I missed the original HN post, added my comment to the thread. Great work on the analysis.
Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
51–60 of 99 posts
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s a fair point! I would have to read HN’s terms of use though. Not sure if that’s allowed or not. I felt good scrapping the comments section since everyone there “opted in “ to share their website to the broader community.
You can take it as read that people who write blog posts do that to share them with the broader community. Could one of you downvoters please explain why you think people would post blog posts if they do not want to share them? I fail to see how that would be possible.
And you never foresee the ripples. I wanted to buy books online and trade stocks when I was a student. MasterCard/Visa in Algiers, Algeria was a rarity, and banks didn't communicate.
I called every bank in the country that was listed by the central bank, I knocked on their doors until I found one that offered students a card.
I even had to write a document because they didn't have a form for that case. I finally got my card after a week of trips to the bank, city hall, administration, providing documents that were unlisted, etc.
I computed that this wasted time multiplied by the number of people who would eventually go through the process and the fact almost nobody in the country had the card warranted detailing the steps. It would save time, and contribute to reduce the "underbanking". I wrote a blog post explaining how to do it with steps, as in provide the following documents, take these amount in these currencies. I attached the document/form I wrote so people could fill it and take it directly to the bank and save a trip. That asymmetry in information bothered me.
That post 2013 post is read hundreds of times per day. It had more than a thousand comments, although it only lists 700+. People asking me questions, then getting their own cards, then themselves answering other people's questions, then updating me on what has changed.
People I would meet in real life would tell me I looked familiar, and then they'd put it together and tell me they followed the post to get their card. Sometimes people referred me to my own post in case I wanted to get a card.
I received emails from people freelanced online who wanted to bring money back here. One person even sent me credentials to their online account with thousands of dollars in and asked me if I can find a way to transfer it here (I told that person not to do that again and she said she felt she could trust me).
Many times I'd receive a phone call from a friend who'd say they wanted to get a card, looked online, found a great post, then saw my name and laughed out loud because they knew me.
And of course, I met interesting people.
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#53Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can take it as read that people who write blog posts do that to share them with the broader community. Could one of you downvoters please explain why you think people would post blog posts if they do not want to share them? I fail to see how that would be possible.
And you never foresee the ripples. I wanted to buy books online and trade stocks when I was a student. MasterCard/Visa in Algiers, Algeria was a rarity, and banks didn't communicate. I called every bank in the country that was listed by the central bank, I knocked on their doors until I found one that offered students a card. I even had to write a document because they didn't have a form for that case. I finally got…
Yes, indeed. I have a few like that and I always wonder why those were the ones that got legs. This one for instance generates a couple of emails per week still years after:
https://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide/
This one too, even inspired a play!:
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
And not all contributors would plug their blogs in a thread asking them to do so. Exactly. On a pseudanonymous forum that’s as good as asking people to doxx themselves!
There is a difference between acknowledging publicly who you are and doxxing, which I consider to be publicly releasing your phone number and physical address (at least).
Linking to your website has this effect. For example, one of the few pieces of information on my website is my amateur radio callsign. You can take that to the FCC's helpful database and then get my home address. I have it there because I think crime is low enough that it's worth having a Google result for "who is that KD2DTW guy that I just heard?"
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#56Of those who responded to the 'what is your blog and why should I read it' thread. HN is large. Likely larger than many of its visitors realize because the participants are a relatively small fraction of the readership. So HN readers are not necessarily contributors. And not all contributors would plug their blogs in a thread asking them to do so. If you want to get an idea of the HN readership rather than of the HN…
And not all contributors would plug their blogs in a thread asking them to do so. Exactly. On a pseudanonymous forum that’s as good as asking people to doxx themselves!
Or maybe they've seen the thread and decided not to participate. For instance myself - my blog is nothing special, so I didn't include it, even though it's linked in my bio.
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you never foresee the ripples. I wanted to buy books online and trade stocks when I was a student. MasterCard/Visa in Algiers, Algeria was a rarity, and banks didn't communicate. I called every bank in the country that was listed by the central bank, I knocked on their doors until I found one that offered students a card. I even had to write a document because they didn't have a form for that case. I finally got…
Yes, indeed. I have a few like that and I always wonder why those were the ones that got legs. This one for instance generates a couple of emails per week still years after: https://jacquesmattheij.com/if-you-have-nothing-to-hide/ This one too, even inspired a play!: https://jacquesmattheij.com/trackers/
I read the two pieces sequentially: from tragic to tragicomic.
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
And not all contributors would plug their blogs in a thread asking them to do so. Exactly. On a pseudanonymous forum that’s as good as asking people to doxx themselves!
There is a difference between acknowledging publicly who you are and doxxing, which I consider to be publicly releasing your phone number and physical address (at least).
>doxxing
Where does this strange typo come from?
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s a fair point! I would have to read HN’s terms of use though. Not sure if that’s allowed or not. I felt good scrapping the comments section since everyone there “opted in “ to share their website to the broader community.
Use this https://github.com/HackerNews/API
Re: Analyzing HN readers' personal blogs
#60Interesting to see the high numbers for GA. A bit of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ going on?
Probably because there isn’t a good free analytics service that is easy to use (no need for self-hosting) and is able to collect the info that one wants. GA is free, and easy.
Piwik is free and does everything GA does. You can self host the analytics dashboard so no 3rd party privacy issues.