[HN Gopher] Blogging Through the Decades
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Blogging Through the Decades
Author : mooreds
Score : 54 points
Date : 2024-11-18 13:14 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (bcantrill.dtrace.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (bcantrill.dtrace.org)
| jmmv wrote:
| The article describes the author's walk through various companies
| (Sun, Joyent, Oxide) and how his blogging evolved with (and
| thanks to!) them. Not quite what I expected, particularly the
| points about how Sun truly encouraged blogging, so it was
| interesting in that regard. The many links to older articles help
| paint a good picture of this story.
|
| As for "conclusions"... I also hit the 2-decade mark earlier this
| year (https://blogsystem5.substack.com/p/20-years-of-blogging)
| and I can spot similar thoughts to mine: blogging has evolved
| from short/informal posts to longer-form more structured pieces,
| and the smaller "throw-away" articles that one would write in the
| past now happen in other platforms like Twitter or Reddit. Which
| matches... the trend for everyone else too?
| navigate8310 wrote:
| I believe for someone who wants to dive into blogging, start
| with "throw-away" articles otherwise giving pristine structure
| and stack will lead to analysis paralysis. Slowly and steadily
| hone your skills - writing and devops side of hosting your
| site.
| mooreds wrote:
| If you blog, do you go back and look at old pieces?
|
| I do that occasionally, mostly to reshare on social media or
| here. Gotta chase those karma points.
|
| But sometimes someone will ask a question in slack or via email
| that reminds me "I wrote something about that once!" and I'll dig
| up a piece to share.
|
| As a gift for a family member who had a non-technical blog, I
| once gathered posts together, edited them, and turned them into a
| book. That was a ton of fun.
| jmmv wrote:
| I'm doing that a lot at work actually because I have blogged
| extensively about Bazel before (and other related build topics)
| and many of those posts are coming handy to answer questions
| that people have at this "new" place. It has kinda become a
| meme. "Ah yeah, there is a post for that!"
| splitbrain wrote:
| Yes. I also have a "random blog post" button which I like to
| hit from time to time. It's nice to see where I was years ago
| and what was going on in my life back then. (my blog spans more
| than 20 years by now)
| tarkin2 wrote:
| With search engines polluted with SEO spam and AI vacuuming up
| content to ultimately sell it on, I lost the motivation to write
| publicly. I no longer feel I'm directly in touch with and helping
| the average Joe. Does anyone else feel like this? I can't I'm
| comfortable with my decision but nothing in the last year has
| made me reassess it.
| changreaction wrote:
| If anything, all the spam and lack of real discussion that
| shows up on my daily feeds has encouraged me to search for
| smaller authors and bloggers, who I find are more insightful
| anyways. Not all hope is lost!
| tarkin2 wrote:
| I have found no good way to smaller authors. I've seen a few
| web rings that give me cool but completely random websites.
| HN is the best I've got so far.
|
| A curated and subscribable list of smaller authors
| categorised by area, where the sites aren't wall-gardened and
| laiden with trackers, would seem to fit the bill.
| mooreds wrote:
| I mostly blog for myself. It helps me clarify my thoughts and
| really understand what I'm writing about. It also helps me
| remember myself as I was 5 or 10 years ago.
|
| If it weren't public, I don't think I'd do it. I've rarely kept
| a journal or diary.
|
| I hear you about AI, though. Aren't there headers you can add
| to dissuade those crawlers?
| navigate8310 wrote:
| You don't have to absolutely write for the public. Maybe some
| articles here and there but consider blogging as a
| documentation of some sort or "dear diary" but digital, running
| on the greatest and best tech stack.
| palata wrote:
| > AI vacuuming up content to ultimately sell it on
|
| To me that's this. I never cared for analytics and knowing how
| many people read what I write. But it appears I care about AI
| benefiting from it. There is no way to prevent them from
| stealing my content, so I may as well not publish it at all.
| ChrisClark wrote:
| Does anyone remember blogs being called E/N sites at first?
| Everything/Nothing sites?
|
| Maybe it was only in the group of sites I followed, but I think
| that name was pretty common.
| rpdillon wrote:
| Lived through that period and never heard of it.
|
| SA has a reference from 2000 that suggests it's a little bit
| different than a blog.
|
| https://www.somethingawful.com/news/en-spotlight/
| pncnmnp wrote:
| Nice article! I am about to reach the five-year mark of blogging
| (https://pncnmnp.github.io/blog.html) - I started during my
| second year as an undergraduate. Over the years, I've seen that:
|
| * Keeping the blogging stack minimal helps. Using simple tools
| has helped me focus entirely on the content. For instance, I
| write everything in Google Docs and then manually convert it to
| HTML.
|
| * It is beyond okay to feel stuck, especially with technical
| content. I often have several partially written drafts sitting
| around. Revisiting these drafts periodically helps me see them
| with fresh perspectives. Eventually, inspiration strikes, and I
| end up finishing those half-baked drafts.
|
| * It helps to avoid obsessing over analytics. I have
| intentionally avoided analytics, and it has kinda allowed me to
| focus on topics that genuinely interest me, rather than writing
| solely to please some imaginary audience. It kind of gives me the
| freedom to explore obscure subjects, even if they appeal to only
| a small number of my readers.
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