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Yeah, I think the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience. I mean, even if you don't want to make m

Yeah, I think the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience. I mean, even if you don't want to make money from your cool project or tutorial or whatever, you still want people to see it. But man, I really hate Medium.

geek_at 6y ago
not true, I have started a blog and hosted it on blogspot at first but wasn't satisfied with the style in general and the lack of customization so I built my own in bootstrap + php and hosted it on a 5€/month Server. No tracking, no ads, no external libraries, no referral links, no monetization. After switching to my own I re-wrote one of the articles of my old blogspot posts (word for word) and because my custom solution was so much easier on the eye, the post picked up and I got TV and Radio interview requests, etc. Even reddit and hn hugs and thousands of concurrent users didn't bring it down. You don't need Medium, you need to write stuff that people are interested in reading. https://blog.haschek.at https://blog.haschek.at
- alexgmcm 6y ago
  Wow, your blog is beautiful! I had used Hugo before, but I'm learning some Full Stack dev now (I work in Data Science, so it isn't my main work) and making a blog could be a good exercise.
- tal8d 6y ago
  heh, I had a little project hosted on an nslu2 wedged between the water heater and the wall of my utility closet. Never had a problem, even after several major sites picked up on it the same day, because responding to get requests for static files isn't hard. Thankfully, most sites only become hard to self host after they start doing annoying things - like dynamically generating oversized embedded junk.
- duckmysick 6y ago
  Can't a person write interesting stuff on Medium/Blogspot/Wordpress? Telling a person, who wants to blog about fruit preserves, to learn php and selfhost is a bit too much.
pmlnr 6y ago
> Yeah, I think the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience. To be honest, this sounds like profit thinking as well. Why would one need "wide audience" when it's about their interest and hobbies? They need sincere search engines, that's all.
- duckmysick 6y ago
  Some people are proud of their work and they want to show it to others. The more people see it and appreciate it, the more validated and important the creators feel. It's like sending invitations to your birthday party. It feels bad when just one person shows up. > They need sincere search engines, that's all. What exactly are you suggesting to the content creators?
  - pmlnr 6y ago
    > The more people see it and appreciate it, the more validated and important the creators feel. That is called vanity in one word. > What exactly are you suggesting to the content creators? If it really is a hobby, one enjoys it on it's own. The "showcase" part shouldn't be essential for one to take joy in the process. My recommendation is to find a space where one can share what they achieved, but it really doesn't (shouldn't) need to be a "wide audience", rather the opposite: a group of people who actually enjoy the same things. Enthusiasts, maybe even fans.
    - rapnie 6y ago
      Sharing your hobby with as many others as possible, hoping maybe more people join the fun is not vanity. The birthday party analogy has validity too.
    - duckmysick 6y ago
      I wouldn't call it vanity; it's too harsh and unfair. It paints people who are enthusiastic about their accomplishments in a negative light. People shouldn't be ashamed to be proud of their honest work. Showcasing isn't essential, but it can increase the enjoyment and it can benefit the others. That's why we have art galleries, trade fairs, talent shows, and Show HN threads. I specifically asked about how "They need sincere search engines, that's all." What exactly content creators should do about it? Make their own, sacrificing time from their main hobby? Maybe one already exists. But then they need to tell their potential fans about it. How would they contact them? They might not even be aware they exist. I guess they could wait until the new sincere search engine reaches critical mass. But what until then? As for the "wide audience", consider this. At one point in their lives, fans were part of the wide audience. They weren't born fans; they became them over time. So why shouldn't the content creators try to capture new fans from the larger audience? They don't have to - becoming too mainstream is a thing after all. But if they choose to do so, why not? Unless you oppose the creators growing their fans and popularity, in which case I don't know what to say.
tremon 6y ago
the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience. Isn't this is a problem that search engines were intended to solve? Before they went into the ad business, I mean?
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  People seem to stream more than they'll search. Google's daily search stats are getting harder to find, but with 3.8 billion Internet users and probably a few billion searches/day, it's likely single-digit searches per person per day, as a mean. Algorithmic/stream discovery, as on Facebook, or HN, is at least an order of magnitude higher. https://ardorseo.com/blog/how-many-google-searches-per-day/ https://ardorseo.com/blog/how-many-google-searches-per-day/

geek_at 6y ago

not true, I have started a blog and hosted it on blogspot at first but wasn't satisfied with the style in general and the lack of customization so I built my own in bootstrap + php and hosted it on a 5€/month Server. No tracking, no ads, no external libraries, no referral links, no monetization. After switching to my own I re-wrote one of the articles of my old blogspot posts (word for word) and because my custom solution was so much easier on the eye, the post picked up and I got TV and Radio interview requests, etc. Even reddit and hn hugs and thousands of concurrent users didn't bring it down. You don't need Medium, you need to write stuff that people are interested in reading. https://blog.haschek.at https://blog.haschek.at

alexgmcm 6y ago
Wow, your blog is beautiful! I had used Hugo before, but I'm learning some Full Stack dev now (I work in Data Science, so it isn't my main work) and making a blog could be a good exercise.
tal8d 6y ago
heh, I had a little project hosted on an nslu2 wedged between the water heater and the wall of my utility closet. Never had a problem, even after several major sites picked up on it the same day, because responding to get requests for static files isn't hard. Thankfully, most sites only become hard to self host after they start doing annoying things - like dynamically generating oversized embedded junk.
duckmysick 6y ago
Can't a person write interesting stuff on Medium/Blogspot/Wordpress? Telling a person, who wants to blog about fruit preserves, to learn php and selfhost is a bit too much.

pmlnr 6y ago

> Yeah, I think the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience. To be honest, this sounds like profit thinking as well. Why would one need "wide audience" when it's about their interest and hobbies? They need sincere search engines, that's all.

duckmysick 6y ago
Some people are proud of their work and they want to show it to others. The more people see it and appreciate it, the more validated and important the creators feel. It's like sending invitations to your birthday party. It feels bad when just one person shows up. > They need sincere search engines, that's all. What exactly are you suggesting to the content creators?
- pmlnr 6y ago
  > The more people see it and appreciate it, the more validated and important the creators feel. That is called vanity in one word. > What exactly are you suggesting to the content creators? If it really is a hobby, one enjoys it on it's own. The "showcase" part shouldn't be essential for one to take joy in the process. My recommendation is to find a space where one can share what they achieved, but it really doesn't (shouldn't) need to be a "wide audience", rather the opposite: a group of people who actually enjoy the same things. Enthusiasts, maybe even fans.
  - rapnie 6y ago
    Sharing your hobby with as many others as possible, hoping maybe more people join the fun is not vanity. The birthday party analogy has validity too.
  - duckmysick 6y ago
    I wouldn't call it vanity; it's too harsh and unfair. It paints people who are enthusiastic about their accomplishments in a negative light. People shouldn't be ashamed to be proud of their honest work. Showcasing isn't essential, but it can increase the enjoyment and it can benefit the others. That's why we have art galleries, trade fairs, talent shows, and Show HN threads. I specifically asked about how "They need sincere search engines, that's all." What exactly content creators should do about it? Make their own, sacrificing time from their main hobby? Maybe one already exists. But then they need to tell their potential fans about it. How would they contact them? They might not even be aware they exist. I guess they could wait until the new sincere search engine reaches critical mass. But what until then? As for the "wide audience", consider this. At one point in their lives, fans were part of the wide audience. They weren't born fans; they became them over time. So why shouldn't the content creators try to capture new fans from the larger audience? They don't have to - becoming too mainstream is a thing after all. But if they choose to do so, why not? Unless you oppose the creators growing their fans and popularity, in which case I don't know what to say.

tremon 6y ago

the problem with self-hosting vs. Medium is that it is harder for the authors to reach a large audience. Isn't this is a problem that search engines were intended to solve? Before they went into the ad business, I mean?

dredmorbius 6y ago
People seem to stream more than they'll search. Google's daily search stats are getting harder to find, but with 3.8 billion Internet users and probably a few billion searches/day, it's likely single-digit searches per person per day, as a mean. Algorithmic/stream discovery, as on Facebook, or HN, is at least an order of magnitude higher. https://ardorseo.com/blog/how-many-google-searches-per-day/ https://ardorseo.com/blog/how-many-google-searches-per-day/