Yes, but for reasons I still don't understand, the prestige of the publisher correlates with the recognition it gets. Even if more people read your blog post of

Yes, but for reasons I still don't understand, the prestige of the publisher correlates with the recognition it gets. Even if more people read your blog post of your great idea, it's unlikely to get cited or recognized, and might even be entirely ignored by academics. Even outside academics this is true. A great essay, posted as a comment on HN or reddit, is going to be much less circulated than the same essay posted on a blog. E.g. I'll see a good essay on someone's blog and see that it's posted to 12 different subreddits and HN. If I say a great essay as a comment, even if it's of the same quality, I guarantee it will not be posted anywhere else.