Ask HN: Why don't you blog? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why don't you blog?

21 pointsseeing42 comments

In 2003 blogging was a conversation -- you'd post and folks would post in response. You'd get a real discussion around ideas.

In 2016 blogging is just screaming (or whispering) into the void. If there is a conversation around the post, it will be in short comments on aggregator sites (such as this one).

I used to, starting maybe 15-16 years ago, and I kept it up for a good long while, but I don't get much out of it anymore. A bunch of people decided, for reasons which never made any sense to me, that blogs and blogging somehow ought to be a mechanism for making money, and in their rabid enthusiasm for commerce managed to suck all the life out of the medium. I no longer feel like writing blog posts is an act of participation in a community, because there is no community anymore, so far as I can see.

The web itself seems to be pretty much over, as far as you can consider it to be a community medium, and the death of blogging is just the most visible aspect of that. I still post on my blog from time to time, but it's basically just out of habit, or because I think I might want to find some interesting link again later.

There are still communities out there who miss that old web. :)

One such community: https://neocities.org/

I'm not financially affiliated in any way - but I do maintain my own Neocities page and attempt to outreach to those who host sites with similar interests. It takes me back to the Geocities days, which is kind of the point.

What would help breathe life in the medium again? Or what would make you feel writing blog posts remains an act of participation in a community?

You are commenting here, its a community.

Yes, there are still a few pockets left.

Because to write takes as much time and effort thinking through the structure of things as programming does, but the compiler is much more poorly specified.

Really though, I need to get together some folks who can do usability tests on my writing. (If, uh, anyone is interested and wants to learn about server configuration, please tell me what you think of https://saltstack-from-scratch/

I am interested, and will try to give you some feedback. Is this the correct link to what you are talking about?

http://amfarrell.com/saltstack-from-scratch/

I tried some different TLD endings to the link you posted but got bored after a few and hit google.

oh wow, I had typed that on mobile and completely omitted the domain name. Thank you.

Time mostly with a side order of I'm not sure I have anything to say that anyone would want to read.

The only area's I have any in depth knowledge are already well covered by others.

I do: http://www.jakeseliger.com. But I can tell you why most people don't: Writing interesting content with any kind of consistency takes a lot of time, energy, and effort, and it's poorly remunerative in the short term. For many people it's poorly remunerative in any term.

I need something between twitter and medium. Short, but not that short, with connections to people who might be interested (ie, not the people on Medium).

I use Sublevel[1]. It's not perfect, but it's heading in a direction I like.

Discourse and Flarum are both so heavy and app-like, it's just not necessary.

[1] https://sublevel.net

Can you say a bit more? I'd like something short and simpler.

I have a lot of ideas in my evernotes, but I am procrastinating on building my webpage. I want to be perfect, which ofcourse will require time and I am too lazy to invest that much time. so basically cos I am lazy and just trying to convince myself with false reasons

ROI (lack of) or the losing end of opportunity cost (there is something better I could be doing).

It seems to me that successful blog post requires either having expert knowledge of a specific domain, or an interesting take on a trending topic. It's hard for many (including myself) to break through the barrier of self-doubt if neither of those cases are obviously true.

Blogging for personal reasons is still a good option (as many would say), but why spend limited time on writing a blog post when you could be working on a side project instead?

Personally, I like blogs where people are about 85% sure they know what they are doing. It tends to spawn better conversation (as long as the comments section ends up minimally moderated). "This is how you do [insert complex concept here]" is a lot less interesting than "This is how I fucked up trying to do [insert complex concept here]". Obviously though, it does take time from the side project. I write notes to myself constantly. For me, setting up the blog seems more time consuming than taking some time to edit my notes into something coherent.

Right now, I don't blog much because I tried to make money off blogging and failed.

I used to blog on & off since early 2000s. It was mostly about my daily life, interests, and photos. It was a lot of fun and many friends read it.

Then I added ads and affiliate links. I hardly made any money from those ads or links but once I accidentally ended up making $200+ from one affiliate link. This got me greedy, and I started to think I can become a professional blogger. I cleaned up my personal stuff from my blog and started to write with a focus of gaining views. This ended up being work and boring. Also my blog suffered negatively as my friends stopped visiting it. I lost my interest too. Started to blog less often.

But this year I will re-start personal blogging. I don't have anything important to say to the world. My blog will be just for my friends & family. Also I removed all ads and affiliate links from it to remove any temptation of making money.

I've been blogging since 2008 [1]. I think blogs are the least 3rd party reliant outlets for personal/pro content. As long as you can keep your domain, you have control over how, where and when your content is accessible. You control your URLs, whether you want ads or not, layout, etc.

Simple web pages (as opposed to walled gardens of social networks) are search engines' best friends.

As for mine, I actually wrote a static blog generator from scratch in 500 lines of python and all the articles are in pure HTML. Runs on S3 (can move away in a heartbeat), fast as a Ferrari and I wouldn't give it up for the likes of Medium in the long foreseeable future.

[1]: https://blog.oxplot.com/

I don't think my thoughts on topics are much needed. When I feel like they are needed, I can comment on current discussion.

Blogging is just putting your opinions out as fact with no way for readers to disagree. I prefer commenting.

I ask if it is useful to others: the answer is probably no. In a group of 100 people at random, I am not the best one at breaking down complex subjects, nor the most likely to be a cultural pioneer, so the utility to others would be low. I ask if it would be useful to myself: the answer is no. I write for myself, in a way that is useful to myself, but not to others. I think the blogging provides a lot of leverage to superior writers, and is probably a wasteful distraction to the other 99%.

I took the plunge to writing a blog, because I like to sometimes express (really stupid) ideas in long-form, which social media is ill-suited for. Also, I hate most social media platforms. So basically the same reason Stevey's Drunken Blog Rants exists. But I am an idiot, so don't expect that kind of quality content. If you're insane, or curious as to how many bad ideas a bored, slight knowledgeable hobbyist can come up with, it's at qwertyuiop924.wordpress.com

Most of what I have to say, I haven't thought through enough to commit to the internet permanently. When I was a little younger I was willing to put anything out there, but not anymore. So I prefer a transient medium.

The other thing is that that there a handful of disjoint subjects that I might like to blog about: a hobby (that I do have a nascent blog for), things learned in tech, etc. But they don't have much to do with each other, and putting them all in the same place feels silly.

I've got a lot of blog post outlines saved, and I'm no longer so worried about posting something to the internet and receiving critique. However, no matter how good my intentions are, I always find something 'more important' to do with 2-3 hours on a weekend. E.g. sleeping, extra work via side projects or freelancing. I just need to find a way to break it down into half-hour blocks of time, or to lock myself in my office for a few hours on a Saturday night.

I have many articles written on software management. They document my journey as a new engineering manager. I also write down what my other friends deal with as managers/tech leads. It's amazing to see what everyone has to think about and how events could possibly unfold behind every decision.

They're all sitting on my laptop, but I worry about keeping topics separate from our employers. I want to keep things classy.

If you've got suggestions how to approach this, let me know.

Personally or 'professionally'?

I've ran various news sites in the past, and I'm working on one now, if that counts as blogging.

But I don't run a personal blog. Why? Because I don't see the point. Anything related to gaming or tech is already discussed on my existing sites and social media accounts. My personal life is kind of boring by comparison, so no one would want to read about it. And anything political goes on Medium or some other such platform instead.

Pretty well summed up by other comments, but loss of ROI. Funny enough one of my last blog posts was the most response I've ever gotten (few hundred K readers, tweeted by O'Reilly, liked by Zuck) but it still felt "not worth it" in the end.

Now blogs are simply the place I put something if I truly write something for enjoyment where that enjoyment needs to be 100% of the reward. This does happen, but rather uncommonly (because: life).

I blog at https://glebbahmutov.com/blog/ as a reminder to myself how some problems are solved. Now people at work, especially new hires, comment how 50% of my communication or answering questions are just links to the blog posts.

I always change my mind and partial fear of others judging me or me evolving way beyond my previous viewpoint.

I have nothing of substance to say

Yeah I am the same. If I force myself to write on a topic I will reread it after a week or two and then disagree/dislike it.

Would you rather be Tom Brady, or Al Michaels?

Players play the game. Commentators talk about it.

Why do you blog?

I don't blog. I'm afraid people will make fun of what I write if I do.

I have a similar feeling on HackerNews, that people will jump on me. It's also why I don't use Twitter.

human,

fuck those other humans. write what you want to write.

humans die everyday. their voices are never heard.

you have an opportunity to speak. take it.

sincerely,

council of space bats

I would read a blog filled with advice from this Council of Space Bats.

Wow. So there are enough of you to staff a council? I do concur that as a collective, you provide rather good advice.

That's a bad reason not to do something : (

In 5 years, you'll be happy that you did it, or sad that you didn't.

I'm not sufficiently white to qualify for a Medium account to tell everyone how I quit my 6-figure paying job at McKinsey, after graduating at Wharton, and my college roommate who graduated in finance gave me $5MM in seed money to start my new photo sharing app, so you can do it too'

Sorry I don't understand - you're not sufficiently white enough to blog?

The implication about whiteness and being rich goes the other way.

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