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> The academic and hobbyist internet is fine, and not that much different from the old days. YouTube, and dreams of monetization, have infected the hobbyist in

> The academic and hobbyist internet is fine, and not that much different from the old days. YouTube, and dreams of monetization, have infected the hobbyist internet too. I am active in some niche travel hobbies. It used to be that people in this subculture would write detailed text blogs with tips about various routes and definitions. Now, people think video is the default medium for sharing one’s information, and so they make YT videos that have lots of whizbang effects and GoPro shots but aren’t very information-dense. You have to sit through many minutes (or up to an hour) of a guy stuttering “Uh... So...” to eventually glean details that might help you. It sucks. For a while the people who made these videos would also spam Reddit and specialist forums with links, clearly interested in the prospect of monetizing, but now everyone seems to understand that YT is not a reliable path to financial success. The decline of text blogging is also partly Google’s fault, in that lots of hobbyist blogs are now excluded from search results even if you try to search for the exact terms you know are found in the blog entry.

mrec 7y ago
> The decline of text blogging is also partly Google’s fault, in that lots of hobbyist blogs are now excluded from search results even if you try to search for the exact terms you know are found in the blog entry. Interesting; I wasn't aware of that. Do you know whether alternative search engines like DDG have the same problem?
josteink 7y ago
> Now, people think video is the default medium for sharing one’s information How people decided to default on the absolutely least effective medium for doing this is beyond me, but oh yeah, I’ve seen this. For me it’s a clear sign of worthless content not worth my time. If it’s not text, I’m not going to consume it. EOT.
Smithalicious 7y ago
People just go to where the audience is. I've considered both starting a blog and starting a YouTube channel, and realized that if I actually want people to see my content then only YouTube makes sense. After all, I don't even follow any blogs myself! Maybe one day there will be a platform that makes following blogs as convenient as following youtubers
- Mediterraneo10 7y ago
  > Maybe one day there will be a platform that makes following blogs as convenient as following youtubers There was such a platform: the RSS ecosystem. Unfortunately, Google managed to attract something like 80% of the market to its offering, Google Reader, and then it shut Google Reader down, which basically killed off RSS. RSS does remain today, but it is a shadow of what it once was.

mrec 7y ago

> The decline of text blogging is also partly Google’s fault, in that lots of hobbyist blogs are now excluded from search results even if you try to search for the exact terms you know are found in the blog entry. Interesting; I wasn't aware of that. Do you know whether alternative search engines like DDG have the same problem?

josteink 7y ago

> Now, people think video is the default medium for sharing one’s information How people decided to default on the absolutely least effective medium for doing this is beyond me, but oh yeah, I’ve seen this. For me it’s a clear sign of worthless content not worth my time. If it’s not text, I’m not going to consume it. EOT.

Smithalicious 7y ago

People just go to where the audience is. I've considered both starting a blog and starting a YouTube channel, and realized that if I actually want people to see my content then only YouTube makes sense. After all, I don't even follow any blogs myself! Maybe one day there will be a platform that makes following blogs as convenient as following youtubers

Mediterraneo10 7y ago
> Maybe one day there will be a platform that makes following blogs as convenient as following youtubers There was such a platform: the RSS ecosystem. Unfortunately, Google managed to attract something like 80% of the market to its offering, Google Reader, and then it shut Google Reader down, which basically killed off RSS. RSS does remain today, but it is a shadow of what it once was.