5 ms·
Like cursor, but for blogging: a weekend project
- dewey 2y agoThis is the 2025 edition of "I have to build a custom static site generator" instead of writing blog posts.
- pembrook 2y agoFor a laugh, Google the phrase "how I built this blog on Gatsby" or "why I rebuilt this blog on next.js" and then go to page 10 of the google results and realize humans are all the same.
- noloadnigg 2y ago[dead]
- bananapub 2y agofascinating how many people have hobbies they don't enjoying doing
- jalict 2y agoDo it for the destination, not the journey
- booleandilemma 2y agoHis about page gives American Psycho in the 21st Century vibes: https://www.maximepeabody.com/about https://www.maximepeabody.com/about
- netghost 2y agoHe made something that currently searches references on a given set of topics. It's not as if this automates thinking or writing any more than spell and grammar check. There's quite a bit of vitriol in the comments that seems overblown. There's a line where we're typing a few words in to get some AI slop out, but I think this is a long ways away from there.
- jstanley 2y agoI found that when I tried to use Cursor for blogging I was totally infuriated by it. As happy as I am to have Cursor auto-complete my code all day long, the sensation of having Cursor try to put words into my mouth (or, worse, put thoughts into my head) was very unpleasant. So I stopped trying to use Cursor for writing and went back to vim. But I found the unpleasantness of the sensation very surprising! I love using Cursor for writing code, but for some reason, even though I am primarily a programmer, it's much more important to me that my words are a "true expression of my spirit" than that my code is. I couldn't quite figure out why.
- fxwin 2y agoI've had the same experience with writing non-code text. I often use VSCode to write markdown documents on various things and having Copilot chime in to complete my mealplan for the week with 5 different kinds of chicken wraps is a weird feeling lol
- easton 2y agoThe reason I barely use copilot is because it tries to write comments for me. I don’t get why they don’t have a button that says “disable autocomplete within comment blocks” (since the IDE knows which things are comments), but it’s so yucky feeling when it tries to write something I wouldn’t say.
- watt 2y agoI find the comments Copilot proposes is better than average comment quality for the code base I routinely work on: maybe you are so great you don't need any help ever, but that's not true for the average software dev.
- lelanthran 2y ago> I find the comments Copilot proposes is better than average comment quality for the code base I routinely work on Maybe the average is just so bad? The completions I get for comments are document what the code is doing, which is not something that I ever put into comments. It's always: a) A highlevel (prefixed to the function/block/scope definition) list of steps, input expectations and output expectations for the forthcoming function/block/scope Or b) A note explaining why the code does what it does. A comment repeating the code but in English is useless.
- yapyap 2y agoNext step: build an AI powered blog reader. That way we can just let our machines talk to eachother while we rot away, awesome :D
- nisegami 2y agoAs long as it generates ad impressions and clicks, sounds like everyone wins?
- loloquwowndueo 2y agoI find it ironic that the author says > [AI] tends to write in a generic style erases my personal tone of voice. I don't want to create "AI slop" And yet the article has telltale signs of AI content. Dead giveaway? The “conclusion” section - no human writes like that unless they’re doing a high school essay, and most AI slop out there has that predictable structure with an often unnecessary conclusions section. AI just can’t tell the difference or whether it’s actually needed. I even went through some other articles in this same blog to see if it was just this article or the author consistently adds conclusions to her other articles. Others don’t have a conclusion, this AI-assisted one is the first one with that structure.
- booleandilemma 2y agoI don't like that we're entering an era where humans won't be writing anymore. I might have to stop reading blog posts. Maybe I'll just start reading old books too.
- freetonik 2y agoI might have false negatives, of course, but I'm doing my best to manually curate and collect human-written blogs in my blog directory and search engine https://minifeed.net/ https://minifeed.net/
- achierius 2y agoMaybe I should start curating one of these too. I still have hope for the human-driven internet!
- dingnuts 2y agoI don't understand the appeal. I like writing, especially on my blog. It's fun! Why would I want a computer to do it for me? So it can express itself and I don't get to? What's next, it rides my bicycle for me? Plays my instrument for me? Fucks my wife on my behalf? These are all activities I would like to just do myself and I do not need a computer to do for me!
- arewethereyeta 2y agoAI and blogging is is like a wolf and a sheep in the same yard. One is killing the other eventually
- gioazzi 2y agoI love the approach: keep the creative, human part intact - and in fact free up time for it, by letting AI take care of the menial tasks. And to all naysayers, yes, research is a menial task... if you think a True Writer[1] would always do it themselves on Google, keep in mind that just a few years ago a "true writer" would have to go scavenge in some abandoned archives to find reference material, so it's just a matter of perspective. We built UnitText[2] with the same idea in mind, although we started from the "proofreading/copy-editing" part. Arguably, that's something most don't do at all... but asking someone to read your content, give you feedback, and iterate on it is an extremely valuable part of the process. Having AI do it means you can do it almost for free, and often. Again, freeing up more time for the actual writing. Doesn't mean a human copy-editor shouldn't review your content before you hit publish, or a writer shouldn't read their references, but AI can help a lot with all those steps. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman [2]: https://unittext.com https://unittext.com
- adhamsalama 2y agoWhy would I need to read someone's AI-generated blog if I can just make the AI generate it for me?
- foundzen 2y agoI read the complete article. It does feel like written by human but only if you don't read it all. So overall, I would have saved time if it was written by AI completely (by choosing to not read after a glance)
- pandatigox 2y agoLooks interesting! I'm curious what kind of editor you used. I've been thinking of creating a text editor with AI support and have been thinking of implementing something like CRDT for the backend? So that user edits are not overwritten by AI Are there any chances of open sourcing your project? Thanks!
- peab 2y agoI'm definitely considering open sourcing it yeah! I'll post a follow up if/when I do.
- mtsolitary 2y ago[dead]
- rcarmo 2y agoI just use Obsidian's copilot sidebar plugin with a prompt that is essentially: "Review {activeNote} and point out misspellings or structural errors. Please ensure to highlight any grammatical issues and carefully examine the text for clarity and coherence. Additionally, check for punctuation errors, repeated use of words and ensure proper sentence structure. Do not mention double dashes (--) since they are post-processed into em dashes. Check any inline HTML for accessibility attributes." Zero generation, zero automated edit, pure review and manual tweaking. If you want to keep your own voice, that's the only thing you need.
- mholm 2y agoThis indicates to me that you treat blogging as an obligation rather than a way to share your ideas. I guess if you read enough AI blog spam, blogging itself just feels like a status game of what you've written about, divorced from quality of content? If you're padding out your own ideas with AI filler, why not just make your style more shortform and save your reader's time?
- haswell 2y agoI’ve been having an internal debate with myself about whether or not to leave a comment, because I’m struggling to find anything positive to say. I love weekend projects and don't ever want to discourage people from doing them. But the other side of that debate in my head comes from the way I feel about this idea relative to blogging. I read blogs because I want to hear directly from another human. I also care about the subject matter they’re writing about, but part of the reason I care is because it’s a slice of someone’s perspective. Their life experiences. How a particular subject relates to them personally. How they solved a particular problem. Even when a blog post is purely technical with no personal narrative, it usually provides a snapshot of some aspect of some other human’s life, and the way they structure the words they wrote is a reflection of how their brain works. I also enjoy seeing the progression of thought over time from authors. They’ll write about something and later realize some nuance was wrong, and they’ll write about their updated understanding. I worry that the more disconnected authors become from their writing, the less aware they’ll be of the potential impact of their words, and those “aha! that thing I wrote 6 months ago was crap for xyz reason” moments are less likely to happen. To me, AI-assisted blogging just fundamentally devalues the content. As a reader, I can’t know if what I’m reading is real to the author, or a flourish/detail fed to them by an LLM that they liked. Lately I’ve encountered an increasing number of posts that have those telltale (or obvious) signs, and I immediately stop reading. I’m no longer interested. If I wanted LLM output about a given subject, I’d go to ChatGPT myself. I think there’s a place for LLMs and some real value to be gained. But when it comes to blogging (and many types of writing), I think it’s a net negative to society. I’d like to see a standard emerge where blogs can label themselves “No AI”.
- dymk 2y agoI’ve started seeing blogs or other works of media with a “No AI” badge and it makes me glad to see others feel the same way. I’m not anti-AI - I use Cursor extensively at work and in personal projects. What I do not like is presenting (either explicitly or by omission) something almost entirely AI generated as if it were created by a human. It’s fraud, there’s no other area where we’re alright with passing off something generated as hand made.
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- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoI wonder if there's an overlap between people who'd desire to write AI blog posts and people who only post self-promotion links here.
- mberlove 2y agoI see the points others are making, but I would find this a useful tool, I think. IMHO the missing factor gets bypassed on many posts like this (not just on this platform) -- the proof is in the product. Like any AI tool, the created results can be positive or negative. The churn of poorly written articles and reduplicated imagery has most of us on edge, but that should not negate the purpose and quality of other output. Some commenters appear to see this tool as just another means to rapidly generate slop content, but I don't see why it should have to be, nor do I think that was the intent of the author / creator. If what guides the use of the tool is the desire to create a certain piece of content, to express something, and the tool aids in telling the human story, then it's a winning answer, I think.
- smeej 2y agoI was expecting the blog post to be different based on the headline. It's really about an AI-powered tool that finds the links to things you want to refer to for you so you don't have to waste time looking up all your own references. It's not actually about writing the post. I don't see how this tool takes the human out of the writing. It just saves some time looking up links. I think people are judging the post by the headline, but might actually find use for the tool itself.
- peab 2y agoYeah, reading through the top comments here I can't help but come to the conclusion that they didn't read the actual post!