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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)

#181

Post by pixelgeek »

dfxm12 wrote: post #167
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…

only write faux-insightful SEO'd content as a way to build an audience to sell snake oil to. I really wonder, is the money from ads good enough that publishing content like this profitable, even with all the blogspam competition?

Given how many sites there are that do it I would say 'yes'.

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

#183

Post by sysadm1n »

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…

> Being on the top of Google is an attractive proposition because it means many eyeballs and lots of ad revenue

Hence the proliferation of 'splogs' or Spam-Blogs. Also in terms of social media, most people who experience a viral blogpost that spreads like wildfire throughout the net, invariably try to recreate that past success. It's the sole motivation of clickbait and sensationalist articles. More eyeballs, more AD revenue and also fake Internet Points in general to be had.

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

#184

Post by pixelgeek »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #155
pixelgeek wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> forwarding all posts to your social networks is essential. I've been talking to businesses for years about this same thing. Using a blog as a way to broadcast to social media but keep the blog/site as the main source of information for your audience. And it never works because it is far too simple to just use social media directly and even if you don't, your audience still comments on social media and so your discu…

> your audience still comments on social media and so your discussion remains there. Discussion should remain on social media. This avoids the problems of moderation and spam that plagued blogs. > it is far too simple to just use social media directly Yes to succeed the blog platform should be super easy to setup and to link. There are benefits that can then attract people: - if you have several social accounts, on t…

I got distracted by all of the other great comments on this thread and made a mess of my point.

What I was trying to say is that I think that ultimately social media will eat your traffic and blog. I think that the peril of using social media to promote your own content is that you will ultimately depend on social media.

I think that the best route to take is to find a way to promote your content without it.

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

#185

Post by epc »

habibur wrote: post #112
lonk11 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention? To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's feed…

We need a standard API to subscribe to blogs on other sites, that will appear on our blog feed as news feed -- like how facebook or tweeter feeds work. RSS is too personal, too much outside the flow.

Like OPML? http://opml.org/

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

#186

Post by pixelgeek »

maskros wrote: post #161
dsr_ wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to find good blogs is to start by asking technical questions in whatever subject you are interested in. If you want to read about barbeque, you need to start with a technical question about barbeque; if you want to read about Greek history, you need a question about that. Eventually you will find somebody knowledgeable who is writing about that subject. They will in turn link to others, or comment on others,…

Discussion groups and forums used to be useful, but now they're dying out and being replaced by undiscoverable walled garden facebook groups and discord servers...

This was my immediate response. The number of forums available has plummeted. And as @maskros says, they are all in private Facebook groups now. Private because no-one wants their personal life trickling into their Facebook feed in case someone from work sees it.

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

#187

Post by mark_l_watson »

I have written a few thousand blog articles in the last 25 years, but that flow has gone to zero since what writing time I have has gone to writing books. I miss blogging but there is only so much time in life and deciding what not to do is important.

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

#189

Post by derekzhouzhen »

lonk11 wrote: post #79
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…

Discovery of good sources of information such as blogs is hard. And I think the biggest problem is the lack of trust. Everyone wants to grab your attention [1]. So how do you know that others won't waste your attention? To solve this problem I am building https://linklonk.com that cultivates trust as you rate content. When you upvote a link you connect stronger to the feed that posted it (which could be a blog's feed…

> The strength of your connections to other feeds and users represents how useful their content recommendations have been to you in the past and they could be used as a measure of how likely their future recommendations will be worth your time (ie, trust that they won't waste your time).

Your intention is noble, but this is still based on network effects and a positive feedback loop. I doubt you can beat the social medias in their own game.

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

#190

Post by pixelgeek »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #129

Bring back the readers that read blogs and pay for them (through ads) and there will be blogs again.

The audience quite simply isn't there any more. And I think ads are part of the problem. You get into that system and the next thing you know you are plotting out SEO strategies.

I think that the micro-payment systems that were discussed ages ago would be a solution but the investment money went elsewhere.

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