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I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

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Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#161

Post by lkey »

antonvs wrote: post #127
lkey wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food stamps?? This is a ghoulish position, morally, financially, and as a matter of policy. We live in the richest country on planet earth and we eliminated child hunger here during COVID only to roll it back . It's not even 1.5% of the budget currently. Compare this to our military adventurism budget. Every $1 invested in SNAP generates $1.80 in economic activity , right now. Children need food to grow up and be 'pr…

> I doubt you are an actual member of the bourgeoisie I wouldn't be so sure of that on HN. (Also noting you're using the Marxist definition rather than the default dictionary definition, which is "middle class".) A well-paid tech employee with a non-trivial amount of company stock is, strictly speaking, an "owner of the means of production". Even if you want to quibble with that, their interests are certainly well-al…

You're right, it's probably just that. My mistake to read too deeply into someone like this.

I was using Marx's definition, and I am a member of that class, so defined.

My existing wealth and ongoing income of seven figures is derived almost entirely from capital accumulation.

I am knowingly and actively betraying my immediate class interest, here and elsewhere, because I'd rather my wealth increase more modestly to ensure we all live in vibrant society.

I do think it is foolish for salaried white collar workers not to see what is coming and begin unionization efforts; Their interests are ever more misaligned with capital with every year that passes.

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#162

Post by input_sh »

adamtaylor_13 wrote: post #110
input_sh wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is very generous of you! No it's not, it's a sales pitch that intentionally ignores some of the things pointed out in the article. The author has invested time into proper SEO optimization, legit websites already link to it et cetera, it's all explained in the article. From the perspective of a spammer: They need like 2 million MAU to earn below minimum wage. You're never getting those figures by doing somethi…

> No it's not, it's a sales pitch that intentionally ignores some of the things pointed out in the article. Sales pitch or not, someone offering their time to help me with a problem is feels generous to me. To each their own, I suppose. But again, you reinforce my point in your last sentence. Now anytime I want to make any little toy project (because how can anyone know when their toy project will blow up overnight?)…

I never said Google isn't the problem, what I said is that going to an agency isn't gonna fix that problem any more than running a SaaS tool yourself will, because they're not Google and they have no insight into what Google made one website prioritised over the other. Because, as you've pointed out, Google is the problem.

> I have to make a full blown website just to ensure I don't get SEO-spammed into oblivion?

No, I said a crappy one on purpose. How good is it doesn't matter, the sooner the Google knows about the domain, the better. Might as well be a copy of your README file using one of the million SSGs GitHub supports that will turn that README file into a website. The only thing that matters is that the website exists and that Google knows about it before the other one.

That's why many people purchase the domain on day 1 before they even start building the thing and also why many have like a dozen domains in their account that is like a boulevard of broken dreams there to remind them once a year they haven't done anything with them.

Still cheaper than a SEO agency or in most cases even one month of ahrefs access.

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#163

Post by ChrisArchitect »

Two weeks? Hardly enough for the correct url to take over. A correct url with no history/presence that came out of nowhere as far as the engine is concerned. It will happen most likely tho, thanks to the links from the project etc, but might take a bit of time since the other url is established. "losing the battle" now perhaps, but not for long most likely.

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#164

Post by pfrrp »

markus_zhang wrote: post #23

My advice to all OSS developers: if you open source your project, expect it to be abused in all possible ways. Don't open source if you have anxiety over it. It is how the world works, whether we like it or not. I appreciate that you open source your projects for us to study. But TBH, please help yourself first.

There is even a software "law" related to this: https://www.hyrumslaw.com/

" With a sufficient number of users of an API, it does not matter what you promise in the contract: all observable behaviors of your system will be depended on by somebody. "

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#165

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

stusmall wrote: post #158
allthetime wrote: post #147

Piggybacking on the Claw hype, surprised when someone piggybacks on you...

Especially when the original claw had to change its name because it was piggybacking on another products hype...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#166

Post by nickff »

pocksuppet wrote: post #137
MerrimanInd wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the exact same thought while reading the above comment, as helpful and generous as it is. Google's entire business model is to help people find things on the internet. They're an insanely well resourced company with all kinds of smart programmers. They have a moral and financial incentive to direct people to canonical sources of information. And STILL it's on this open-source dev to do all the steps outlined ju…

Google's business model is to help Google's customers pay money to Google. Google Search's customers are mostly scammers who run adverts. Helping the user find a thing is at odds with helping the user find a scam that pays Google money.

This is somewhat true; despite what HNers seem to think, online ads are not very effective (in terms of convincing people to buy things), and Google 'screws over' its advertising customers as often as it delivers deficient search results to users.

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#167

Post by shevy-java »

I've noticed this a few years ago. Google has been ruining its search engine deliberately so. I could explain the things Google did here, but other websites and videos already explain it, including the why (though there is some speculation as to why).

These days I even find e. g. qwant sometimes having better results than google search. I see it as a positive thing though - I can soon stop using Google search. So one less Google product. One day I will be Google free. It will be a happy day. I really think Google must cease to exist.

(The only sad thing is how crap the other search engines are. So while Google search sucks nowadays, I consistently get even worse results with e. g. DuckDuckGo. And I think part of the reason is because the world wide web also sucks a LOT more compared to the old days. Google is also partially responsible for this by the way, which just reinforces the idea that Google must die.)

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#168

Post by alpaca128 »

gowld wrote: post #148
pocksuppet wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In particular, if you license it MIT, and it's useful, expect Amazon to make a fork, not give you the source code, and each tens of millions of dollars from it while you don't get a cent. There's writing code for charity, and then there's this . Charity wasn't meant to include hyper-corporations.

So? I am not about to create AWS. I'm glad people can use my free software on their own machines, on rented servers, or hosted by an expert.

AWS can profit more from it than smaller organizations or individuals, making it even more untouchable by potential competition.

A market with little competition costs you too in the long term.

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#169

Post by shevy-java »

nananana9 wrote: post #160
pocksuppet wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In particular, if you license it MIT, and it's useful, expect Amazon to make a fork, not give you the source code, and each tens of millions of dollars from it while you don't get a cent. There's writing code for charity, and then there's this . Charity wasn't meant to include hyper-corporations.

If you want evil megacorps to give you money when they use your thing, maybe say "if you're an evil megacorp you have to give me money when you use my thing" in the license? If your license reads "hey, you can use this however you want, no matter who you are, and don't have to give me money", people will use it however they want, no matter who they are, and won't give you money. Unfortunately, for decades, free softw…

I agree that MIT may not be the best licence here in such a use case scenario. The question is why corporations think they can be leeches though - and the bigger, the more of a leech they are on the ecosystem. That's just not right.

Re: I'm losing the SEO battle for my own open source project

#170

Post by shevy-java »

0_____0 wrote: post #155
ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stallman is always right, and HN always downvotes it.

He's a terrible communicator, and sort of repellent in person. Contrast someone like Cory Doctorow who manages to be right about stuff and actually communicate effectively.

I don't really share that point. If the message is correct, why would the other things matter? Due to "social norms"? It is a similar problem with Code of Conducts. In general I don't care about CoCs. That does not mean I act in the opposite manner either - I just don't feel the need for CoCs.
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