5 ms·

This is good stuff. I blog for fun and I agree with almost everything here, especially the stuff about advertising. I am not against advertising in general but

This is good stuff. I blog for fun and I agree with almost everything here, especially the stuff about advertising. I am not against advertising in general but putting ads on your page is an acknowledgment that you care more about money than writing what you want. There is nothing morally wrong with this, but it turns a hobby into a job. Lastly, I encourage everyone to publish blogs or articles. Each blog post on an independent site is a blow against the content farms and social media giants that control so much of the discourse these days.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago
I like the current trend of being able to support e.g. bloggers (or youtubers, or whoever) via Patreon; I do believe there should be multiple providers of the same service because right now Patreon has too much influence / mindspace, but it's a good alternative for advertisement - not as scummy, and much more reliable. $1 / month / fan is nice. I follow one youtuber (and not the annoying screamy meme type) who seems to have 13.000 Patrons.
- toyg 8y ago
  I wish there was a way to do it with microtransactions though. I am never going to commit to yet-another-sub-that-I-will-forget-to-cancel-for-months, but I’d like to throw a couple of £ towards an individual post that I randomly find on the web.
  - polm23 8y ago
    That's what Ko-fi is for. https://ko-fi.com/ https://ko-fi.com/
    - toyg 8y ago
      Looks cool! I've joined and will keep an eye out for it in places I visit.
rchaud 8y ago
I agree with your last sentence about "each independent blog post". But you must realize that hosting content isn't free. If you want a blog that doesn't end with .wordpress.com or blogspot.com, you'll have to pay. Otherwise, you publish on Medium, which IMO is just as bad in terms of handing over your IP to content farms.
- AndrewStephens 8y ago
  Medium is only marginally better than Facebook but there is little wrong with a wordpress or blogspot blog so long as you are prepared to accept their limitations and the fact you are giving up some control over how your content is used. I host my blog on a Digital Ocean droplet with a total cost of $90 spread out over 12 months. I realize that not everyone has disposable income or the time but this is a very cheap hobby even with the massive overkill of a whole droplet. And this is not even the cheapest way to host, you can get much cheaper shared hosting for almost free for smaller static sites.
- pjc50 8y ago
  Github pages? (Rather steep learning curve though)

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

I like the current trend of being able to support e.g. bloggers (or youtubers, or whoever) via Patreon; I do believe there should be multiple providers of the same service because right now Patreon has too much influence / mindspace, but it's a good alternative for advertisement - not as scummy, and much more reliable. $1 / month / fan is nice. I follow one youtuber (and not the annoying screamy meme type) who seems to have 13.000 Patrons.

toyg 8y ago
I wish there was a way to do it with microtransactions though. I am never going to commit to yet-another-sub-that-I-will-forget-to-cancel-for-months, but I’d like to throw a couple of £ towards an individual post that I randomly find on the web.
- polm23 8y ago
  That's what Ko-fi is for. https://ko-fi.com/ https://ko-fi.com/
  - toyg 8y ago
    Looks cool! I've joined and will keep an eye out for it in places I visit.

rchaud 8y ago

I agree with your last sentence about "each independent blog post". But you must realize that hosting content isn't free. If you want a blog that doesn't end with .wordpress.com or blogspot.com, you'll have to pay. Otherwise, you publish on Medium, which IMO is just as bad in terms of handing over your IP to content farms.

AndrewStephens 8y ago
Medium is only marginally better than Facebook but there is little wrong with a wordpress or blogspot blog so long as you are prepared to accept their limitations and the fact you are giving up some control over how your content is used. I host my blog on a Digital Ocean droplet with a total cost of $90 spread out over 12 months. I realize that not everyone has disposable income or the time but this is a very cheap hobby even with the massive overkill of a whole droplet. And this is not even the cheapest way to host, you can get much cheaper shared hosting for almost free for smaller static sites.
pjc50 8y ago
Github pages? (Rather steep learning curve though)