Curated list of personal blogs(refined.blog)
refined.blog
Curated list of personal blogs
https://refined.blog/
133 comments
Is there varied content on micro.blog? The concept is nice (simple social network using RSS) but I’ve been looking at the “discover” page a few times and the content really doesn’t seem interesting, although the vibe is polite and calm.
So, couple things about the Discover page.
First, it's categorized. The platform uses emoji instead of hashtags and the Discover page has a set of defaults, so clicking on the dropdown at the top of the page will give you some other options. You could also try a keyword search to find posts related to topics you're interested in, and then see if you want to follow those people.
That being said, the second thing to know about the Discover page is that it's hand curated, and I'll be the first to admit that there's a pretty clear bias in the kinds of posts that bubble up. :) For example, I follow @adamcomputer (https://micro.blog/adamcomputer), because, as you can probably guess, I'm very much a nerd. But I don't know that I've ever seen any of his stuff land in the Discover feed. So instead, I sometimes find interesting people and look at who they're following and go from there.
Now, I still very much enjoy browsing the Discovery feeds! But I'll be the first to admit discoverability is, at least in my opinion, still a challenge on the service.
First, it's categorized. The platform uses emoji instead of hashtags and the Discover page has a set of defaults, so clicking on the dropdown at the top of the page will give you some other options. You could also try a keyword search to find posts related to topics you're interested in, and then see if you want to follow those people.
That being said, the second thing to know about the Discover page is that it's hand curated, and I'll be the first to admit that there's a pretty clear bias in the kinds of posts that bubble up. :) For example, I follow @adamcomputer (https://micro.blog/adamcomputer), because, as you can probably guess, I'm very much a nerd. But I don't know that I've ever seen any of his stuff land in the Discover feed. So instead, I sometimes find interesting people and look at who they're following and go from there.
Now, I still very much enjoy browsing the Discovery feeds! But I'll be the first to admit discoverability is, at least in my opinion, still a challenge on the service.
These are amazing. These approaches make writing blogs very tempting. Thanks for sharing
Indieweb uses Slack? That's... confusing.
"Indieweb uses Slack" in the sense that, yes, there is an Indieweb Slack team. There are probably also people who contribute to the Indieweb who use Twitter and Facebook and other fully proprietary systems, as well as many who use Micro.blog, which is built using established open standards but does not make its server open source.
Don't be the guy who strokes his chin and says "You say you're a vegan, yet you have a leather wallet. Interesting."
Don't be the guy who strokes his chin and says "You say you're a vegan, yet you have a leather wallet. Interesting."
They use a bridge between IRC, Matrix, and Slack.
Awesome, I agree, personal blogs are great.
I can't help but notice all the blogs tagged "software" in the list (so far). In fact, I think if there was a filter to exclude software blogs, there might be only a few remaining?
I missed out on the whole RSS thing when it was popular. My sense was that it solved the problem of knowing when, among a whole bunch of blogs, a site had new content.
Perhaps it exists, I want an app/site that will scrape a list of sites I give it (blogs for example) to show me any new content each day. A personal home page with titles and perhaps a hundred or so words from each site I track that has new content.
In the broader picture, I feel overwhelmed by the amount of technology these days, spend too much of my time browsing, etc. (HN, case in point). So I am looking for something I call TRAoT, The Right Amount of Technology.
Maybe it's a "magic mirror" that displays this overview, home page. Interactivity is minimal or nil. No ability to comment, follow links, etc. Like the morning newspaper of old, I spend a little time in the morning with it and then go about my day "offline".
In short I am looking at ways to take the open-ended and stress inducing (anxiety inducing?) relationships I have with technology and replace them with a more staid, maybe even serendipitous, relationship that allows me back more free time, less stress.
Maybe this "Solar Punk" thing is something of the Zeitgeist of our time.
I can't help but notice all the blogs tagged "software" in the list (so far). In fact, I think if there was a filter to exclude software blogs, there might be only a few remaining?
I missed out on the whole RSS thing when it was popular. My sense was that it solved the problem of knowing when, among a whole bunch of blogs, a site had new content.
Perhaps it exists, I want an app/site that will scrape a list of sites I give it (blogs for example) to show me any new content each day. A personal home page with titles and perhaps a hundred or so words from each site I track that has new content.
In the broader picture, I feel overwhelmed by the amount of technology these days, spend too much of my time browsing, etc. (HN, case in point). So I am looking for something I call TRAoT, The Right Amount of Technology.
Maybe it's a "magic mirror" that displays this overview, home page. Interactivity is minimal or nil. No ability to comment, follow links, etc. Like the morning newspaper of old, I spend a little time in the morning with it and then go about my day "offline".
In short I am looking at ways to take the open-ended and stress inducing (anxiety inducing?) relationships I have with technology and replace them with a more staid, maybe even serendipitous, relationship that allows me back more free time, less stress.
Maybe this "Solar Punk" thing is something of the Zeitgeist of our time.
What you want is RSS, but you don't need to learn how it works at all. Go to feedly.com and create a (free) account. Add sites you want to follow (there's an 'add content' button which lets you search by URL). Done. Feedly will give you a home page with titles and blurbs, and for many sites you can even get the 'reader mode' content without navigating to the site directly.
[Not affiliated with feedly, just a happy user]
[Not affiliated with feedly, just a happy user]
I think it’s similar to Feedly but I’m a fan of feedbin.com
And for an iOS/Mac client I _highly_ recommend “Reeder”. [0]
Have used both for years now.
[0] https://reederapp.com
And for an iOS/Mac client I _highly_ recommend “Reeder”. [0]
Have used both for years now.
[0] https://reederapp.com
https://www.newsblur.com representin'
Looks v interesting but could do with a mobile friendly website!
After a period of inactivity, NetNewsWire (https://netnewswire.com) is back as FOSS, and it's awesome.
+ 1 for Reeder - great design!
Have you tried Inoreader? cheaper and better than Feedly. I wasn't too happy with Feedly's UI and found it very confusing.
What was confusing?
In the Ancient Times there were a couple of different approaches to something similar to what you are asking for.
On the one side, for many years that was what people considered their "home page": you'd use a "Portal" like Yahoo! or MSN.com and they'd support all sorts of customization, including blocks for RSS feeds you'd give it. It's hard to imagine today's super-curated and overly news-obsessed Yahoo! or MSN.com being truly customizable and allowing you to pick and choose RSS feeds over media conglomerate content, but Yahoo! has fallen quite far from its peak and MSN.com and others were always flirting with the media conglomerates over user interests.
The other thing that existed in the Ancient Times that even fewer remember today was that HP believed RSS feeds actually could herald the "personal morning newspaper era" and that it would be great for printer and ink sales so they had an RSS reader for years that you'd give it a list of RSS feeds and a print schedule and it would happily have your "morning newspaper" printed and waiting for you.
It was an interesting idea, though I still don't think the waste of paper/ink on that was necessarily the best idea for the planet, but there was some romance to the concept of a "personalized morning newspaper".
Most e-readers have an RSS app or three, some with strong offline support. You might be able to get what you want from the right app.
I've also seen some interesting DIY projects (mostly here on HN) of people taking big e-ink displays and building ambient personal news surfaces. Nothing productized yet, but very cool to see people DIY exploring the "magic mirror" spaces for non-interactive "here's a glance at stuff you care about" displays.
On the one side, for many years that was what people considered their "home page": you'd use a "Portal" like Yahoo! or MSN.com and they'd support all sorts of customization, including blocks for RSS feeds you'd give it. It's hard to imagine today's super-curated and overly news-obsessed Yahoo! or MSN.com being truly customizable and allowing you to pick and choose RSS feeds over media conglomerate content, but Yahoo! has fallen quite far from its peak and MSN.com and others were always flirting with the media conglomerates over user interests.
The other thing that existed in the Ancient Times that even fewer remember today was that HP believed RSS feeds actually could herald the "personal morning newspaper era" and that it would be great for printer and ink sales so they had an RSS reader for years that you'd give it a list of RSS feeds and a print schedule and it would happily have your "morning newspaper" printed and waiting for you.
It was an interesting idea, though I still don't think the waste of paper/ink on that was necessarily the best idea for the planet, but there was some romance to the concept of a "personalized morning newspaper".
Most e-readers have an RSS app or three, some with strong offline support. You might be able to get what you want from the right app.
I've also seen some interesting DIY projects (mostly here on HN) of people taking big e-ink displays and building ambient personal news surfaces. Nothing productized yet, but very cool to see people DIY exploring the "magic mirror" spaces for non-interactive "here's a glance at stuff you care about" displays.
RSS is still popular[ly-supported]. It's not too late.
I felt exactly the way you did for a long time. Eventually, I decided to invest in setting up a more healthy and symmetric relationship with information, like you describe.
I realized RSS was the right tool for this goal. I'd definitely recommend trying this, even if you don't have the gall to self-host. It feels like I get three square meals a day, instead of injecting corn syrup every 15 minutes for 16 hours.
I chose to self-host my reader + data store, so that all of the data can live on my machine, and so I'm not dependent on some VC, advertising, or goodwill-backed project that will kick the can in a few years. There are plenty of good options. I decided to try out miniflux [1] as a first pass because I liked it's dependency graph, and haven't felt the need to try anything else.
Most blogging platforms (blogger, squarespace, wordpress, substack) produce RSS feeds by default. News aggregators like HN and Reddit have robust APIs for generating RSS feeds.
There are products like you describe, that convert a web page into an RSS feed with various hacks. IMO, this creates too big of a dependency on a flaky third-party. It might (literally!) be easier to build+maintain it yourself for the few sites that don't have an RSS feed, with `curl` `echo` and `sed`.
[1]: https://github.com/miniflux/v2
I felt exactly the way you did for a long time. Eventually, I decided to invest in setting up a more healthy and symmetric relationship with information, like you describe.
I realized RSS was the right tool for this goal. I'd definitely recommend trying this, even if you don't have the gall to self-host. It feels like I get three square meals a day, instead of injecting corn syrup every 15 minutes for 16 hours.
I chose to self-host my reader + data store, so that all of the data can live on my machine, and so I'm not dependent on some VC, advertising, or goodwill-backed project that will kick the can in a few years. There are plenty of good options. I decided to try out miniflux [1] as a first pass because I liked it's dependency graph, and haven't felt the need to try anything else.
Most blogging platforms (blogger, squarespace, wordpress, substack) produce RSS feeds by default. News aggregators like HN and Reddit have robust APIs for generating RSS feeds.
There are products like you describe, that convert a web page into an RSS feed with various hacks. IMO, this creates too big of a dependency on a flaky third-party. It might (literally!) be easier to build+maintain it yourself for the few sites that don't have an RSS feed, with `curl` `echo` and `sed`.
[1]: https://github.com/miniflux/v2
Squarespace pages don’t always have a feed, unfortunately
RSS is the best! I use tinytinyrss to have my news in a way I want them, as we all should ;)
Sounds pretty close to RSS to me...what do you see as the difference between what you envision and existing RSS?
I honestly don't understand, haven't learned RSS.
Honestly, it's not that complicated. The site publishes a feed, and you can use any RSS reader to consume that feed. Some readers are out in the cloud, others are self-hosted as services, yet others are client-side applications.
In general, most blogs and major news sources, along with aggregators like Reddit and Hacker News, publish RSS feeds. It's basically the way I consume content on the web.
If you want to give it a try I'd recommend Feedly.
In general, most blogs and major news sources, along with aggregators like Reddit and Hacker News, publish RSS feeds. It's basically the way I consume content on the web.
If you want to give it a try I'd recommend Feedly.
I had similar wants as you and settled on the web extension fraidyc.at
I'm satisfied so far.
I'm satisfied so far.
> I can't help but notice all the blogs tagged "software" in the list (so far). In fact, I think if there was a filter to exclude software blogs, there might be only a few remaining?
Sort the table by Tags.
There are 9 non-software blogs out of ~250 blogs. So, yes, about 96% software.
Sort the table by Tags.
There are 9 non-software blogs out of ~250 blogs. So, yes, about 96% software.
I think what you want is a "Planet" set up? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_(software) or maybe something like River5? https://github.com/scripting/river5
I mean, it's building in "Hacker News Points" as a first-level primitive, so idk if they mind that software's the focus.
If you’re on Apple products, go get NetNewsWire in the App Store and use your iCloud space to sync subscriptions between devices. You’ll have to manually add RSS feeds, but those are usually discoverable by doing a web search for your site + feed or rss, or by adding /feed or /rss to the end of the site URL to see if it’s hiding there.
Most websites that have RSS have a meta tag that identifies the RSS feed, you can just put the normal URL to the site/blog into your RSS reader and it will pick up the RSS feed URL from the meta tag.
RSS still works fine for me. I use Feedly, but there are others.
Seconded, I use Feedly daily
Inoreader is the closest to the Google Reader and the free account is really useful.
I like the app as well and it can scrap websites that don't even provide RSS feeds, given that they are scrabbable of course.
I like the app as well and it can scrap websites that don't even provide RSS feeds, given that they are scrabbable of course.
Agreed. From a very happy Inoreader user!
I am afraid to blog. I could write about my career and my hobby, but those do not seem to be interesting for others. My opinion may be interesting, but it is risky because something I write may come back to offend others one day, or get me in trouble. One time ago I considered blogging anonymously about the economy but doing so anonymously felt disingenuous.
As someone who would like to blog but doesn't, because I don't put in the effort:
> I am afraid to blog.
Don't be.
> I could write about my career and my hobby, but those do not seem to be interesting for others.
Says who? Let others be the judge.
> My opinion may be interesting, but it is risky because something I write may come back to offend others one day, or get me in trouble.
This one is tricky but its easy: be careful with humor as that tends to be a source of social faux pas. Steer clear from politics. Stay on topic.
example: I was reading a blog about Linux desktop critique which devolved into a stupid rant about RMS and woke politics. Hard fail on the authors part.
> One time ago I considered blogging anonymously about the economy but doing so anonymously felt disingenuous.
Many people throughout history have wrote many things under anonymous pen names. It's fine.
> I am afraid to blog.
Don't be.
> I could write about my career and my hobby, but those do not seem to be interesting for others.
Says who? Let others be the judge.
> My opinion may be interesting, but it is risky because something I write may come back to offend others one day, or get me in trouble.
This one is tricky but its easy: be careful with humor as that tends to be a source of social faux pas. Steer clear from politics. Stay on topic.
example: I was reading a blog about Linux desktop critique which devolved into a stupid rant about RMS and woke politics. Hard fail on the authors part.
> One time ago I considered blogging anonymously about the economy but doing so anonymously felt disingenuous.
Many people throughout history have wrote many things under anonymous pen names. It's fine.
Anonymity isn't a guarantee. But with reasonable op sec e.g. don't use your nick elsewhere, don't tell people about your blog, don't promote under your name, you're pretty safe so long as you mostly stay away from politically controversial issues. (Which may be why some people want to blog of course, but I have no interest.) Frankly, you're pretty safe so long as you stay away from polarizing topics and kicking hornet nests in any case but anonymity does add another layer of protection. Of course, you don't get professional benefit either if that's a concern.
I think it's valuable to just blog for your own sake as well. It gets you into a habit of putting your thoughts into words, which in my experience helps my understanding of the topic.
About offending people - think of it as an opportunity to learn. You put your opinions out there, and if someone points out a flaw in your thought process, you try to see where you went wrong. If you were wrong, you get to make another blog post explaining your new understanding, and thanking the person who helped you get there. If you weren't wrong... well, there are trolls on the internet everywhere, you just learn to ignore them.
About offending people - think of it as an opportunity to learn. You put your opinions out there, and if someone points out a flaw in your thought process, you try to see where you went wrong. If you were wrong, you get to make another blog post explaining your new understanding, and thanking the person who helped you get there. If you weren't wrong... well, there are trolls on the internet everywhere, you just learn to ignore them.
> If you weren't wrong... well, there are trolls on the internet everywhere, you just learn to ignore them.
Until you end up being the target of an internet mob bent on harassing you and everyone associated with you until someone breaks.
This is probably a lot rarer than headlines make it seem, but I share OP's anxiety about blogging about anything even tangentially related to politics.
Until you end up being the target of an internet mob bent on harassing you and everyone associated with you until someone breaks.
This is probably a lot rarer than headlines make it seem, but I share OP's anxiety about blogging about anything even tangentially related to politics.
I sympathize with all you say, I've been through all that myself. But why would blogging anonymously be disingenuous? Plenty of writers have opted for anonymity. If the ideas spur thought or discussion, they're still valuable.
[deleted]
I've had a blog for about 6 years, with over 300 entries. I don't advertise it, and try to disallow indexing by search engines. It's "anonymous" in the sense that my name isn't on it anywhere, and it doesn't contain personal details. There's no commenting, no integration with social media. It's just for friends, and if they want to talk to me about anything I write there, they know how to reach me.
I felt the same pressure as you, but so far it's been very rewarding: turns out I don't have to get famous to enjoy blogging, which was something I wanted to test when I started it. So far so good.
I felt the same pressure as you, but so far it's been very rewarding: turns out I don't have to get famous to enjoy blogging, which was something I wanted to test when I started it. So far so good.
Your hobby (whatever it may be) is interesting to at least one person: you! I bet you find other folks on the Internet who are interested too. If it's not a common topic, they'll likely appreciate your blog all the more because of that.
Absolutely nothing wrong with anonymous/pseudonymous blogs/Twitter/etc.
When your blog is part of your in real life public presence, you obviously don't want to do that. And I started blogging before many of today's concerns became as big a deal. But, if I were starting a blog today that was divorced from my professional identity, I'd seriously consider not connecting it to real life me--especially if I regularly blogged about political issues (which I don't).
There's a long history of people writing under pseudonyms. If someone really cares they might be able to connect the dots (and many times so if they're a government) but that's not the attack scenario for most people.
When your blog is part of your in real life public presence, you obviously don't want to do that. And I started blogging before many of today's concerns became as big a deal. But, if I were starting a blog today that was divorced from my professional identity, I'd seriously consider not connecting it to real life me--especially if I regularly blogged about political issues (which I don't).
There's a long history of people writing under pseudonyms. If someone really cares they might be able to connect the dots (and many times so if they're a government) but that's not the attack scenario for most people.
Which is a dark side of "cancel culture". When people (or media entities) decide to connect the dots then reveal the identity to whatever twitter mob is relevant.
Hopefully this doesn't become a bigger trend. As you said, the government can connect the dots if they need/want to. There's no need to vigilantes to do it on their behalf.
Hopefully this doesn't become a bigger trend. As you said, the government can connect the dots if they need/want to. There's no need to vigilantes to do it on their behalf.
[deleted]
Interesting, I came to post the same thing.
It's a shame, semi-permanent communication now represents an attack surface for randos hoping for their free-floating rage to find a surface upon which it might condense. In a sense, this provides little benefit to you except as an outlet and perhaps as a way to exercise writing skills, learning about a blogging platform, perhaps SEO (or not!), and so forth, but now the possible benefits are outweighed by the potential negatives.
The future looks like a lot of people performing the "grey rock" method. It's a pity, but that's the system as it punishes and rewards today.
It's a shame, semi-permanent communication now represents an attack surface for randos hoping for their free-floating rage to find a surface upon which it might condense. In a sense, this provides little benefit to you except as an outlet and perhaps as a way to exercise writing skills, learning about a blogging platform, perhaps SEO (or not!), and so forth, but now the possible benefits are outweighed by the potential negatives.
The future looks like a lot of people performing the "grey rock" method. It's a pity, but that's the system as it punishes and rewards today.
They make a lot of headlines, but you really have to say something extremely boneheaded for anyone to care about your opinions enough to do something about it. Stick to topics you're knowledgeable about (this is how you avoid saying boneheaded things), and generally stay positive and constructive, and you won't have any trouble. The fear you're feeling is wildly out of whack with reality.
Or you can be some random Mexican guy fired for making an OK sign with your hand, by accident.
Because that is now the white power sign. That's reality now.
Because that is now the white power sign. That's reality now.
That doesn't seem very relevant to the topic of creating a personal blog.
In the sense that I was discussing, you know, just existing and expressing yourself at a bare minimum, and suddenly having strangers swoop in to get you cancelled, it's relevant enough to me.
My point is very simple, and it goes for blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or bumper stickers on your truck: there's a lot of people out there who looking for the barest thing to fixate upon to get you in trouble, right down to a simple knuckle-crack.
My point is very simple, and it goes for blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or bumper stickers on your truck: there's a lot of people out there who looking for the barest thing to fixate upon to get you in trouble, right down to a simple knuckle-crack.
Yeah what I'm saying is that doesn't really happen in the real world, unless you go invite controversy by discussing controversial topics, especially if you aren't an expert on those topics. And even then it's honestly pretty rare and there's even whole industries dedicated to supporting people who are purposefully provocative.
I'll be blunt: I think it's very unlikely that your opinions on <insert current controversial topic> are going to revolutionize the status of the debate on that topic. The world has nothing to gain by you writing about that topic, and as you say, there's a chance you have something to lose. So just don't write about that. My advice if you want to maintain a blog is to write about something you care about and know about.
You can view my personal blog if you like, it's in my profile. I write about woodworking and video games and gardening. No one has tried to destroy my life for my experiences with growing grapevines. Sure, if I went off on a rant about <insert controversial topic> or wrote a bunch of hyper-negative invective about <insert group of people>, yeah that might come back to bite me. So I don't.
No one's going to come after you for a personal blog about playing guitar or whatever. Stay positive. Stay constructive. Stick to what you know. Don't invite controversy. You'll be fine, and maybe you'll even create something that touches someone else in a positive way.
I'll be blunt: I think it's very unlikely that your opinions on <insert current controversial topic> are going to revolutionize the status of the debate on that topic. The world has nothing to gain by you writing about that topic, and as you say, there's a chance you have something to lose. So just don't write about that. My advice if you want to maintain a blog is to write about something you care about and know about.
You can view my personal blog if you like, it's in my profile. I write about woodworking and video games and gardening. No one has tried to destroy my life for my experiences with growing grapevines. Sure, if I went off on a rant about <insert controversial topic> or wrote a bunch of hyper-negative invective about <insert group of people>, yeah that might come back to bite me. So I don't.
No one's going to come after you for a personal blog about playing guitar or whatever. Stay positive. Stay constructive. Stick to what you know. Don't invite controversy. You'll be fine, and maybe you'll even create something that touches someone else in a positive way.
Except a guy cracking his knuckles got fired, in the real world, so when you say that it doesn't happen, I know that is wrong. We both know it is wrong. I shall now post the link so you can stop saying "that doesn't happen."
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove...
There. It happened. In the real world. So cracking your knuckles is there under "inviting controversy."
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove...
There. It happened. In the real world. So cracking your knuckles is there under "inviting controversy."
Yeah like I said, I'm having a hard time drawing an analogy from that to maintaining a personal blog about a hobby you like or whatever.
Okay, I'll break the analogy down for you, since you are having a hard time:
Part one: You, me, the writer (any human being)
Part two: Existing in a public space (to be found via Google or or noticed in Twitter or making stuff on Etsy or showing things on Instagram or just being photographed in person)
Part three: Self-expression of any form (writing something that will be found "colonial," or a blog, or making a hand gesture, cracking one's knuckles, or standing there with an uncomfortable smile, or even knitting (https://unherd.com/2020/01/cast-out-how-knitting-fell-into-a...) in that public space
Part four: Negative consequence for that self-expression ("cancelled," getting fired, the usual death threats, "screaming, hats first into the wood chipper") from ... people who have never even met you, who found that self-expression in the public space.
Cardinal Richelieu: "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged."
It's the revolutionary spirit of the times. These incidents occur. You may not be aware of them, but others are aware of them, and they have what is known as a chilling effect.
Part one: You, me, the writer (any human being)
Part two: Existing in a public space (to be found via Google or or noticed in Twitter or making stuff on Etsy or showing things on Instagram or just being photographed in person)
Part three: Self-expression of any form (writing something that will be found "colonial," or a blog, or making a hand gesture, cracking one's knuckles, or standing there with an uncomfortable smile, or even knitting (https://unherd.com/2020/01/cast-out-how-knitting-fell-into-a...) in that public space
Part four: Negative consequence for that self-expression ("cancelled," getting fired, the usual death threats, "screaming, hats first into the wood chipper") from ... people who have never even met you, who found that self-expression in the public space.
Cardinal Richelieu: "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged."
It's the revolutionary spirit of the times. These incidents occur. You may not be aware of them, but others are aware of them, and they have what is known as a chilling effect.
Haha, if websites like that that are where you're getting your news from, I can see why you're terrified all the time! I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I'll choose to take the risk and keep blogging about grapes :)
I'm sorry, are you suggesting that these things didn't happen? Because that is the only translation I have of "getting your news from."
Is the idea that the NBC San Diego branch just ... made this up? That the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d70h) fabricated this wholesale? Let's just click through some of those hyperlinks in the Unherd thing. https://fringeassociation.com/2019/01/07/2019-my-year-of-col... sure seems to have happened; take care to note "I've offended many people with this post, and for that I am deeply sorry. Please read my comment here. And 01.12 Please read my follow-up about what’s wrong with this post here."
These are all things that have occurred in "reality" and the "real world," to use your diction. You can now ignore them -- feel free! -- but pretending that they didn't happen is, I don't know, a performance only for yourself, because I cannot unsee what has been seen.
I am not terrified; as above, I pointed out that the potential negatives outweigh the possible benefits at this point. It's a simple analysis. You have elected not to factor those real world events into your analysis.
Is the idea that the NBC San Diego branch just ... made this up? That the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000d70h) fabricated this wholesale? Let's just click through some of those hyperlinks in the Unherd thing. https://fringeassociation.com/2019/01/07/2019-my-year-of-col... sure seems to have happened; take care to note "I've offended many people with this post, and for that I am deeply sorry. Please read my comment here. And 01.12 Please read my follow-up about what’s wrong with this post here."
These are all things that have occurred in "reality" and the "real world," to use your diction. You can now ignore them -- feel free! -- but pretending that they didn't happen is, I don't know, a performance only for yourself, because I cannot unsee what has been seen.
I am not terrified; as above, I pointed out that the potential negatives outweigh the possible benefits at this point. It's a simple analysis. You have elected not to factor those real world events into your analysis.
I think the biggest issue is that those who are most moderate, most interested in nuance, and the most correct are most likely to be grey rocks. True believers who are committed to their views are most likely to be outspoken, since they value that belief above other considerations.
In short, we will breed a society dictated by extremes.
You can say anything you want, but only in the guise of anonymity (private). You can choose to reveal yourself, but then you cannot say anything substantially radical (public).
The more important thing that is happening isn't all the fuss about "cancel culture" or "free speech", it's that society is pushing towards the absolute division of the grey area between the public and the private, which is the area where politics actually take place. The real danger is that speech itself, in one mode entirely full of consequences and in another mode devoid of any, will become meaningless because of this distinction. What you say will no longer be related to what you actually do anymore, and speech will just be a floating signifier that no longer has any basis in reality and will lose the ability to change the world. The "freedom of speech" isn't the thing at stake, it's the value of speech itself that's being jeopardized.
The more important thing that is happening isn't all the fuss about "cancel culture" or "free speech", it's that society is pushing towards the absolute division of the grey area between the public and the private, which is the area where politics actually take place. The real danger is that speech itself, in one mode entirely full of consequences and in another mode devoid of any, will become meaningless because of this distinction. What you say will no longer be related to what you actually do anymore, and speech will just be a floating signifier that no longer has any basis in reality and will lose the ability to change the world. The "freedom of speech" isn't the thing at stake, it's the value of speech itself that's being jeopardized.
I came to say similar. I ran a personal blog for a while and toy with the idea of revamping it occasionally. But my objections generally fall into two categories:
* For tech-heavy programming/operations how-to or bugfix content, Stack Overflow killed those for me. As a consumer would rather find the bubbled-up "right" answer than wade through Google hits for forums/blogs that may or may not be right. As a writer, I no longer felt my personal blog was the best place for such content.
* For opinions on current events, industry, etc. I don't feel I have something new or important to say.
I feel old and curmudgeonly now. Thanks.
I feel old and curmudgeonly now. Thanks.
Re: Stack Overflow
I think there is still quite a lot of value for solutions that you could devise because of experience.
For instance something you came up with where you had to piece together multiple SO answers for a particular use case.
For example, my blog has had thousands of hits on a page to set up Active directory login with rails even though that question is on SO because my use case was quite specific.
Or, things that you came up with because you have experience with reading the docs or the source code.
Or even where you were skilled enough to override part of existing library for a better solution.
And finally quirks that you discovered while using specific tools that might be documented but might have side effects that are a bit more arcane.
I think there is still quite a lot of value for solutions that you could devise because of experience.
For instance something you came up with where you had to piece together multiple SO answers for a particular use case.
For example, my blog has had thousands of hits on a page to set up Active directory login with rails even though that question is on SO because my use case was quite specific.
Or, things that you came up with because you have experience with reading the docs or the source code.
Or even where you were skilled enough to override part of existing library for a better solution.
And finally quirks that you discovered while using specific tools that might be documented but might have side effects that are a bit more arcane.
Every genius in all ages held some weird view all their lifetime, even by modern standards. But history forgets those, and remembers their contributions for the good.
History forgets most of the good ones too. We just remember some outliers.
I think his concern is it affecting job prospects, etc. Being recognized after one dies is not appealing to him :-)
(I often look at biographies, and being recognized only years after death is quite common).
I think his concern is it affecting job prospects, etc. Being recognized after one dies is not appealing to him :-)
(I often look at biographies, and being recognized only years after death is quite common).
Historically I think you’re mostly correct.
The question that I don’t think we have an answer to (but we see some worrisome trends) is: does this hold up in an era where those odd beliefs aren’t just a footnote somewhere but instead tightly bound to ones identity for the rest of eternity?
Basically, how does social media and “cancel culture” change things, or does it?
The question that I don’t think we have an answer to (but we see some worrisome trends) is: does this hold up in an era where those odd beliefs aren’t just a footnote somewhere but instead tightly bound to ones identity for the rest of eternity?
Basically, how does social media and “cancel culture” change things, or does it?
I got a site. Most of my visitors are bots. 30 visitors per month. 25 bots, remaining 5 times I visited knowing from analytics.
Don't overthink. You see there are many one post sites out there. If you can manage it regularly do it.
Don't overthink. You see there are many one post sites out there. If you can manage it regularly do it.
There is no opinion which is safe from others taking offense. You might as well blog.
Anonymity is not disingenuous. If you want to be super scrupulous about this, choose a pseudonym that is clearly not a real name.
You could consider adding the sentence to your blog post: “I have written the above based on my present understanding, experience and maturity. As these improve over time, hopefully my opinions would improve too!”
It would be harmful to add such a disclaimer. It would not assuage those who would take offense and it would hurt reader trust.
All writing is from a present understanding.
All writing is from a present understanding.
If all writing is from a present understanding, how could it hurt reader trust to acknowledge that explicitly?
I would expect the following kind of writers to use that that disclaimer:
* The writer expresses poorly considered opinions, loosely holds them. They won't bother defending them.
* The writer expresses anodyne opinions that might one day become controversial, they won't bother holding onto them when the rest of society moves on from them.
In both cases, I wouldn't bother reading what they had to say. I could open the opinion section of any newspaper to get the same content with twice the conviction.
Nothing wrong with hedging your opinions in-text. But if you're hedging everything you say before you've even bothered to say it, you either have nothing interesting to say or probably censor yourself enough already.
* The writer expresses poorly considered opinions, loosely holds them. They won't bother defending them.
* The writer expresses anodyne opinions that might one day become controversial, they won't bother holding onto them when the rest of society moves on from them.
In both cases, I wouldn't bother reading what they had to say. I could open the opinion section of any newspaper to get the same content with twice the conviction.
Nothing wrong with hedging your opinions in-text. But if you're hedging everything you say before you've even bothered to say it, you either have nothing interesting to say or probably censor yourself enough already.
Interesting. It sounds like we value very different kinds of writing.
considering people pick tweets from 10 years ago out-of-context (and out of the thread they are part of), I don't see much benefit
That sounds like something from a struggle session, just written preemptively.
This is similar to the "managers don't want to talk to female employees".
The solution is simple. Treat all people as people. If you can't, don't talk about them.
Edit: Perhaps projecting my opinions I assumed you were talking about political correctness. However re-reading your post I am not so sure that's what you meant.
The solution is simple. Treat all people as people. If you can't, don't talk about them.
Edit: Perhaps projecting my opinions I assumed you were talking about political correctness. However re-reading your post I am not so sure that's what you meant.
He's concerned that his views may become controversial in future. Someone with published centre-right views in Cambodia in 1965 would have felt fairly safe. Fifteen years later they would have been dead.
(Ah! I notice you've edited it. It's worth pointing out that 'Political Correctness' was originally a term to describe the 'correct' behaviour of people in totalitarian states.)
(Ah! I notice you've edited it. It's worth pointing out that 'Political Correctness' was originally a term to describe the 'correct' behaviour of people in totalitarian states.)
I respond to posts the same way I write code.
I write it first, then look for edge cases.
Perhaps I should add a new step, post after the edge cases have been considered.
I write it first, then look for edge cases.
Perhaps I should add a new step, post after the edge cases have been considered.
> Perhaps I should add a new step, post after the edge cases have been considered
Or use the "delay" feature on your HN profile page: e.g. mine is set to 2, meaning after I post a comment, I have 2 minutes to edit, reconsider, proofread or delete before anyone sees it.
Or use the "delay" feature on your HN profile page: e.g. mine is set to 2, meaning after I post a comment, I have 2 minutes to edit, reconsider, proofread or delete before anyone sees it.
I guess we all have different edge cases to our worldviews!
"Treat all people as people."
Which also means taking into account that some people are, in fact, unfair assholes and that you may fail to recognize them in time.
Which also means taking into account that some people are, in fact, unfair assholes and that you may fail to recognize them in time.
Hi, nowadays blogging is becoming less and less popular and people use twitter as their personal blog. This site is created to provide curated list of fine blogs, provided with their tags,feed links and hackernews page. The site is hosted on github and you can contribute to it if you want.
Unfortunately my code examples are not leet enough to fit in a Tweet.
I dislike medium but I also worry that if too many people are reinventing their blog platform, aren't we risking low quality non-scrapable content?
Is there a blogging platform that you just have to fill in the blanks and get RSS, accessible content with perhaps a very basic gui and code editor for posts?
I dislike medium but I also worry that if too many people are reinventing their blog platform, aren't we risking low quality non-scrapable content?
Is there a blogging platform that you just have to fill in the blanks and get RSS, accessible content with perhaps a very basic gui and code editor for posts?
Ghost[0]. Seriously, from a user perspective, it doesn't get any simpler than that. You fill a few variables in settings, you write, that's it.
I've toyed around with WordPress, Jekyll, Hugo, etc etc and spent more time making shit work as I want it to than I did actually writing things. Ghost is amazing and I won't look for anything else for a long time.
[0] https://ghost.org/
I've toyed around with WordPress, Jekyll, Hugo, etc etc and spent more time making shit work as I want it to than I did actually writing things. Ghost is amazing and I won't look for anything else for a long time.
[0] https://ghost.org/
Google's Blogger still works pretty well for me although I don't use it a lot these days. (Most of my professional writing is published on platforms with editors and I sort of got out of writing random more personal musings--yes, probably in part because Twitter.)
I even fired up a hosted Wordpress site a few years ago but then never did much with it so I shut it down.
I even fired up a hosted Wordpress site a few years ago but then never did much with it so I shut it down.
Twitter is becoming less relevant for personal stuff, it's mostly politics now. For personal things, people use Tiktok and youtube now.
Do you have examples of people using tiktok for programming or software related topics? Generally curious what the content is like.
Software talk on instagram is pretty surface level and very picture oriented (look at my desk setup/terminal/editor/whatever).
Software talk on instagram is pretty surface level and very picture oriented (look at my desk setup/terminal/editor/whatever).
> it's mostly politics now
That depends on who you follow. It's in your hands.
That depends on who you follow. It's in your hands.
[deleted]
Is the idea that it should focus on software only?
no of course, for example I am big fan of history bloggers. but it's very hard to find that kind of blogs. if you know such of blogs please contribute the project. if we have enough bloggers list we can create subdomains like (history.refined.blog , art.refined.blog ). it will be perfect
I got the same problem, that I want to collect all the blog posts of friends in my circle, so I built a curated blog engine for my developer communiy [1], it works by collecting blog posts from RSS feeds of the members and display them in one place like a normal blog [2]. You can use this as your personal RSS reader too!
[1] https://github.com/webuild-community/federated-blog [2] https://read.webuild.community
[1] https://github.com/webuild-community/federated-blog [2] https://read.webuild.community
I'm also maintaining a curated list of blogs at https://collection.mataroa.blog/
One can also limit the list with the ?key= queryparam, like so: https://collection.mataroa.blog/?key=philosophy
One can also limit the list with the ?key= queryparam, like so: https://collection.mataroa.blog/?key=philosophy
My favorite blog type is along the lines of "old man yells at clouds". Preferably with said cloud often being "The Cloud". Is there a category for that, or perhaps a Curmudgeons Web Ring?
I just wanted to say that today I hit the 2 month mark for consecutive days of writing. I published 60 posts, one every day. I wrote about startups, engineering, and other thoughts.
I've found that doing something daily is the best way for me to build habits. It's been a fantastic experience. My writing became more concise. It's given me clarity.
And great idea for the site- I submitted a pull request for my blog [0].
[0] https://matt-rickard.com/
I've found that doing something daily is the best way for me to build habits. It's been a fantastic experience. My writing became more concise. It's given me clarity.
And great idea for the site- I submitted a pull request for my blog [0].
[0] https://matt-rickard.com/
Is there a good way to search (e.g. like a Google search) only personal blogs and homepages? I was looking into this the other day, but couldn't figure out a solution.
https://millionshort.com only searches the webpages that lay outside of the top 10,000 100,000 or 1,000,000
Best I've come up with is adding like "wordpress" (in quotes, to force it) and other blogging software with common footers into the query. Not a great solution, but sometimes turns up interesting stuff.
See also, search engine for finding personal/non-corporate websites: https://wiby.me.
It looks a bit more niche than that; they prominently warn that they will not index sites that “use much css”.
I love this. I'm in the ultrarunning community and I LOVE reading everyone's blog posts/trip reports/race reports/adventures. But everyone stopped updating them over the past 5 years or so. Now that sort of thing is just an Instagram photo with a paragraph or two. The depth and character of those old blog posts have been lost. I wish in depth blog posts would come back, but in reality, I don't think they are.
Side note: My other favorite types of websites are very specific human-curated lists... which also seem to have died out.
Side note: My other favorite types of websites are very specific human-curated lists... which also seem to have died out.
I support the effort, but I have seen these things generally devolve, fairly rapidly, once people figure out how to game the system.
For myself, I've done a ton of writing[0], but my work seems to be too long-form for most. I don't really go out of my way to promote it. I basically have them up, so I can reference them in the odd comment.
Not the end of the world. I generally write for my own benefit; not for others.
[0] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/
For myself, I've done a ton of writing[0], but my work seems to be too long-form for most. I don't really go out of my way to promote it. I basically have them up, so I can reference them in the odd comment.
Not the end of the world. I generally write for my own benefit; not for others.
[0] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/
If you don't promote it, how do you want people to discover it ? Long post do well on HN comparatively with other boards.
[1] is exactly the kind of post that I include in my newsletter, but if it is not posted on HN, I can't see it
(there is a typo in the link you posted)
[1] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/the-road-most-travel...
[1] is exactly the kind of post that I include in my newsletter, but if it is not posted on HN, I can't see it
(there is a typo in the link you posted)
[1] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/the-road-most-travel...
I've completely given up on promoting my stuff. It used to be very easy and straightforward. Like minded folks could find new stuff without a problem. Nowadays, there's just way too much content, the vast majority of very low effort, and you get lost in the noise immediately.
For example, I have an old blog post that got featured in podcasts, on dailyjs, HN, is linked to from MDN, etc. When I wrote it in 2014 I pretty much just submitted it to Reddit, that's it. Nowadays I couldn't recreate that exposure -- or even a tiny fraction of it -- if my life depended on it.
For example, I have an old blog post that got featured in podcasts, on dailyjs, HN, is linked to from MDN, etc. When I wrote it in 2014 I pretty much just submitted it to Reddit, that's it. Nowadays I couldn't recreate that exposure -- or even a tiny fraction of it -- if my life depended on it.
I really don't mind if people find my stuff (thanks for the heads-up and the comment. It's fixed).
It's just that it is so crazy, with ego and money to be made. I really have neither interest, so I don't have the energy or the inclination to do much to promote.
I spend most of my time actively writing software, and my postings are occasional "breaks," where I spend a couple of days, writing about something. It gives me a chance to "regroup," and, sometimes, explaining stuff helps me to understand it, myself, better.
I agree that longform blogs are important and good, but it has been my experience that very few people are actually interested in them.
For example, I will sometimes write a comment (you may have noticed that my comments tend to be long), and a reply is made, highlighting one sentence; usually context-free, and adding some kind of "slap."
Often the "slap" is someone saying that I am not talking about the very thing that most of the comment was about. They didn't even bother to read the whole comment. What makes me think they would read one of my long-ass screeds?
These Romans are crazy.
https://memegenerator.net/img/images/13250908.jpg
It's just that it is so crazy, with ego and money to be made. I really have neither interest, so I don't have the energy or the inclination to do much to promote.
I spend most of my time actively writing software, and my postings are occasional "breaks," where I spend a couple of days, writing about something. It gives me a chance to "regroup," and, sometimes, explaining stuff helps me to understand it, myself, better.
I agree that longform blogs are important and good, but it has been my experience that very few people are actually interested in them.
For example, I will sometimes write a comment (you may have noticed that my comments tend to be long), and a reply is made, highlighting one sentence; usually context-free, and adding some kind of "slap."
Often the "slap" is someone saying that I am not talking about the very thing that most of the comment was about. They didn't even bother to read the whole comment. What makes me think they would read one of my long-ass screeds?
These Romans are crazy.
https://memegenerator.net/img/images/13250908.jpg
I really wish that it was easier for non-technically minded people to submit blogs to this list.
It would really help if the owner of this site made a web form that didn't require you to have a Github account to submit things (or even understand how to hand-type the weird json format that they want)
I estimate that extra amount of user abrasion is preventing something like 99% of people from submitting their blogs.
It would really help if the owner of this site made a web form that didn't require you to have a Github account to submit things (or even understand how to hand-type the weird json format that they want)
I estimate that extra amount of user abrasion is preventing something like 99% of people from submitting their blogs.
You are absolutely right, now I added google form as a link to the site. thanks !
Relatedly, I link to a lot of personal blogs in my newsletter Interesting Things. They tend to be good quality blogs (otherwise I wouldn't linking to them) so you'd probably find some good stuff there.
Newsletter: https://bengtan.com/interesting-things
Sample issue: https://bengtan.com/newsletter/sample
More info: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27492255
Newsletter: https://bengtan.com/interesting-things
Sample issue: https://bengtan.com/newsletter/sample
More info: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27492255
[deleted]
If you feel overwhelmed by all the blog posts out there, there are newsletters that will send you one or several articles a day and let you ingest them slowly. I particularly like Thinking About Things and Findka Essays.
[0] https://www.thinking-about-things.com/ [1] https://essays.findka.com/
[0] https://www.thinking-about-things.com/ [1] https://essays.findka.com/
What is the general etiquette here at hn for submitting a personal blog post?
Assuming the content is relatively novel or fresh and possibly niche (tech related) for example.
I hate spam, so I hesitate to submit anything here. Perhaps it’s the fear of critique that induces hesitation (for me personally).
Is there a general rule of thumb or guideline?
Assuming the content is relatively novel or fresh and possibly niche (tech related) for example.
I hate spam, so I hesitate to submit anything here. Perhaps it’s the fear of critique that induces hesitation (for me personally).
Is there a general rule of thumb or guideline?
There are a few previous discussions floating around [0,1]. A good rule of thumb is to submit your stuff only if you think people here would find it interesting (the same as any other submission). It'll be a normal article submission, not a Show HN or something (as per the rules in that section). If you have enough of a following you might just wait for them to submit your blog posts -- serving as a bit of a natural filter for what other people think is a good fit for HN.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5245369
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3949023
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5245369
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3949023
Personal blog posts land here all the time. I wouldn't hesitate to submit your posts! So long as it's not naked self-promotion, if the content is good it'll get voted up and gain visibility.
Looking through the list sorted by HN points I've come across quite a few that have not been updated in anything from two to five years.
Perhaps it'd be a good idea to add a "last post on" or some other indicator of activity.
Perhaps it'd be a good idea to add a "last post on" or some other indicator of activity.
Nice effort. However the HN-based ranking system make this lean heavily towards 'software' tagged blogs.
Having a filter for specific tags (e.g. 'add/remove this tag') would help the blog discovery process.
Having a filter for specific tags (e.g. 'add/remove this tag') would help the blog discovery process.
I was thinking of a solution for discoverability for distributed blogs. Maybe a webring/tag/label footer that you can simply include that will dynamically show related blog posts from others.
Blogs are great and I encourage everyone to start one. Mine has never been popular but I enjoy occasionally writing a quick article on something I found difficult or even just venting into the void.
If you prefer something daily, you could check https://hnblogs.substack.com/
This really is a fantastic resource (thanks!). I've found several great posts from it, including this one[1] which made a huge impact on me.
[1] https://rootsofprogress.org/a-career-path-for-invention
[1] https://rootsofprogress.org/a-career-path-for-invention
This is great. I’ve found some to follow with my RSS reader, https://sumi.news
My favs are here
https://bobbydreamer.com/irevere
By any chance, could we add a "language" tag, so that blogs that are not in English can be added?
I'm empathetic with that sentiment (I mainly write in Japanese), but the HN-based scoring wouldn't work with the HN-based scoring. I'd rather have a separate list for each language, based on some other scoring say, # of tweets.
I'm not convinced of the interest of the hackernews score (it links too much blogs to tech), and I don't find that sharing articles on twitter is really relevant (people don't click on links on twitter, the information is held on the platform).
Does anyone have a recommendation for blogging platform with Latex + code highlighting support?
It would be good to have an OPML file available as you're building this list as well.
[deleted]
It would be handy to be able to exclude tags from the search results.
Let's also bring back webring ...
[deleted]
First, there's Micro.blog (https://micro.blog/). They can host a blog for you, or you can publish to their service for free using your own blog by pointing Micro.blog at your RSS feed (I do the latter). Think blogging but with a social element, facilitating both interaction and content discovery.
Second, there's the IndieWeb movement more broadly (https://indieweb.org/), which advocates for a whole ecosystem of distributed, open technologies for enriching the blogging ecosystem and encouraging interoperability.
Third, believe it or not, webrings live on! The indiewebring (https://indieweb.org/indiewebring), for example, is a fun way to find additional bloggers out there.
As you can tell, I'm a fan of blogging and the IndieWeb movement... :)