

Agreed, that sentence really satisfied my appetite for content.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#169

Post by Karrot_Kream »

ghaff wrote: post #114
nineteen999 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea of content creation as a full time career is relatively new, and I hate it. I do too, but IMHO unfortunately us older generations have a lot to answer for when it comes to this. My teenage daughter plus all of her friends all want to be content creators. It's the 21st century equivalent of becoming a pop star or being a TV personality. As an industry we've automated away a lot of the jobs that these kids o…

>21st century equivalent of becoming a pop star or being a TV personality Which were always lottery professions at best. Being influencers/YouTube stars/etc. may seem more accessible these days but it's probably mostly an illusion. There are (mostly) plenty of jobs but most of them are probably pretty unglamorous.

I think both of these things are true:

* It's more accessible to be an influencer today than a pop star 20 years ago

* Becoming an influencer is a lot like being a lottery winner.

Bands on the radio had massive audiences. A decent Youtuber is getting 10k views on their video, which is a much smaller piece of the pie than any band that aired on the radio in the early 2000s. But for every Youtuber with 10k views there's hundreds, maybe thousands, of Youtubers with videos in the single digit of views.

Re: Why I still blog after 15 years

#170

Post by 7speter »

ForHackernews wrote: post #137
7speter wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your comment kinda provides the reason why the term “content” is used; there are so many verticals out there that its just easiest to say “I’m a content creator.” From there, if the audience remains captive, you can explain that you make videos about sewing sweaters with embedded controllers for cats. Also, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty conflicted on the term. I just like to believe people are using it in go…

You are not a gadget. Your life is not a vertical.

Where did I say anyone is a vertical?
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