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Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

ooh.directory

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Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#61

Post by tinyhouse »

philgyford wrote: post #41
throwaway150 wrote: post #19

The problem with https://ooh.directory/ is that nobody can tell what gets added and what doesn't. Submissions go through an opaque review process and a lot of good submissions don't make it. Just try searching your favorite bloggers in ooh.directory. 9 out of 10 times they'll be missing from the directory. I'd prefer a more transparent directory where we can can tell why something is or isn't added.

Hi, it’s my site. I’m sorry you don’t feel this hobby site run by one person doesn’t have a sufficiently transparent process. The process is: I add blogs that are interesting, recently-updated, etc, when I have time. And there’s only so much of that in life. Another problem is that I like to add a variety of sites so that people following what’s recently added don’t get swamped by loads of blogs on one topic. And las…

fyi, I just signed up and the confirmation email went to my spam folder (Gmail).

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#62

Post by throwaway150 »

philgyford wrote: post #50
throwaway150 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> No blogs or categories were found matching emacs. > OK then. Exactly. This is a deeper problem with ooh.directory, that the review process is opaque. They do not explain why something is added or rejected. I do not care much about Emacs itself but I submitted several of my favourite bloggers who write about retrogames, gaming rigs, and custom keyboards. None of them were added. None at all. I do not think we shoul…

You do seem particularly offended or annoyed that some blogs you suggested have not yet appeared on the site. You can read the FAQ article to see the criteria for what’s accepted, and also reasons why suggested blogs haven’t yet appeared. Ultimately it’s my own hobby site and so I decide what is “good” or “interesting” - so long as it meets the other criteria.

> You do seem particularly offended or annoyed that some blogs you suggested have not yet appeared on the site.

I'm not offended. Just a little frustrated that I took the time to make some submissions of blogs I thought were missing but never heard anything back.

But you're right that it is your hobby site, so you get to decide what goes in.

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#63

Post by pibaker »

throwaway150 wrote: post #19

The problem with https://ooh.directory/ is that nobody can tell what gets added and what doesn't. Submissions go through an opaque review process and a lot of good submissions don't make it. Just try searching your favorite bloggers in ooh.directory. 9 out of 10 times they'll be missing from the directory. I'd prefer a more transparent directory where we can can tell why something is or isn't added.

So what? This website is just some man's collection of blogs, not a government registry funded by tax money. It does not seem to even take public donations. Why shouldn't its maintainer be allowed to exercise personal judgement in his curation efforts? Why does he have to justify putting one blog up there but not another any more than the New York Times need to justify publishing one article but not another?

It is weird how entitled people can get when it comes to things others create and distribute for free. The same seems to happen with open source software in general too. Somehow the ones who pay nothing, ask for the most.

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#64

Post by throwaway150 »

pibaker wrote: post #63
throwaway150 wrote: post #19

The problem with https://ooh.directory/ is that nobody can tell what gets added and what doesn't. Submissions go through an opaque review process and a lot of good submissions don't make it. Just try searching your favorite bloggers in ooh.directory. 9 out of 10 times they'll be missing from the directory. I'd prefer a more transparent directory where we can can tell why something is or isn't added.

So what? This website is just some man's collection of blogs, not a government registry funded by tax money. It does not seem to even take public donations. Why shouldn't its maintainer be allowed to exercise personal judgement in his curation efforts? Why does he have to justify putting one blog up there but not another any more than the New York Times need to justify publishing one article but not another? It is we…

> So what? This website is just some man's collection of blogs, not a government registry funded by tax money. It does not seem to even take public donations. Why shouldn't its maintainer be allowed to exercise personal judgement in his curation efforts?

Unnecessarily aggressive response from you given that you are addressing positions I never actually took. Of course the maintainer is entitled to exercise personal judgement about what gets included. When did I say anything othrwise?

What I am saying is that, as a user, it is frustrating to spend time putting together submissions and then hear absolutely nothing back. I am not demanding special treatment, just a basic acknowledgement or a brief explanation when something is rejected. Expecting that level of courtesy when you interact with a project does not strike me as unreasonable. If that is considered entitlement, then yes, I suppose I do expect basic courtesy from people I engage with.

All I am asking is whether anyone might be interested in building something more community-ish, where decisions do not rest entirely with one individual. If someone creates that, I am happy to support it with my time and contributions. That is the only point I am making.

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#66

Post by lemonberry »

throwaway150 wrote: post #60
danko wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanted to say: thank you for making and maintaining this. I’m sorry that so many of the initial comments on this HN post are from one person complaining that their submissions didn’t get accepted. That’s the thing with the personal web: it’s personal! It’s what that person wants, which happens to be the thing that makes it great. If you don’t like it, the rest of the internet is still there.

To be fair, I appreciate the technical effort it takes to build and maintain a directory like this. It isn't lost on me that many people like it. Kudos to the author for creating this. I absolutely don't mean to be negative about it. But that shouldn't stop me from sharing my experience as a user. That it feels frustrating when I spend time making a bunch of submissions and I never hear anything back. But yeah, it's…

Have you looked at MetaFilter? I've been a lurker there for years, but have never contributed so I don't know what that process looks like. But their tagline is "Community Weblog". It might be worth checking out.

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#67

Post by stackghost »

throwaway150 wrote: post #60
danko wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanted to say: thank you for making and maintaining this. I’m sorry that so many of the initial comments on this HN post are from one person complaining that their submissions didn’t get accepted. That’s the thing with the personal web: it’s personal! It’s what that person wants, which happens to be the thing that makes it great. If you don’t like it, the rest of the internet is still there.

To be fair, I appreciate the technical effort it takes to build and maintain a directory like this. It isn't lost on me that many people like it. Kudos to the author for creating this. I absolutely don't mean to be negative about it. But that shouldn't stop me from sharing my experience as a user. That it feels frustrating when I spend time making a bunch of submissions and I never hear anything back. But yeah, it's…

>I was more interested in finding something less personal and more community-ish. where the power to add or reject submissions does not lie with one individual. Wouldn't that be nice?

This would be overwhelmed with AI slop within days.

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#68

Post by throwaway150 »

stackghost wrote: post #67
throwaway150 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, I appreciate the technical effort it takes to build and maintain a directory like this. It isn't lost on me that many people like it. Kudos to the author for creating this. I absolutely don't mean to be negative about it. But that shouldn't stop me from sharing my experience as a user. That it feels frustrating when I spend time making a bunch of submissions and I never hear anything back. But yeah, it's…

>I was more interested in finding something less personal and more community-ish. where the power to add or reject submissions does not lie with one individual. Wouldn't that be nice? This would be overwhelmed with AI slop within days.

> This would be overwhelmed with AI slop within days.

Why so? What's the logic? With ooh.directory, one person is curating it. With a community project, 10 people may curate it. What makes 10 people curating the list more susceptible to slop?

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#69

Post by Kye »

philgyford wrote: post #41
throwaway150 wrote: post #19

The problem with https://ooh.directory/ is that nobody can tell what gets added and what doesn't. Submissions go through an opaque review process and a lot of good submissions don't make it. Just try searching your favorite bloggers in ooh.directory. 9 out of 10 times they'll be missing from the directory. I'd prefer a more transparent directory where we can can tell why something is or isn't added.

Hi, it’s my site. I’m sorry you don’t feel this hobby site run by one person doesn’t have a sufficiently transparent process. The process is: I add blogs that are interesting, recently-updated, etc, when I have time. And there’s only so much of that in life. Another problem is that I like to add a variety of sites so that people following what’s recently added don’t get swamped by loads of blogs on one topic. And las…

>> Another problem is that I like to add a variety of sites so that people following what’s recently added don’t get swamped by loads of blogs on one topic. And last time the site got on HN the suggestions (not “submissions”) were swamped with mostly men with rarely-updated blogs about computers.

Essentially my trouble with every "share your blog" type thing that appears on HN. Some of the blogs do show some interest outside computers, but those posts are quickly swamped by more computer touching.

I appreciate the curation in favor of diversity of interest here.

edit: You can see it in a lot of the suggested alternatives elsewhere. I think it's hard for someone to really get it if computer touching is their life. Curation like this is vital to avoid regression to the mean.

Re: Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you

#70

Post by Kye »

xmprt wrote: post #57
philgyford wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, it’s my site. I’m sorry you don’t feel this hobby site run by one person doesn’t have a sufficiently transparent process. The process is: I add blogs that are interesting, recently-updated, etc, when I have time. And there’s only so much of that in life. Another problem is that I like to add a variety of sites so that people following what’s recently added don’t get swamped by loads of blogs on one topic. And las…

> removing the suggestions form entirely, because it results in exactly this level of expectation I think the expectation is less about the suggestions form and more because of the tagline "a place to find good blogs that interest you". If the tagline was clearer that these were hand curated, then I think no one would care about the process you currently have.

There's always some friction between implicit assumptions of reader and writer. I assumed they were hand curated. I've never seen algorithmic selection produce the kind of variety I see on there.
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