3 ms·

My approach to running a link blog

29 points by robenkleene 2y ago

jmmv 2y ago
About a year ago, I experimented with this. I was collecting links throughout the month and then posted an article with all the links accompanied by a “personal comment” for each. I kept up with that for about 5 months and then abandoned the effort. It was a lot of work and it didn’t feel very rewarding. The writing itself wasn’t as fun as crafting an article and the resulting posts didn’t get any traction. Wondering how others that do this feel, and whether blog readers might see these types of entries as “blog spam” or not.
- rednafi 2y ago
  I have a separate section in my blog that’s outside of the RSS feed to house links. I’ve adopted an even simpler approach: - Each year gets a new page to list links, activities I’ve done, books I’ve read, and talks I’ve grokked [^1] - The pages are listed under the feed section [^2] For me, the idea isn’t about who reads them or not, but rather to have a chronological record of some of my online activities. Reviewing them at the end of the year gives me a sense of accomplishment that I love. It’s outside RSS and doesn’t clutter the front page of the site. So no spamming there. [^1]: https://rednafi.com/feed/2025/ https://rednafi.com/feed/2025/ [^2]: https://rednafi.com/feed/ https://rednafi.com/feed/
- simonw 2y ago
  Sounds to me like a common Substack newsletter format - a monthly collection of links with commentary. I get a decent amount of traction with my blog but it's still fundamentally for me: I run searches on it multiple times a day, it's effectively public bookmarks.
- imtringued 2y ago
  I'm not sure I agree with simonw's approach either. The goal of a link blog, that is meant to be useful to others, is to provide a highly curated collection of potentially difficult to find resources centering around a big theme or topic all in one place. It would be very similar to an "awesome list" but with personal notes and summaries of why you think the articles, books, papers, blog posts, you have linked are relevant to the overarching theme. The optimal blog structure would probably not even be a blog post per link, but rather a blog post per topic that gets updated as you find more relevant resources.
  - simonw 2y ago
    I don't like that model. That's effectively an awesome list with some extra notes, and I've found surprisingly little value from awesome lists. The reason a link blog is valuable is that it emphasizes what is NEW in a space - maybe not new to the internet as a whole, but new to the explorations of the person running the blog. It's not "useful links about SQLite", it's "my personal exploration of the SQLite database over time". That's why I like tags so much. Here's that page for SQLite, going all the way back to when I first learned about it 21 years ago: https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlite/ https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlite/ I have over 5,000 more pages like that, each is effectively a miniature link blog in its own right. Tag pages become an important first class artifact of the blog itself. The date is also important for links because links rot - and information falls out of date. Knowing that I found a resource valuable in 2019 is important context!
Terretta 2y ago
@simonw ... your 2 Jan 2025 article says Siri story will make people think their devices are listening to them for ads, but expresses skepticism: "I still don’t think companies serve you ads based on spying through your microphone" -- https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/2/they-spy-on-you-but-not-like-that/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/2/they-spy-on-you-but-not... Meanwhile: “Media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) says it can target adverts based on what potential customers said out loud near device microphones, and explicitly points to Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing as CMG partners, according to a CMG presentation obtained by 404 Media.” https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/ https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-list... Similarly: “MindSift, a small New Hampshire-based company, is part of a new push that aims to target ads by listening to peoples’ everyday conversations through microphones in their smart devices, according to a review of recently deleted sections from MindSift’s website and comments made on a podcast unearthed by 404 Media.” https://www.404media.co/mindsift-brags-about-using-smart-device-microphone-audio-to-target-ads-on-their-podcast/ https://www.404media.co/mindsift-brags-about-using-smart-dev... Might be time for a new hobby! PS. As those are subscription supported, here's a reblog: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13805393/Facebook-partner-brags-listening-phones-microphone-serve-ads.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13805393/Fac...
- edmundsauto 2y ago
  > Might be time for a new hobby! I disagree, this deserves continued conversation and your comment is inappropriately dismissive. The evidence that companies are secretly using mics from connected devices from major manufacturers is scant; on the other hand, the technical evidence and forensic analysis is massive this doesn't occur. My take, this looks concerning due to their intent but I don't feel it's technically possible given the other analyses that have been done. MindSift states their goal, but it's not worded like this is in prod or how it would work. (Perhaps they intend to use UI tricks to enable the mic; very different than doing it covertly.) As for CMG, they point to their partners but do not say those partners have any hand in this work - they could be using a "mic on" trick to programmatically change ad targeting in those networks, which would be less concerning than if those giants were doing this. TBH, if any of the tech giants are doing this, it'd be a pretty major violation of various laws/FTC agreements, etc. If it were happening, someone should whistleblow pretty soon and be in line for a major payday - this violation would make the $5B from Cambridge Analytics look small.

29 points by robenkleene 2y ago

jmmv 2y ago

About a year ago, I experimented with this. I was collecting links throughout the month and then posted an article with all the links accompanied by a “personal comment” for each. I kept up with that for about 5 months and then abandoned the effort. It was a lot of work and it didn’t feel very rewarding. The writing itself wasn’t as fun as crafting an article and the resulting posts didn’t get any traction. Wondering how others that do this feel, and whether blog readers might see these types of entries as “blog spam” or not.

rednafi 2y ago
I have a separate section in my blog that’s outside of the RSS feed to house links. I’ve adopted an even simpler approach: - Each year gets a new page to list links, activities I’ve done, books I’ve read, and talks I’ve grokked [^1] - The pages are listed under the feed section [^2] For me, the idea isn’t about who reads them or not, but rather to have a chronological record of some of my online activities. Reviewing them at the end of the year gives me a sense of accomplishment that I love. It’s outside RSS and doesn’t clutter the front page of the site. So no spamming there. [^1]: https://rednafi.com/feed/2025/ https://rednafi.com/feed/2025/ [^2]: https://rednafi.com/feed/ https://rednafi.com/feed/
simonw 2y ago
Sounds to me like a common Substack newsletter format - a monthly collection of links with commentary. I get a decent amount of traction with my blog but it's still fundamentally for me: I run searches on it multiple times a day, it's effectively public bookmarks.
imtringued 2y ago
I'm not sure I agree with simonw's approach either. The goal of a link blog, that is meant to be useful to others, is to provide a highly curated collection of potentially difficult to find resources centering around a big theme or topic all in one place. It would be very similar to an "awesome list" but with personal notes and summaries of why you think the articles, books, papers, blog posts, you have linked are relevant to the overarching theme. The optimal blog structure would probably not even be a blog post per link, but rather a blog post per topic that gets updated as you find more relevant resources.
- simonw 2y ago
  I don't like that model. That's effectively an awesome list with some extra notes, and I've found surprisingly little value from awesome lists. The reason a link blog is valuable is that it emphasizes what is NEW in a space - maybe not new to the internet as a whole, but new to the explorations of the person running the blog. It's not "useful links about SQLite", it's "my personal exploration of the SQLite database over time". That's why I like tags so much. Here's that page for SQLite, going all the way back to when I first learned about it 21 years ago: https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlite/ https://simonwillison.net/tags/sqlite/ I have over 5,000 more pages like that, each is effectively a miniature link blog in its own right. Tag pages become an important first class artifact of the blog itself. The date is also important for links because links rot - and information falls out of date. Knowing that I found a resource valuable in 2019 is important context!

Terretta 2y ago

@simonw ... your 2 Jan 2025 article says Siri story will make people think their devices are listening to them for ads, but expresses skepticism: "I still don’t think companies serve you ads based on spying through your microphone" -- https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/2/they-spy-on-you-but-not-like-that/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jan/2/they-spy-on-you-but-not... Meanwhile: “Media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) says it can target adverts based on what potential customers said out loud near device microphones, and explicitly points to Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Bing as CMG partners, according to a CMG presentation obtained by 404 Media.” https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/ https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-list... Similarly: “MindSift, a small New Hampshire-based company, is part of a new push that aims to target ads by listening to peoples’ everyday conversations through microphones in their smart devices, according to a review of recently deleted sections from MindSift’s website and comments made on a podcast unearthed by 404 Media.” https://www.404media.co/mindsift-brags-about-using-smart-device-microphone-audio-to-target-ads-on-their-podcast/ https://www.404media.co/mindsift-brags-about-using-smart-dev... Might be time for a new hobby! PS. As those are subscription supported, here's a reblog: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13805393/Facebook-partner-brags-listening-phones-microphone-serve-ads.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13805393/Fac...

edmundsauto 2y ago
> Might be time for a new hobby! I disagree, this deserves continued conversation and your comment is inappropriately dismissive. The evidence that companies are secretly using mics from connected devices from major manufacturers is scant; on the other hand, the technical evidence and forensic analysis is massive this doesn't occur. My take, this looks concerning due to their intent but I don't feel it's technically possible given the other analyses that have been done. MindSift states their goal, but it's not worded like this is in prod or how it would work. (Perhaps they intend to use UI tricks to enable the mic; very different than doing it covertly.) As for CMG, they point to their partners but do not say those partners have any hand in this work - they could be using a "mic on" trick to programmatically change ad targeting in those networks, which would be less concerning than if those giants were doing this. TBH, if any of the tech giants are doing this, it'd be a pretty major violation of various laws/FTC agreements, etc. If it were happening, someone should whistleblow pretty soon and be in line for a major payday - this violation would make the $5B from Cambridge Analytics look small.