I blog. Have for a long time. The key is to own your own domain. Then your works cannot be taken away, and they are visible to all instead of risking becoming trapped in a walled garden. It doesn't cost much and it is not that hard. See http://dwheeler.com
If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
551–560 of 637 posts
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#552The 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…
Lmao.. Literally the only time I've gotten a flood of emails was from when I described my experience applying to a FAANG company. Quite sad actually, as I'd been shouting into the void about far more interesting things for years.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#553The 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…
> You'll check the analytics. Abysmal. Nobody is reading! And that, right there, is the best reason to remove all analytics from your blog/website[1]. At the risk of being held guilty of self-promotion, I wrote a little blog post about just this a couple of weeks ago: https://one.mikro2nd.net/2020/05/why-no-web-analytics-are-to... (Thing is, if anybody here does go and read it, I won't even know .) At the root of the…
I started my own blog last month and I am following this advice 100%. I'm not using analytics or trackers of any sort, not only for believing they create they same delusion you mention in your post, but also because I try to block all types of trackers when visiting other sites.
Why would I use the very thing I'm trying so hard to avoid when surfing the web? It's basically a matter of respect to the reader. So I designed my site following the values I consider so important for websites in general: no trackers, no mandatory javascript, no obstacles between the user and the content.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#554Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect you’re below 30 years of age? It’s quite interesting how quickly the memory of the internet has faded and this became the new normal. Sometimes it pays to look a little deeper.
Nope. Probably older than you, but I wouldn't use that to suggest I have better insights here than you. It's very popular on HN to yearn for the good old days of the internet instead of realizing that we're in them right now. More importantly, it's also likely you that's changing more than the internet. Maybe a decade or two ago you were looking for blogs while these days you just stop by Reddit and HN. And assume an…
> you just stop by Reddit and HN. And assume anything you don't find on Reddit/HN is probably dead or dying, you're not going to look
So you saying that browsing reddit had replaced the “old ways”. That is exactly the problem, this was not an option. If those blogs or sites never appear in search engines, blogrolls are gone, archives have been deleted (eg Tumblr), delicious/stumbleupon/etc are gone, how do you find them? The internet and how content is distributed has changed a lot, it’s disingenuous to just dismiss it as nostalgia.
On RSS, maybe you forgot that google mangled it in 2013? They shut down the most popular RSS reader without warning, and around the same time most large platforms stopped providing full content via feeds, to drive traffic to their site == ad revenue. RSS went from being a major source of traffic for blogs, to 1-2% of visitors. Of course people will stop using it if stops giving you content and your software is gone.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#555Back on the[day you felt your blog would be picked up randomly and a variety of people would read it.
Today no one will read the blog unless I push them from twitter or youtube or facebook.
People post photos/videos/comments with less investment and get better viewship.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#556Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's awesome! If only most people would do that, I think the internet would be a much more entertaining and enlightening place. Here's the thing: write that. Go meta, just a little, and write about your journey. "I thought this, but then I found out that, and now my questions have evolved thus..." I think it was Orson Welles who, when somebody asked him if they could write his biography, said, "No, because it will…
It also seems likely that that idea is also not novel, so that the previous poster wouldn't want to blog publicly about it.
You've gone too meta. ;-)
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#557Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been blogging on and off for the past few years now (not going to publish the link here in case it is seen as self promotion). Mainly as a way of leaving my life story and thoughts for my family to have something to remember my life when I am no longer around (My dad had some incredible life stories, and I wish we had recorded them in some form before he passed). I think what is missing now is the rich set of to…
Inoreader is better than Google Reader was. You might want to check it out. https://www.inoreader.com/
Google Reader was free. I can't afford 50 usd/yr just to read RSS feeds (yes, there's a free plan, but it's limited and at that point I'd rather stick with RSSOwl or similar -free- tools).
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#558Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not sure if the premise is correct here. What metric is Reddit being judged by? What if the various fashion subreddits, in aggregate, have more users, more content (both good and bad), and more innovation than websites like AskAndy? I suspect what you’re looking for is: 1. The intimate small town feel of the early internet, and 2. The higher average post quality (because of the type of person that both had intern…
The issue with Reddit is that there's little to no user engagement with older content. Comments on posts older than a day in pretty much every reasonably active subreddit are ignored. This is also an issue on HN. This kills informed discussion - some topics need more than one or two minutes of thought for a thoughtful and articulated response. This simply isn't possible when you know that the person you're replying t…
> This is also an issue on HN.
HN intentionally makes it worse by forcing you to choose between only starting new conversations (or participating in currently-live existing conversations), or obsessively checking all your posts for replies.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#559Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Let's throw one away" thought experiment. You're rebuilding the internet, if not from the ground up, then {UDP,TCP}/IP up. What do you do in the next internet to try to avoid the spam and SEO problems on this internet?
> What do you do in the next internet to try to avoid the spam and SEO problems on this internet? Ban (yes, legally) collecting & monetizing most information about users. But do that generally, not just for the Internet. Or at least make holding such data incredibly risky (enormous company-ending fines for leaks or misuse). No loading third-party domain content in browsers. At all. No images, no scripts. You can link…
You are forgetting the other half of the equation. The web must have a first class payment system. Nothing is free; money will be made overtly or covertly. If there is no honest overt method, there will be a dishonest covert method.
Re: If I could bring one thing back to the internet it would be blogs
#560Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Let's throw one away" thought experiment. You're rebuilding the internet, if not from the ground up, then {UDP,TCP}/IP up. What do you do in the next internet to try to avoid the spam and SEO problems on this internet?
Nothing, we’re just all gonna have to learn to deal with each other this way on this scale and move on.
Overall this is the best big picture answer