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First off, I have no ideas, just questions. Have you tested your writing? project titles, readme, docs, etc? I learned to test everything. Basically SEO, but

First off, I have no ideas, just questions. Have you tested your writing? project titles, readme, docs, etc? I learned to test everything. Basically SEO, but for good. I've done UI design, technical writing, ad copy, and so forth. Draft project plans, press releases, headlines. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time naming things, crafting pose, framing, messaging, etc. I even obsess over my trolling, sharpening my zingers. I just scanned your repos. Know that I am not your target audience. So I have no direct feedback. At least none that should be trusted. Your project for running C++ in a browser, via WASM, is the one I'd be most curious about. My guess is that's the one with the broadest appeal. I'd compare your written artifacts with similar projects. Push and poke it every way you can think of. Stuff like dropping each project's keywords and phrases into google to assess discoverability. I'd also test your writing on everyone you can. Peers, non-peers, randos. Both native English and German speakers. IIRC, didn't @danluu do something about naming repos? I'm probably misremembering. FWIW, for my last FOSS project, I spent a bit more time on writing than programming. Roughly 55/45 split. (I logged my time on that project. I was curious.) Lastly, testing writing is in addition to all the other good suggestions. "Yes and", not "Ya but". Happy hunting.

timdaub 5y ago
OK interesting. Great idea on trying to compare my projects with others and then adjusting the copywriting. Then about testing for engagements: I've done similar things with the headlines of my blog articles. I usually have a few different ideas and I can test the engagement by e.g. resubmitting after a while on HN. Do you have ideas on how to get improve the pace of my feedback loop? E.g. for testing three headlines of a blog post: Where can I test their engagement quickly such that I get live results?
- specialist 5y ago
  Sorry, I don't. Learning how to do that is on my to do list. I've read articles about using Ad Words to validate notions, but have never tried. My own efforts to date have been torturous unending manual trial and error. Not optimal.
  - timdaub 5y ago
    Actually, Veritasium posted a brilliant way for optimizing thumbnails and headlines to improve click-through rate on Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng I plead guilty and say that I've repeatedly posted the same link on HN but with different query parameters to understand its performance. But I've come to understand that users will notice this behavior and start to generally downvote. As a creator with a small audience, the only success with tapping into a high throughput feedback loop has been by painstakingly write articles and submit them one by one to HN. I've gotten much better at it already and frankly I've also noticed that engagement and "likes" isn't everything either. I've realized too that if you truly do what you believe in consistently, I've found that I suddenly start having "impact", which I think is different from engagement. How I see it: - Engagement: clicks, views, comments - Impact: The world changes, there's consequences and substantial changes as a reaction But I think you can't have one without the other. High engagement means you're a popstar. High impact means you're a politician. Ideally, I want to be able to pick my position on the gradient.
    - specialist 5y ago
      re Veritasium video. Thanks. Mea culpa: Rereading my initial reply, I see that I was more telling than asking, contrary to my stated intent. Engagement and impact. Absolutely. Where do you choose to put your focus? I've always preferred "finding my tribe". Building tools for other people like me. Others who have needs like my mine which aren't fulfilled by today's popular hammerspoon. Instead of persuading people to use my tools, I hope to be found by people who have framed their problem like I have and just haven't found a suitable solution. For instance, one niche tool I made was a UI layout manager rooted in graphic design's notions for a "design grid". Kids today would call my bespoke solution "opinionated". At the time I described it as "visually and logically correct". Alas. My strategy has not made me rich. I'm actually semi-blocked on releasing more of my tools, because I haven't figured out how to pay the mortgage. Happy hunting.

timdaub 5y ago

OK interesting. Great idea on trying to compare my projects with others and then adjusting the copywriting. Then about testing for engagements: I've done similar things with the headlines of my blog articles. I usually have a few different ideas and I can test the engagement by e.g. resubmitting after a while on HN. Do you have ideas on how to get improve the pace of my feedback loop? E.g. for testing three headlines of a blog post: Where can I test their engagement quickly such that I get live results?

specialist 5y ago
Sorry, I don't. Learning how to do that is on my to do list. I've read articles about using Ad Words to validate notions, but have never tried. My own efforts to date have been torturous unending manual trial and error. Not optimal.
- timdaub 5y ago
  Actually, Veritasium posted a brilliant way for optimizing thumbnails and headlines to improve click-through rate on Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng I plead guilty and say that I've repeatedly posted the same link on HN but with different query parameters to understand its performance. But I've come to understand that users will notice this behavior and start to generally downvote. As a creator with a small audience, the only success with tapping into a high throughput feedback loop has been by painstakingly write articles and submit them one by one to HN. I've gotten much better at it already and frankly I've also noticed that engagement and "likes" isn't everything either. I've realized too that if you truly do what you believe in consistently, I've found that I suddenly start having "impact", which I think is different from engagement. How I see it: - Engagement: clicks, views, comments - Impact: The world changes, there's consequences and substantial changes as a reaction But I think you can't have one without the other. High engagement means you're a popstar. High impact means you're a politician. Ideally, I want to be able to pick my position on the gradient.
  - specialist 5y ago
    re Veritasium video. Thanks. Mea culpa: Rereading my initial reply, I see that I was more telling than asking, contrary to my stated intent. Engagement and impact. Absolutely. Where do you choose to put your focus? I've always preferred "finding my tribe". Building tools for other people like me. Others who have needs like my mine which aren't fulfilled by today's popular hammerspoon. Instead of persuading people to use my tools, I hope to be found by people who have framed their problem like I have and just haven't found a suitable solution. For instance, one niche tool I made was a UI layout manager rooted in graphic design's notions for a "design grid". Kids today would call my bespoke solution "opinionated". At the time I described it as "visually and logically correct". Alas. My strategy has not made me rich. I'm actually semi-blocked on releasing more of my tools, because I haven't figured out how to pay the mortgage. Happy hunting.