Comment by aww_dang | Hacker News Reader

Comment by aww_dang | Hacker News Reader

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I skimmed the comments here. Then I skimmed the article.

Getting out there and developing the sites/apps you want to see will bring change. Be proactive. Be the change you want to see.

The article is about a lawyer arguing for 'justice' through highly politicized language. YMMV, but I don't think "The Internet of creation" was hindered for want of lawyers, lobbyists or regulations.

Similarly, sitting on the sidelines and impotently lamenting the state of the Internet today doesn't help. While this isn't detrimental in the direct sense, it is detrimental if the prevailing belief is that changing the current paradigm is impossible.

Creators are still active. New niches for content are still emerging. Entrenched sites/apps are not immortal. Nothing is impossible. It all starts with individual action, one developer at a time. Don't become hypnotized by the bigness of institutions. We've seen solo developers release sea changing software before. Be the change you want to see.

> Getting out there and developing the sites/apps you want to see will bring change. Be proactive. Be the change you want to see.

I now have my own stupid blog again[0] trying to add some good old fun and weirdness to the web along with some hopefully useful or thought-provoking posts in between.

I wish we could have a thread (possibly even a monthly thread here, like who is hiring) where people could mention their blogs, web sites etc.

Back when Google+ arrived we did that and I followed a number of interesting people from HN based on that I think.

Maybe it could help us rebuild a mini web of interesting blogs, websites etc.

Me, I'd be particularly interested in linking to pages related to electronics, programming, outdoors (but not slick "travel" blogs) etc. A little politics OK, but not much.

[0]: link in profile should anyone be interested.

I've recently recreated my personal site and blogs[0] using a custom-tailored static site generator[1]. It felt good, like in the era of the Internet of creation.

[0]: http://danieljanus.pl [1]: https://github.com/nathell/nhp

I've hosted my own website[0] and blog[1] for a while, but objectively, publishing a single article to medium - which i usually loathe - drastically increased my visibility.

Using DDG to search for my name, my website shows up as 3rd result, whereas on Google, the only reason I'm even on the first page is because I was published on Towards Data Science. So using one of the big players was the only realistic way to get some exposure for my tech-rants. It's a sad reality for me.

[0]: https://chollinger.com/ [1]: https://chollinger.com/blog/

I created a new personal blog site too! The Bloomer's Guide to the Multiverse:

Lifebased.org

> I wish we could have a thread (possibly even a monthly thread here, like who is hiring) where people could mention their blogs, web sites etc.

I dig the sentiment. Isn’t that what Show HN and posting links to blog posts does though?

> I dig the sentiment. Isn’t that what Show HN and posting links to blog posts does though?

Thanks!

The reason I want a semiregular thread is because given the amount of work that goes into many show HNs I guess most people here are wary of posting their blogs as "Show HN".

Posting it in a "Ask HN: who is writing - October 2019" thread might be less scary.

If anyone posts that within a few minutes I'll upvote it (I have enough points so I don't need to start another valuable thread for that.)

Occasionally there is a thread for this (about every 6 months) and it also happens in the comments spontaneously (such as on this post.) Here's another example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20362319

I try to compile the sites that people list here: https://www.kickscondor.com/hrefhunt/ I will obviously be mining this thread. ;D

I write very irregularly, but on a variety of topics around engineering and management. I wrote an article today: http://www.drtomallen.com/blog/satificing-a-powerful-tool-fo...

I have a quirky and sparse personal page, but people are welcome to look at it if they want to. I'm playing with a concept of presenting a personal site as interactive (non?)fiction as an alternative to the expectations we have of website UI. It may be counterproductive, but it's playful. And open source!

https://maxsond.github.io/

Nice!

Is the list supposed to degenerate to noise?

edit: also add my blog! https://blog.chewxy.com

> Is the list supposed to degenerate to noise?

Happens both on Safari on my iPad as well as on my Android phone with Firefox mobile.

Why does everything go to shit as I scroll?

This reminds me of openring [1], which is a little box you add to your blog with links to latest articles on blogs you follow.

[1]: https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/openring

Also from sircmpwn, there is a mailing list called free-writers-club [0] with quite a few introductory posts and blog links... post yours, everyone!

  Hello and welcome! This mailing list is for authors of technical blogs
  and other publications to support each other's work. Feel free to post
  questions, drafts for review, and so on.

[0]: https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/free-writers-club

The idea of a blogring is great - we need more of that imo.

It is on my wishlist for my blog but for now I haven't gotten around to it.

Also planned: some kind of list of the latest pinboard.in entries from certain tags.

I started a tumblelog [0] a few months ago. And of course I wrote the static site generator for it myself :-) [1]. I like it, it reminds me of the Internet nearly 2 decades ago.

[0] http://plurrrr.com/

[1] https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog

I just started https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21324420

> Develop apps

For locked down duopoly (85% and growing Google actually) walled garden, that has telemetry for every app launch, install, uninstall, access to every single push notification in plain text and can boot your "niche" app from the Play Store on a whim... Most of those newly connected to the internet are on locked down "smartphones" and not on general purpose computers anymore.

Check into progressive webapps. You can utilize homescreen app icon functionality if you add service workers. No more app/play store or walled garden.

For every objection there is a can-do work around.

"webapps" don't do interesting things that websites cannot do. This person was talking about actual apps, that run on your device, doing app things.

They are even more limited then regular apps though...

Don't argue. Build.

Even though i d say that a lot of innovation is stifled by regulatory constraints, the biggest one being: it's too hard to take payments and much harder to pay users. We have the technology to have digital cash on the internet but tax office won't let anyone use it

The Internet makes it too easy to scale up a business and become a monopolist.

The US has a regulatory culture of permitting monopolies as long as they are lawfully gained. I don't think this is right. I also think a sequence of monopolies, each living 5 or 10 years, before being overtaken, is also wrong; just because a monopoly is eventually overtaken doesn't mean consumers must tolerate monopolies at their height.

"Being the change" means limiting maximum size and forcing competition through regulation. That's political. I don't think there's any choice at this point if we want to preserve democracy.

> Be the change you want to see

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21320938

Shameless self plug but I did a simple site recently to this effect:

http://iwillansweryouremails.com

I like that I'm not tracking anyone, it doesn't require UI/UX, I have little to nothing to gain from it - it's just a human connection. Something fun we might have seen in the early years of the internet.

The Internet switched from contribution to consumption with the rise of mobile. Most users' main Internet device is a phone, not ideal for contributing meaningful content, but optimized for scrolling and media consumption.

This is an excellent way to frame it and why I hate mobile devices.

As long as it is regulated and sanitized and can be surveilled. Especially the latter is an undeniable fact in my opinion. Although that battle seems to shift to government just not being able to do that as easily, the ambitions were clear as day.

There is still an unlimited amount of content, but the rules have changed significantly. And mostly not in favor of users.

The article offers bad examples, but monetary interests and copyright changed the nature of most content.

So true. It’s a mindset issue. Be a maverick. Don’t let big corporations brainwash you. Also, why GitHub is so amazing :-D

>Be the change you want to see.

This is such important advice across so many aspects of life in general! It's easy to support a movement that's already started to to gain momentum. Something I think about still from my college days is actually from a sociology class I took as an easy requirement filler (something to do with gender studies, I forget the name).

Summarized, there's rarely a reward for being the vanguard who blazes the trail. Sometimes you might even be penalized because your methods to break into the limelight were extreme and are now hobbling your movement's mainstream appeal. The class's talking point was that there were women who fought their whole lives for the right to vote but never saw it happen or even begin to happen. But their work served to inspire activists of a later generation who went on to succeed. Sometimes we have to plant a garden knowing we might not see live to see the flowers bloom.

Clearly software is a different beast but we too, as an undustry, have things which are mainstream or valuable now but which once upon a time had only their visionaries to fight for them.

Usually there are only rewards for problems other people need solved. If you try to solve your own problem, there's nobody but yourself who could give you the reward.

Indie movies are a small niche. The creation you talk about is in the same ballpark: it exists, but mostly negligible.

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