You don't have to be a "content creator" to have a website | Hacker News Reader

You don't have to be a "content creator" to have a website

ohhelloana.blog

48 pointswhisper202047 comments

Every time I've made a blog, I write like four posts, I run out of ideas, and then it just lays dormant for forever. I think the problem is that I don't really have enough interesting things to say.

I've thought about making a very basic "About Me" website to house my resume and the like, but after a certain point I feel like it's not where I want to dedicate a lot of my time. I like public speaking, but that's usually one topic that I've prepared for over the course of several months.

> I don't really have enough interesting things to say

I doubt that. If I had to guess, you're worried about what people will think about what you write, like 99% of the people thinking about writing anything, myself included.

I mean, I don't know; I could never get into Twitter/Mastodon really, and that's considerably less effort than even writing a blog.

I never really saw the point of me publicly stating an opinion shared by the majority of people. I guess I post a lot on HN and I don't always have hot takes here, but generally I just feel like if my opinion is "basically the same as everyone else", then there's really not much for me to say about stuff. Also, I really don't think the internet needs another politics blog, so I'd have to limit it to Computer Science or Math or something; things that I actually have an earned opinion on.

Occasionally I'll have a "hot take" about software or something, but generally I don't think that they warrant an entire post, which is why I initially thought Twitter might be a good fit. I am afraid that I really am not that unique, and I think I'm pretty much ok with that.

That said, it might be good to have a website as a testing ground for research papers. A blog post could be a "public beta" or something for a paper I'm writing. Maybe I should actually do something with tombert.com again.

Do you record these talks? Maybe share those on your about me page.

Once you have a place (website) set up, you’ll start adding more things to it. As long as you editing it isn’t a grueling process. E.g. use an existing technology to keep things simple and focus on content.

Once I started my blog and the only post was " A new beginning " and that was the last one unfortunately.

You could post your slides (and maybe even link a video) of after each talk. You could maintain a written version of your talk topics. Also, there is no minimum cadence you have to keep.

Yeah, I actually have the videos linked in my resume, but it appears that no one other than a few TeX enthusiasts realize that you can have hyperlinks in a PDF resume so I don't know if employers ever see them. A website could be a decent dumping ground for them, I suppose.

I originally started a website after I lost a digital marketing job, figuring that having a website is a great way to market myself. While job-searching, I realized that I actually hate digital marketing and got into wireless/telecom through a friend. Later I deleted my social media accounts (with the exception of forums/HN) and my website gradually evolved into a personal blog and a replacement for the likes of Facebook, IG, Twitter, etc. I think that sharing things publicly forces me to think through, flush out, and better articulate ideas than I would in on something like Facebook or tweet.

I also use a custom domain for email which still points to my resume (just in case), but I've definitely gotten value from a public facing personal website.

How do readers end up finding your personal website? Do you enable any sort of visitor interaction (likes, comments, etc.?)

I'm not asking from a marketing standpoint, but just how do you know you're not just talking into the void? (Or maybe you are, and that's okay with you.)

I'd love to write more for fun, but I find it difficult to do so without an audience in mind.

I've submitted my website on various places like Derek Sivers' nownownow.com, theforest.link, search.marginalia.nu, and a few other places, but also standard search engines have been picking it up as well (I've written a couple how-to's on obscure things like "How to root the Onyx Boox Poke 3").

I don't have analytics, but I get a handful of emails per month from people commenting, asking questions, and even some nice criticisms. I don't do like/comments - I think people are genuinely nicer when it's a 1 to 1 interaction like email.

That makes sense. Thanks for the insight!

I don't know how people do it. I have been blogging for like 20+ years now sometimes regularly, sometimes with gaps. I am lucky if I get 5 visits per day.

I'd be quite happy with 5 visitors a day (if they're real, and not bots)!

I agree with the sentiment.

I've run a personal blog for a few years (some of my posts have even made the HN front page, surprisingly). The constant stream of people trying to use it as a platform to sell their products or services is exhausting.

A few years ago I decided to humor one of these cold emails. I wrote about it here: https://soatok.blog/2021/05/18/avoiding-the-frigid-hellscape...

Publishing that post did not deter people from trying to get me to accelt payment to post their words on my personal blog. If anything, they became louder.

My point is: even if you make a personal website with no intent to create "content", there is an industry dead set on pressuring you to do so anyway.

My primary motivation for having a website was to "reserve" it for future. It's going to be nigh impossible to have a <firstname><lastname>.com in the future unless you have a very unique name.

Another motivator is to write some notes that you can google in the future. Write down a tutorial as a part of learning which others can benefit from it.

If you create value, you almost always capture it in some way. Not always money, it could be a job referral.

Might not be popular but if your first name is too common you can always change your first name (legally or not). Tons of people do it for the most arbitrary of reasons. Or who knows, maybe we will start seeing parents giving their children unique first names.

Eh, but why do we need it? I think given a mid term timescale (10ish years), there will likely be another layer of indirection added to the web experience, and people will start to shift from thinking in terms of specific domain names to some other mechanism of identification.

I’m sure it’ll still be possible to access websites using domain names, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something like “Dad why do you keep saying ‘.com’, nobody says that anymore. It’s embarrassing.”

I have nightmares of this future, where ChatGPT just pregenerates billions of firstname-lastname.coms and assigns them to you at birth as your destiny. "Welcome, human 12,435,428. You have been assigned the life of Mei MacIntyre. Flute and bagpipe training will commence at 36 months. Have a pleasant existence."

Wasn't there a similar sci-fi/fantasy short story, where it turned out the point of reincarnation was that before you could ascend, you had to live the life of every person who ever lived?

I'm not sure, but kinda sounds like that Black Mirror episode about dating through reincarnating multiple times? Or maybe it was a simulation?

"The Egg" by Andy Weir, and it's even worse than The Martian

What was so bad about The Martian? (Edit: And did you like any of his books, like Project Hail Mary?)

I blog, not to sell you something, but for myself and to share what I'm doing. My blog is all about my astrophotography, and it's a great way for me to show people what I do when the ask about it

I feel called out by your bio

I know you're meant to just upvote here rather than say 'me too' but I am also a sucker.

Hope you don't feel called out negatively! I love it when people click through and browse my site

Haha, not at all. Really cool work!

Those are amazing! I could've easily mistaken them for APoDs.

Is that really the color they look like to the naked eye (i.e. in the visible spectrum) or did you have to postprocess them?

Thank you! It's a mix, if you click into the images you can see details, especially on the latest ones. Ones labeled broadband or have LRGB capture details are true color, the ones labeled SHO or narrowband are in the hubble palette which assigns Red Green and Blue to Sulfur II, Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen III.

I used to blog, back in early to mid 2000s. Mostly game development stuff for Reactor 3D. I still have the domains and I'll keep them until I die. You can't get quality .com's anymore. I'd love to revive Reactor 3D someday given the advancements in gpu programming but alas, I'm old, and I need a nap.

Almost all of my tech goes through my domains though so it's useful to have. DNS alone for gh pages and email is worth it.

I always wanted to have personal website to not be thighed to Linkedin. I believe one can show his/her creativity, portfolio and maybe a few posts or list of links. I believe a common urltype (eg. www.whois-first-lastname.com or domain could be nice so people know where to look for.

Hey there. Since your contact info isn't on your profile - if you want a personal website I can help you out. Probably won't be the best in the world, but a good place to start - something _yours_. No $ involved, just hoping I'd get you interested in the nitty gritty parts of tech ;)

A webserver has far more uses than just showcasing or being reachable. It's a way to participate in the internet. I use mine more for showing people a random meme or pdf on $chatprotocol with a link than anything else. A static website with files in directories is both not a security risk and has almost no maintenance. And because it's just for fun you don't even need to leave your computer (and webserver) on so you can just use your normal computer where all your stuff already is. To share something I just use my OS file manager(s) to move the file to a webserver shared directory.

The only small hurdle for most is using a static IP on LAN and setting up port forwarding. Almost everyone's connection upstream is plenty fast.

>The only small hurdle

That made me laugh out loud. I have no idea what a static IP is, much less LAN, and port forwarding sounds to me like it might be related to shipping.

Sign me

TechnoDolts 'R Us

I used to write blog posts but quickly learned no one cares what I think and write. I used to share code as well using self hosted git repositories that were read-only.

I gave up both the writing and code sharing. My site is now a "who is" with a basic summary of me and serves as SEO fodder for anyone that Google's my name.

The other reason the site exists is because I wanted a private server for encrypted backups, private git repos, etc. I don't think I will ever go back to writing or sharing code. There's enough crap in the (internet) world, it doesn't need mine.

I remember the first couple of websites that I made back in 1997... Both were about The X-Files and Xena: Warrior Princess. Just basic info about the series, character and episode analysis and some screen captures taken with my TV tuner card. I've had an "about me" page in both of them with my contact information. I ended up making some basic websites for some small businesses in my area that wanted an online presence. A part of me wishes I had pursued Web development as a career.

I feel like personal websites were commonplace 20 years ago, almost expected. No real social media back then, so your website kind of became an extension of your online social life.

For the technically inclined yes, but sites like Geocities, MySpace, etc. brought it to the masses, then were killed off by Facebook. I remember seeing several articles from bloggers (with their own websites) saying they were moving their blogs to a social media site (often the now dead Google+) to relieve the headache of managing the site, moderating comments, etc. Using someone else's platform is seen as easier.

I have website just to say "we do cos we can"... Maybe some day i add there something, maybe not. But thats cos i can!

If you like this sort of thing, neocities is a gentle/jarring/nostalgic/vomit-inducing/wonderful/icky throwback to the 90s...

https://neocities.org/browse

Doesn't those link in bio sites provide the same benefits without you having to maintain a website?

The author doesn't talk about why having a website is superior. Is it the control?

Maintaining a website shows you're a step above the rest of the herd I suppose.

> This is clearly the result of living in a capitalist society. In recent years, people have felt the pressure to monetise their hobbies, so there’s a constant state of hustle. We all need money to exist in our society.

Not clear to me. I think the driver is perceived status. Kids want to be influencers because they think it's an easy road to a certain kind of fame. The money in content creation is not great, and even nominally successful influencers aren't as rich as they are perceived to be. If you cared about money and not fame, you'd go work for a hedge fund. If you cared about fame and not money, I cannot think of many better jobs than an online content creator. So this article has got it just about backwards.

I'm kinda split between "everyone should be blogging" and "I don't want what I say today to be archive.org'd and used to embarrass me 5/10/20 years down the line."

I've been exploring Haven (https://havenweb.org) and the idea of an invite-only blog is appealing. Keep your crawlers off my writing, please.

Keep your blog away from your personal information if that is your concern. Don't blog under your real name and update your robots.txt to keep crawlers away.

Or a content farm.

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