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The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

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Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#61

Post by sshine »

rockbruno wrote: post #60
thecupisblue wrote: post #53

It's not just dev.to, it's most online developer content sources these days. A lot of people noticed that you can become 'famous' online which will gain you the ability to sell a course, earn from content or get better jobs and opportunities due to 'influence'. And it works especially good if you can find a new framework/language/platform that you can write content about, since there is less content and you can get '…

I think you hit the nail in the head here, and I'd also say that this is true for pretty much anything that is bloggable today (e.g financial advice, recipes, product reviews) and is a consequence of mass social media making people addicted to getting attention.

I’ve had a personal homepage for almost 20 years, and I’ve never looked at the traffic logs. I am certain I could learn what people care to read about, where people link from, and so on, but a big part of me likes that it’s my page and not my visitors’. It’s just a museum of quirky personality, this is not a potential revenue stream, and I’m not a “content creator”.

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#62

Post by intothemild »

thecupisblue wrote: post #53

It's not just dev.to, it's most online developer content sources these days. A lot of people noticed that you can become 'famous' online which will gain you the ability to sell a course, earn from content or get better jobs and opportunities due to 'influence'. And it works especially good if you can find a new framework/language/platform that you can write content about, since there is less content and you can get '…

This has been a growing problem in JavaScript land for many years. I feel it got a lot worse when Vue launched and it's creator got "JavaScript Famous" and was able to earn a salary via supporters and work on the thing full time. It created a gold rush of people trying to all become "JavaScript Famous" so they too could open a Patreon and quit their day jobs.

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#63

Post by Shugarl »

Varqu wrote: post #55
searchableguy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can ask HN moderators. There is no public list. dev.to is also shadow banned on most developer subreddits and other news aggregators I know of.

Wow, any explanation from the HN mods why this happens?

I feel like most people in this thread have been explaining why

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#64

Post by johnywalks »

trentthethief wrote: post #21

I hate to say this but I feel like Dev had a nice start but went downhill fast. Nearly all articles can be boiled down to “Look at this really basic thing, and follow me on A, B and C. The first Dev talk I watched from the founder (Ben) was about how they gained a lot of traction being such a fast loading site, focus on content and less fluff. I loved the attention to performance, being open source and the customizat…

Same thing happened with Medium. Initially it had thoughtful content and once the platform became more popular, it also attracted worse content.

Typical articles:

How to build and Android app.

1. Learn android

2. Find and idea.

3. Build the app.

Thanks for reading this. Follow me on Twatter etc....

They basically baited you to open the link with an interesting title and the content had no substance.

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#65

Post by [deleted] »

onion2k wrote: post #18
uxcolumbo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reality is that most interesting dev articles are about relatively unusual problems that a dev solved in an innovative way Do you have a list of those articles? And which sites do you visit to find those articles?

And which sites do you visit to find those articles? https://news.ycombinator.com

[deleted]

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#66

Post by addicted »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #47
dewey wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However the site got funding and started to focus on “diversity” and “inclusion” at all costs. Created a new CoC and the beginner content flooded in and has gone downhill since. I was with you until that sentence. Focusing on “diversity” and “inclusion” or having a Code of Conduct with values like "Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences" is most likely not the reason for a community going downhill…

As the article is practically saying it, in order to be "inclusive" quality filtering does not exist. That makes quality nosedive, but it is inclusive - makes sense?

No, it doesn’t.

Unless you assume that only a certain group of people can put out quality articles.

Which based simply on HN articles is obviously not true (even though some people may continue thinking it is due to their preconceived biases, based on how HN comments in articles written by women will invariably have multiple people refer to the author with male pronouns).

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#67

Post by stingraycharles »

Varqu wrote: post #55
searchableguy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can ask HN moderators. There is no public list. dev.to is also shadow banned on most developer subreddits and other news aggregators I know of.

Wow, any explanation from the HN mods why this happens?

HN is well known to have very “proactive” moderation, and as such kill low quality articles. As explained in this whole comment section, dev.to is almost entirely low-quality articles, and as such it’s not unexpected for HN to ban the site altogether.

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#68

Post by Veuxdo »

intothemild wrote: post #62
thecupisblue wrote: post #53

It's not just dev.to, it's most online developer content sources these days. A lot of people noticed that you can become 'famous' online which will gain you the ability to sell a course, earn from content or get better jobs and opportunities due to 'influence'. And it works especially good if you can find a new framework/language/platform that you can write content about, since there is less content and you can get '…

This has been a growing problem in JavaScript land for many years. I feel it got a lot worse when Vue launched and it's creator got "JavaScript Famous" and was able to earn a salary via supporters and work on the thing full time. It created a gold rush of people trying to all become "JavaScript Famous" so they too could open a Patreon and quit their day jobs.

There was a time when it felt like nobody could learn React without blogging about it.

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#69

Post by Kovah »

lumenwrites wrote: post #35
Kovah wrote: post #17

I have left Dev.to long ago after being one of the early adopters. The quality of articles is going down every time I visit the site. And this is absolutely not surprising: Dev.to encourages clickbait and low effort articles. Likes seem to be the thriving factor for pushing articles and you can even earn achievements for post with the most likes and views. A possible solution could be to ditch likes and view counts e…

Then how would you rank the articles, measure their quality, and choose what to put on the front page?

Why is it necessary to measure quality?

Slashdot is around for like decades, a real internet antiquity, and made it without any likes or view counts. Posts that generate a lot of comments are ranked higher, as one can assume it generates more discourse. What else is really needed for a community? Isn't it about sharing knowledge and discussing it?

A front page, as you mentioned it, can consist of either posts that generate a lot of discourse. Or make it simple and just display the latest posts of the people you follow on it.

Re: The collapsing quality of dev.to (2021)

#70

Post by mellosouls »

invalidname wrote: post #57
mellosouls wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really a matter of opinion that beginner content will - by definition - not come with the experience to have the authority and originality that contribute to the quality of the writing.

People need to start writing somewhere. The fact that they get visibility relates to upvotes and lack of publications. They also have advantages in communicating with other beginners.

I agree - but the point was about quality, not learning your trade.
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