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The view count trap is going to exist and be effective as long as humans feel the need for validation. Let's pretend you have a blog, you're writing on it for
by waboremo 4y ago
The view count trap is going to exist and be effective as long as humans feel the need for validation.
Let's pretend you have a blog, you're writing on it for years. It's affecting people positively. But nobody ever says a thing about it directly to you, you have no analytics running in the background, no like button. Eventually, you're probably going to stop writing on the blog, feeling it's a waste of time.
We can point to popular bloggers all we want, but the fact remains most of them either have some form of view count operating (or likes/claps/whatever gimmick to replicate that "I see you" validation), had rare real life validation based on their blogs (being hired at xyz place because someone said they were a fan... but usually these blogs tend to go abandoned after they get hired), or relied on social networks to encourage them to continue writing their blogs.
Until this is solved in a healthier way, we're not really going to be free of view counts.
- OJFord 4y agoValidation doesn't necessarily mean view count though - consider citations/WebMention or whatever - a thoughtful post referencing, disputing, discussing your own is surely worth some quite large number of views, in terms of validation.
- waboremo 4y agoBeing referenced by someone you look up to is more valuable than a view. But is it really different, when we consider that one view is the reason why that person is referencing your content in the first place? This is why I have a hard time with how many people push against view counts as the ultimate bad. They are just another metric, one we use for validation, but still just a metric. Sure, you might think it's healthier to care about more WebMentions, but what are those when you peel away the layers of branding? I suppose we can't really escape our desperate need to be seen, even in digital space.
- notwokeno 4y agoI've been journaling for 11 years and I'm not going to stop any time soon despite the lack of a "like button" or analytics. The way you get free of view counts is by not worrying about them.
- waboremo 4y agoI consider journaling and blogging two distinct and separate mediums. In case you use them interchangeably, what do you write about?
- Dalewyn 4y agoAs I recall when blogs first came about, "blog" is shorthand for "web log". A log is a journal. Ergo, to write a blog is to journal something.
- waboremo 4y agoI like the definitions referenced in this[1] article when it comes to log, diary, and journaling. In that way, I wouldn't publish my journals to my blog. [1]: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/academic-development/assessmentdesign/methods/reflecting/ https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/academic-development/ass...
- anigbrowl 4y agoNazi lives don't matter, GTFO. (user account exists to promote Hitler worship, I checked)
- notwokeno 4y agoHeh. After a couple years of normal conservatives being told their only place to go to voice complaints is 4chan you shouldn't be surprised that some of us took your advice and learned from the people there.