while rss is nice, it really shouldn't be required to be considered a blog.
being "followed" isn't always a good thing, it can create pressure to pander to your audience, the same thing that makes social media bad.
being "followed" isn't always a good thing, it can create pressure to pander to your audience, the same thing that makes social media bad.
RSS creates no such pressure, as you needn't be aware of who/what is following you. It's a convenience function simply for the convenience, rather than as a form and measure of external validation.
the fact that people want to read every new thing being posted is external validation, rather than letting each piece stand alone by its merit.
Personally, I blog in my head but am concerned still it could lead to bias in my other activities which are mainly related to sitting under a tree by a lake in the middle of nowhere.
Worrying about this “pressure” is a great way to be that guy with three posts about their new static site generator and nothing else.
I tend to expect most useful sources of high-quality information to have a fair amount of off-topic content, since it's hard to reach critical mass on a single narrow niche. I read Hacker News, but click maybe 10% of the links
Yes. If some of my readers don’t like that I do that too often (or even once), they can unsubscribe.
Meanwhile, _as_ a reader, feeds like RSS and Atom are super useful. They let a computer check my favorite sites so I don’t have to.
I agree. A blog is literally a web log. A chronological sequence of posts published on the web. RSS is certainly helpful for syndication and distribution but I wouldn't consider it to be a defining part of what a web log is.
As soon as you start catering to and fishing for views you lose that angle. Not a drama, but it’s already 99.5% of the internet.
Edit : I really like Marginalia search, for prioritizing non commercial content.