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If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs

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

#431

Post by unityByFreedom »

mawise wrote: post #199
aazaa wrote: post #178

The best way to bring back blogs is to start with your own. It looks like this is the author's fourth post and s/he hit a home run with the top post on HN. But that's rarely how things work. The thing few people tell you when you start blogging is how futile it will seem - for a long, long time. You'll start by posting something you put a lot of work into. You'll publish, thinking of all the comments and emails you'l…

Those blogs from the time before were written for the purpose of writing, not for the purpose of getting lots of viewership. The blogs the author misses aren't written to make money off of ad traffic, they were just written to put down ideas. Today that need is filled with Facebook/Twitter/... and even there with the currency of likes/comments those motivations get twisted. Some of the internet has also shifted to a…

> I wish there were more platforms to make this easy to do.

Don't they all work like this by default? You don't have to share what you write everywhere. You also don't need to use FB or Twitter to blog.

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

#432

Post by _bxg1 »

dewey wrote: post #32

Blogs are still there, just not easily findable through Google as most of the ones you find are low-value SEO blogs aiming at search engine traffic. Discovery is a problem but I just subscribe to blogs when I find them via RSS (Blogs still have RSS, it's hard to find one without which is surprising but I'm glad that's the case), over time I build up my list of blogs I like and they usually link to other blogs and the…

You inspired me to do a project today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23208846

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

#433

Post by antigirl »

derefr wrote: post #310
mawise wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those blogs from the time before were written for the purpose of writing, not for the purpose of getting lots of viewership. The blogs the author misses aren't written to make money off of ad traffic, they were just written to put down ideas. Today that need is filled with Facebook/Twitter/... and even there with the currency of likes/comments those motivations get twisted. Some of the internet has also shifted to a…

> Those blogs from the time before were written for the purpose of writing, not for the purpose of getting lots of viewership. Or, to put that another way: blogs are/were effectively people publicizing their diaries. (Or, in the case of a work blog, publicizing the contents of their https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor%27s_notebook ). > Today that need is filled with Facebook/Twitter/ Not really? Facebook/Twitter/e…

Twitter is not just incomplete/out of context thoughts. It can be. But not always. Follow the right people. I find it’s great for Javascript patterns and new findings. Of course the content is not discussed in great detail but you can get a quick jist from various sources. The same with instagram for photos. I much prefer to see photos in series but quick snapshot from various sources in one platform. This is what’s destroyed blogging mostly in my opinion, you can micro blog quickly. People used to blog because they wanted a presence on the internet, now you can have that with social media platforms

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

#435

Post by wayoutthere »

tapia wrote: post #234
polishdude20 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often notice when I start writing on a particular topic, I learn more about my thoughts and opinions of it and realize my thoughts are wrong or not really novel. Halfway in I give up since I feel like, "oh, this actually isn't really adding anything new to the conversation". Then I leave with a new humbleness about my beliefs but also a sense of "when am I actually going to know enough to warrant writing about it?"…

That happens to me too. You really thing you have something interesting to tell, and then bam, just a silly thought... good that I realized that before publishing it.

I look at it as a writing exercise along the lines of "you remember 60% of what you hear and 90% of what you had to research and write". Yeah, your article probably isn't going to catch fire and open a bunch of eyes. But the exercise of writing it almost certainly improved your understanding of the problem space, so if it ends up being useful to someone or gets you some small amount of clout that's a bonus.

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

#436

Post by Kaze404 »

freehunter wrote: post #334
pmlnr wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The blogs the author misses aren't written to make money off of ad traffic, they were just written to put down ideas. This is what I've been pointing out for years as the lost core of the internet.

It seems like this is a cultural shift in society as well. There are no more hobbies, everything is a side hustle and if you can’t turn a profit from it, it’s not worth doing. I’m not an economist or sociologist so I can’t Even pretend to understand why this is, but it’s a trend I’ve noticed over the past few years.

I've been saying for years that people need to stop pressuring themselves into being good at their hobbies. Have fun first, who cares if you can't sing/draw/paint?

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

#437

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

jiofih wrote: post #381
josephjrobison wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Essentially the author is longing for a day before social media existed, but the world has changed fast - and that's ok. The medium has diversified away from just blogs, but the amount mediums and creators has exploded. Many of those people who used to blog on Blogspot have moved on to YouTube, TikTok Twitter, Instagram, Medium, WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, and more. So the whole premise is bunk. "Blogs" in their 200…

People publishing blogs were not “creators”. They were ordinary people publishing their personal, not-fashionable, unfiltered ramblings. That’s what we lost. It’s obvious that with the growth of internet access “variety” has grown exponentially, but it’s the same kind of variety you get from supermarket products, not real life experiences. > just not in the one strict format It’s exactly the other way around. 95% of…

That last point is wrong, it doesn’t make any sense, for example, Banksy. He’s not sharing for the sake of sharing and he has no trouble expressing himself, even pissing off the governments of the world more often than not

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

#438

Post by mr_spothawk »

Chathamization wrote: post #430
aazaa wrote: post #178

The best way to bring back blogs is to start with your own. It looks like this is the author's fourth post and s/he hit a home run with the top post on HN. But that's rarely how things work. The thing few people tell you when you start blogging is how futile it will seem - for a long, long time. You'll start by posting something you put a lot of work into. You'll publish, thinking of all the comments and emails you'l…

The publish or perish nature of blogs is one of the many reasons why I feel they're generally inferior to the personal web pages that were popular during the early web. It seems that there has been a general trend towards a constant churning of output in order to keep up the dopamine hits for users. The quality of a lot of online content reflects this.

> It seems that there has been a general trend towards a constant churning of output in order to keep up the dopamine hits for users.

my first thought when reading this was "yeah, that's because users don't know how to RSS". it's not that i know how to RSS that well, but i do have friends who use RSS in the style of masters. my favorite strategy that i have heard of, and what i will try to replicate in a few months, is: rss subscription >> local mail service >> inbound mail folders filled with articles from my RSS feed.

i've been practicing my own ability to use "the computer" in a way that makes me feel like a master... and we'll see if i ever get there. surely though, we are all missing out on the oldschool internet that was swallowed by the walled gardens.

but it seems that we're headed for a renaissance

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

#439

Post by raindropm »

sanderjd wrote: post #341
qznc wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not discovering. This is drowning in content. If i were looking for front end blogs, I'd say: Thanks, but I'll rely on some aggregator instead.

You asked for an example, this person gave you one, and you scoffed at it and moved the goal posts. I don't think you were asking in good faith...

I think he mean the general trend of the internet talking, writing or ranking something about blogs is generally dwindled, replaced by social media account. You can find 'Top 10 Beauty guru Youtuber' or 'Top Tiktok rising stars' everywhere on the internet, media and websites post about it, promote it, in easy to read format, interesting writeup, with spectacular pictures in said article. The attention and money was pours into creating that, to make people 'discover' interesting creator.

but ranking blogs? It's more like personal attempt nowadays(e.g. your list) and not really the main focus of internet anymore.

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

#440

Post by interestica »

ss64 wrote: post #19

Blogs died when blog specific search engines disappeared, particularly 'Google Blog search' which was quietly killed off in 2014. Technorati the other popular option for searching blogs, also went dark in 2014.

Remember when google bought blogger? I don't know if they ever really grew it. Having a blogger account did give me early access to Gmail though.
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