10 ms·

Cool things people do with their blogs

246 points by ecliptik 5y ago

nicbou 5y ago
That was a really fun list. It made me wonder what I could add on my personal website to make it more personal. A few years ago, I added achievements. I don't know if anyone ever cared to chase them.
- rchaud 5y ago
  You could consider adding something personal to spice it up. With the exception of website comments (which few people bother to leave), blogs are usually a read-only experience.
- gorb314 5y ago
  My blog is about my hobbies: drawing, painting, sculpting and modeling. As I blog about my projects and their progress, my static site generator will aggregate posts tagged with the same project name, so that the project's page will show a chronological build progress, as opposed to the typical reverse chronological listing on the blog's front page. I think it's kinda neat and I haven't seen many other blogs that do this.
  - chriskrycho 5y ago
    I do this for a bunch of pages for the same reason—series pages, for example, but also tag pages. I like how it subtly undercuts the recency bias of the reverse chronological “stream” that is the default.
  - TOTG4 5y ago
    That sounds really interesting -- I'd love to take a look. What's the website?
    - gorb314 5y ago
      Thank you! The website is [1] A good example of a project page would be [2]. It shows the complete scratch build of a model tank, and is one of the more detailed step by steps. [1] https://www.vigilantesculpting.com https://www.vigilantesculpting.com [2] https://www.vigilantesculpting.com/projects/2021-08-19-stormblade.html https://www.vigilantesculpting.com/projects/2021-08-19-storm...
Zanni 5y ago
Ah, I really like the /now page movement from Derek Sivers: https://sive.rs/nowff https://sive.rs/nowff
- bombcar 5y ago
  Reminds me of .plan and finger.
jmillikin 5y ago
> Implement a simple client-site search using lunr.js I did the same thing on my site, and it was surprisingly easy. The lunr.js indexer can persist its internal index state to JSON, and the search is fast enough to filter results in real time as the user types.
rektide 5y ago
From one example.. I spent a summer hacking a great last.fm server together & oops i deleted the damned thing by accident. This was a decade ago, but still pains me. Idiot.
kixiQu 5y ago
8/41, I think? (https://maya.land https://maya.land) This is a really cool list especially because it shows how varied people's aims are. Some people want a certain golden era of Twitter/Foursquare-type social media, but under their own control. Some people want to stretch the format of blogs beyond that of feeds. Some people want to go all-in on feeds and see what they can squeeze out of them. Some people are dicking around with RSS because they just like it. Blogging shouldn't all look like different styles of Wordpress.
- rchaud 5y ago
  I thought the same thing. This is a cool list simply by way of the variety on display. It's remarkable how people can organize their thoughts in unique ways, when they aren't held back by the one-size-fits-all layouts of blog themes and social media account pages.
electricair 5y ago
Really fun list. I'd add this daily blog by Tiny Projects[1] that's written with pen & paper [1] https://daily.tinyprojects.dev https://daily.tinyprojects.dev
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> Use your own site to publish checkins instead of Foursquare I never understood why people publish their location. Why does anyone care except maybe your significant other, who you can just text? Do your friends really care? Does your family? Do your coworkers?
- spiffytech 5y ago
  Ten years ago when location publishing was novel, there were worries that it'd make it easy to burgle people, since you'd know when they weren't home. I haven't heard of any burglaries specifically attributable to someone posting their location online, but it's what I think about every time I see someone do this.
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    I'm sure it happens all the time. I even learned recently while bingewatching that social media is how the Bling Ring burglary teens would figure out when Paris Hilton, etc weren't home. Also, social media location services have been used to figure out where people were in order to follow them and murder them e.g. Molly McLaren. (Social Media Murders Episode 3, I said I was bingewatching...)
  - tedmiston 5y ago
    > I never heard of any burglaries specifically attributable to someone posting their location online Upcoming Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was robbed and murdered under this exact scenario about 2 years ago. There are abundant sources, but here are two: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-pop-smoke-put-address-on-social-media-hours-before-murder-20200219-6uuxpbqqdjejbdbhog2cmsgxva-story.html https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-pop-smoke-put-a... https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/sde2017/2001404010/remembering-pop-smoke-a-rapper-killed-after-tragic-social-media-mistake https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/sde2017/200140...
    - oh_sigh 5y ago
      It seems like he wasn't robbed because he posted his location, but because he posted his location as well as ludicrous amounts of cash, jewelry, and vehicles.
cercatrova 5y ago
> Sync your laptop battery, local weather, and current location with your site Why would I want my location available to anyone at all times?
- justusthane 5y ago
  No one is saying that _you_ do. Now, if your question is why the owner of that website does, well, you'd have to ask them. I'd imagine they just thought it was fun.
kovalevski 5y ago
great websites! some of them i already discovered before. good inspiration to make new features on my website.
Brajeshwar 5y ago
I almost killed my blog like the many other websites I had. Then I realized I could write for my daughters. I will keep my blog for my kids to read. I'm still looking for a way to collect and continue to write a memoir-ish journey of my life for them to read. I have always been fascinated by -- what stories will you tell your kids. My first daughter has even started making fun of me, "Dad, how did you go to school in your days?" She likes other stories and I have repeated the one where I went to an army encampment in the mountains to help fix computers, slept in the wooden bed, peed on the hillside surrounded by the army with guns pointing out. My friend and I returned home hidden in an ambulance with a pregnant woman on her way to deliver in the town's hospital. I need to write them down.
uvu 5y ago
How do you found out those blogs? Is it generally exploring some topic on the web and you made a bookmark?
- rchaud 4y ago
  Every once in a while, links from these blogs will be shared on HN. Many blogs themselves keep a "blogroll" visible on their site. The blogroll is a list of links to other blogs the author likes. That's a common way for readers to discover new blogs.
schwartzworld 4y ago
I really love JWZ's approach to linking to old related posts with "previously" https://www.jwz.org/blog/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/

246 points by ecliptik 5y ago

That was a really fun list. It made me wonder what I could add on my personal website to make it more personal. A few years ago, I added achievements. I don't know if anyone ever cared to chase them.

rchaud 5y ago
You could consider adding something personal to spice it up. With the exception of website comments (which few people bother to leave), blogs are usually a read-only experience.
gorb314 5y ago
My blog is about my hobbies: drawing, painting, sculpting and modeling. As I blog about my projects and their progress, my static site generator will aggregate posts tagged with the same project name, so that the project's page will show a chronological build progress, as opposed to the typical reverse chronological listing on the blog's front page. I think it's kinda neat and I haven't seen many other blogs that do this.
- chriskrycho 5y ago
  I do this for a bunch of pages for the same reason—series pages, for example, but also tag pages. I like how it subtly undercuts the recency bias of the reverse chronological “stream” that is the default.
- TOTG4 5y ago
  That sounds really interesting -- I'd love to take a look. What's the website?
  - gorb314 5y ago
    Thank you! The website is [1] A good example of a project page would be [2]. It shows the complete scratch build of a model tank, and is one of the more detailed step by steps. [1] https://www.vigilantesculpting.com https://www.vigilantesculpting.com [2] https://www.vigilantesculpting.com/projects/2021-08-19-stormblade.html https://www.vigilantesculpting.com/projects/2021-08-19-storm...

Zanni 5y ago

Ah, I really like the /now page movement from Derek Sivers: https://sive.rs/nowff https://sive.rs/nowff

bombcar 5y ago
Reminds me of .plan and finger.

jmillikin 5y ago

> Implement a simple client-site search using lunr.js I did the same thing on my site, and it was surprisingly easy. The lunr.js indexer can persist its internal index state to JSON, and the search is fast enough to filter results in real time as the user types.

rektide 5y ago

From one example.. I spent a summer hacking a great last.fm server together & oops i deleted the damned thing by accident. This was a decade ago, but still pains me. Idiot.

kixiQu 5y ago

8/41, I think? (https://maya.land https://maya.land) This is a really cool list especially because it shows how varied people's aims are. Some people want a certain golden era of Twitter/Foursquare-type social media, but under their own control. Some people want to stretch the format of blogs beyond that of feeds. Some people want to go all-in on feeds and see what they can squeeze out of them. Some people are dicking around with RSS because they just like it. Blogging shouldn't all look like different styles of Wordpress.

rchaud 5y ago
I thought the same thing. This is a cool list simply by way of the variety on display. It's remarkable how people can organize their thoughts in unique ways, when they aren't held back by the one-size-fits-all layouts of blog themes and social media account pages.

electricair 5y ago

Really fun list. I'd add this daily blog by Tiny Projects[1] that's written with pen & paper [1] https://daily.tinyprojects.dev https://daily.tinyprojects.dev

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago

> Use your own site to publish checkins instead of Foursquare I never understood why people publish their location. Why does anyone care except maybe your significant other, who you can just text? Do your friends really care? Does your family? Do your coworkers?

spiffytech 5y ago
Ten years ago when location publishing was novel, there were worries that it'd make it easy to burgle people, since you'd know when they weren't home. I haven't heard of any burglaries specifically attributable to someone posting their location online, but it's what I think about every time I see someone do this.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  I'm sure it happens all the time. I even learned recently while bingewatching that social media is how the Bling Ring burglary teens would figure out when Paris Hilton, etc weren't home. Also, social media location services have been used to figure out where people were in order to follow them and murder them e.g. Molly McLaren. (Social Media Murders Episode 3, I said I was bingewatching...)
- tedmiston 5y ago
  > I never heard of any burglaries specifically attributable to someone posting their location online Upcoming Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was robbed and murdered under this exact scenario about 2 years ago. There are abundant sources, but here are two: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-pop-smoke-put-address-on-social-media-hours-before-murder-20200219-6uuxpbqqdjejbdbhog2cmsgxva-story.html https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-pop-smoke-put-a... https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/sde2017/2001404010/remembering-pop-smoke-a-rapper-killed-after-tragic-social-media-mistake https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/sde2017/200140...
  - oh_sigh 5y ago
    It seems like he wasn't robbed because he posted his location, but because he posted his location as well as ludicrous amounts of cash, jewelry, and vehicles.

cercatrova 5y ago

> Sync your laptop battery, local weather, and current location with your site Why would I want my location available to anyone at all times?

justusthane 5y ago
No one is saying that _you_ do. Now, if your question is why the owner of that website does, well, you'd have to ask them. I'd imagine they just thought it was fun.

kovalevski 5y ago

great websites! some of them i already discovered before. good inspiration to make new features on my website.

Brajeshwar 5y ago

I almost killed my blog like the many other websites I had. Then I realized I could write for my daughters. I will keep my blog for my kids to read. I'm still looking for a way to collect and continue to write a memoir-ish journey of my life for them to read. I have always been fascinated by -- what stories will you tell your kids. My first daughter has even started making fun of me, "Dad, how did you go to school in your days?" She likes other stories and I have repeated the one where I went to an army encampment in the mountains to help fix computers, slept in the wooden bed, peed on the hillside surrounded by the army with guns pointing out. My friend and I returned home hidden in an ambulance with a pregnant woman on her way to deliver in the town's hospital. I need to write them down.

uvu 5y ago

How do you found out those blogs? Is it generally exploring some topic on the web and you made a bookmark?

rchaud 4y ago
Every once in a while, links from these blogs will be shared on HN. Many blogs themselves keep a "blogroll" visible on their site. The blogroll is a list of links to other blogs the author likes. That's a common way for readers to discover new blogs.

schwartzworld 4y ago

I really love JWZ's approach to linking to old related posts with "previously" https://www.jwz.org/blog/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/