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DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

css-tricks.com

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Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#141

Post by snorgle2 »

phphphphp wrote: post #140
snorgle wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DigitalOcean’s strategy with evergreen technical content was to duplicate Linode’s strategy with evergreen technical content wholesale , down to individual articles. Linode Library, including a complete custom CMS and community engagement strategy to pay Linode users to help generate evergreen, was in place and driving conversions long before DigitalOcean was founded. They cribbed just about everything substantive fr…

You're right that the Linode library existed prior to DigitalOcean's founding but DigitalOcean did innovate: they understood the value of technical writing as a conversion tool, and paid for it. Linode did not pay for articles until more recently, and so the Linode library was comparatively weak for a long, long time. The Linode library was helpful for customers, certainly, but it was never comparable to what Digital…

I gave lengthy examples of copying that I observed firsthand. You don’t believe me, ask Sam K, whose work was diligently and routinely copied. Linode Library also credited customers for contributions publicly and financially since its launch in 2009. They expanded the program later to anyone interested to scale it beyond one-offs. The whole point of Linode Library was conversions so your distinguishing of DO’s “innovation” is baffling; what, you think we hired three people to write about nginx because it was fun?

Of course Linode eventually copied DO back. That was the terms of the relationship established by DO. We were too busy dreaming of copying AWS at the time to see the threat. We ruled out $10 and lower Linodes again before DO was founded due to our support resources. DO forced that hand later (I assume, that was after I left).

I am obviously biased having worked there (worth noting I left on awful terms), and I am aware of that, but some of what I’m saying is purely objective and, again, probably provable with study of IA. If you’re going to refute my first hand, lived experience and call it revisionism, you’ve proven my point of making this comment at all.

Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#142

Post by riazrizvi »

detaro wrote: post #88
riazrizvi wrote: post #86

Does this mean that DigitalOcean has become another platform company that is monitoring their customers’ business performance for possible acquisition? If so beware.

it wasn't even hosted on DigitalOcean...

Yeah I guess the acquisition strategy example here is that DigitalOcean is probably monitoring what services their customers that have inflections in traction. Customers won’t care if web services are not their core service. Web service providers can’t really do much about it.

Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#143

Post by ludamad »

manigandham wrote: post #121
jonny_eh wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could even argue that "here's" is now an accepted conjugation of "here are".

It's not accepted, it's just common ignorance.

History does not make much distinction between "language misuse" and "paradigm shifts"

Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#144

Post by phphphphp »

snorgle2 wrote: post #141
phphphphp wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right that the Linode library existed prior to DigitalOcean's founding but DigitalOcean did innovate: they understood the value of technical writing as a conversion tool, and paid for it. Linode did not pay for articles until more recently, and so the Linode library was comparatively weak for a long, long time. The Linode library was helpful for customers, certainly, but it was never comparable to what Digital…

I gave lengthy examples of copying that I observed firsthand. You don’t believe me, ask Sam K, whose work was diligently and routinely copied. Linode Library also credited customers for contributions publicly and financially since its launch in 2009. They expanded the program later to anyone interested to scale it beyond one-offs. The whole point of Linode Library was conversions so your distinguishing of DO’s “innov…

Linode included affiliate program links for authors, that's not comparable to paying cash. I can't speak to whether DO did copy article contents (though I remember the rumours at the time and don't doubt it) but there is a meaningful gap between asking people to contribute vs. paying for the content, and that's why DigitalOcean achieved so much with their library despite launching later: people actually wanted to write for DigitalOcean.

I was a Linode customer at the time the library launched, I was a Linode customer when DigitalOcean launched, and I was a Linode customer years after DigitalOcean launched: Linode was the best VPS provider of the time, undoubtably, and influential for those that followed (including DigitalOcean) but DigitalOcean was much more than a VPS provider and they pushed the industry forward in ways that Linode never even tried. Diminishing what they achieved as being "Linode but with money" is nonsense.

What you remember and what is true aren't one and the same, as is evidenced by the Linode blog showing payments began for articles in 2014.

Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#145

Post by snorgle2 »

phphphphp wrote: post #144
snorgle2 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave lengthy examples of copying that I observed firsthand. You don’t believe me, ask Sam K, whose work was diligently and routinely copied. Linode Library also credited customers for contributions publicly and financially since its launch in 2009. They expanded the program later to anyone interested to scale it beyond one-offs. The whole point of Linode Library was conversions so your distinguishing of DO’s “innov…

Linode included affiliate program links for authors, that's not comparable to paying cash. I can't speak to whether DO did copy article contents (though I remember the rumours at the time and don't doubt it) but there is a meaningful gap between asking people to contribute vs. paying for the content, and that's why DigitalOcean achieved so much with their library despite launching later: people actually wanted to wri…

You’re talking past me, particularly harping on the blog you found from 2014 despite me directly addressing it in my reply to you (and using it to question my recollection), so it’s clear we’re not going to agree. I’m also not a fan of being told events and discussions I was a part of, firsthand, and pissed off about, firsthand, is me failing to remember the truth accurately; that’s really insulting, fundamentally, and is not an approach you should take with someone sharing their lived reality, especially when you were on the paying end and not the employed end. The rumors you heard corroborate. It happened. Notice the usually-HN-active DO folks haven’t jumped on me yet? They know it happened, too.

Again, I left on horrible terms. That’s really important to remember as you think about my motivations. I’m not here to score points for a side, which you seem to have inferred.

Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#146

Post by 867-5309 »

jonny_eh wrote: post #102
mcdonje wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a prescriptive grammar standpoint, you're correct. From a descriptive standpoint, I'm not sure how common that contraction is, but I've heard it before and offhand it seems like it gets used in some regions. Phonologically, it makes sense that it would gain traction as it's a means of avoiding the effort of the 'ere are' vowel combination. It's an addition rather than an elision, but the underlying motivation of…

One could even argue that "here's" is now an accepted conjugation of "here are".

that's almost as annoying as "have you got them?" - "I do" - "do what.. do have? do got??"

Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#147

Post by merlinscholz »

I’m sad to see Chris step down from CSS Tricks, loved his designs, content moderation and writing style.

I don’t know if I trust DO as his „successor“, I’ve lost way too much money on their platform for me to consider them trustworthy. And that’s coming from a person who now uses Oracle Cloud.

Re: DigitalOcean acquires CSS-tricks

#150

Post by conductr »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #129

Why does DigitalOcean want to build their selection of content out? It's kind of weird. They don't need to become some big dev article repository/media engine. Other than to consistently push devs consuming the content towards their services (good as they may be). Happy for Chris and the team to get something (substantial?) back for their efforts and maybe free up their time, but having these openweb resources just b…

> Why does DigitalOcean want to build their selection of content out?

> Other than to consistently push devs consuming the content towards their services

Because CAC are high and LTV can always be higher

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