Way too much indeed. We should remember that blogs are written for an audience and that audience may not be HN. If a post doesn't satisfy us as a community, the fault is not with the author's composition but with the choice to submit the link to HN.
A similar thing happened to me when I wrote a rememberence-day post. Some people reasonably suggested it wasn't Hacker News. I explained why I thought it was tangentially relevant. There was a discussion about that, but nobody suggested that I shouldn't have written the post, we were merely discussing whether it belonged in HN.
I can understand the argument that meta-blogging doesn't belong in HN. But I don't believe it shouldn't be written in the first place.
Really? Let's say you're a loyal reader. You have him RSSed, and you get excited whenever you see his posts show up in your feed reader. How would you feel if after a month or 2 you said "hm, Alex Payne hasn't blogged in a long time, wonder what the deal is."
You go to twitter: "@al3x why haven't you been blogging recently?"
"@you I decided to stop blogging"
Wouldn't you wish he had written one final blog post letting you know instead of waiting for people to figure it out?
To an outsider who just sees his posts occasionally on HN, it may seem dumb, but it makes more sense for his loyal readers, I assume.
A lot of HN readers and empathize like so: what if pg "just stopped" writing/publishing essays. Wouldn't you wish he had at least written one last amazing essay describing his rationale for stopping and letting everyone know?
And my advice to you about giving advice: Explain why he should do as you suggest. What's in it for him? What's in it for you? The tone of your comment, espcially the "thanks" at the end makes this seem like a request for your benefit rather than a suggestion for his benefit.
Is that the case? If so, you may find it more effective to explain why his blogging about stopping blogging is harmful to you. It may be that another solution presents itself. For example, if you aren't subscribed to his blog but are annoyed to have this post taking up space on HN, perhaps the solution is to appeal to HN readers not to upvote this kind of post rather than to appeal to the author not to write it.
Likewise, if there's something in it for the author, explaining that will be a lot more effective as it will appeal to his self-interest. He explains quite clearly that he writes the blog for himself, not for you or I. Therefore,he presumably has already decided that this post is a personal benefit for him. If you can think of a compelling reason for him to eschew such a post, it's best to tell him so rather than making him guess.
That way you will get what you want by helping him get what he wants. Win win!
You're barking up the wrong tree. It's unlikely that 'the next person that wants to stop blogging' reads HN (yes I know about spolsky and al3x). In response to this story, you could ask us not to vote for such stories or even urge us to flag it. Although such metacomments are discouraged, it's still more useful than wildly addressing a bunch of people that probably won't be reached.
You're joking, but honestly, I really do think there's going to be a wave of private/closed-community products that counterbalance the boom in highly social technology over the past few years.
Alex, I know you contribute on HN, and I'd just like to say I think some of the people here are being rude.
With that said, some (unsolicited, I know) advice for if you want to get back into blogging. Try getting feedback from your peers before publishing something, then use their input to edit. That should improve the writing, of course, but it can also indicate to you if the ideas you want to get across are apparent to the readers you care about.
Not everyone who reads your essays will even be willing to meet you on your own terms. Getting feedback from peers - as opposed to random people who feel it's okay to dismiss soemthing out-of-hand - may help with the feeling that your writing doesn't provide the insight you want it to.
This is, I think, closer to how PG approaches his essays. Notice, too, that we don't consider those blogs, but essays that pop up periodically.
Getting feedback on posts before I publish has been valuable. If and when I get back to blogging, I'll be soliciting that peer feedback for each and every post. Great advice. Thanks!
Of course, I’ll be tweeting away. Over time, I’m coming to realize what sort of messages I can communicate effectively via Twitter, and what sort I can’t. Twitter works least well for me when I try to cram big arguments down to 140 characters.
But isn't twitter the medium which caused him the most grief (the techcrunch manufactured-drama of last week) specifically when he tried to convey a big idea in too short a space?
I think that blogging, especially the feedback you get from a successful post, tend to be seductive. So you continually think about that next blog post, even when you have nothing to say.
This is why I've decided to just write to get something out of my head and there's no other outlet.
Let me just say just because we have lot of ideas doesn't mean they all need to crystalize. I've learned that I might be thinking of an idea for a month or some whereas someone else might have thought about it for four months, tired & failed so they will criticize the idea and drive it in a different direction. Not every idea needs to crystalize.
I do agree that blogging every other day is not going to help either. I would say blog like Dustin Curtis. Treat every post like a book.
As for my street cred: I quit blogging in 2001 after 3-4 years of blogging. Now, thinking of doing what I just proposed above. :-)
Perhaps these tech blogger/entrepreneurs will get round to doing real work now. Streams of messages (twitter) and bug tracking (frog creek) is great n all, but how about something with more than a handful of features?
I wonder how many people are employed by Spolsky's company, and how long they've been employed? I wonder how many houses those salaries have bought, dry cleaning orders made and paid for, restaurant meals consumed, youth sports supported, and personal abilities grown?
Now that he has time for some real work, that place is going to be a power house!
What the world really needs is more people whining on HN about how other people should spend their time. Famous people clearly don't know how to spend their own time most efficiently, so it's nice when random people on HN that nobody has ever heard of can plan peoples' lives for them. A great service.
Weird stance from someone who lists themselves as the "creator" of a Custom Google Search box in their HN profile... http://techielifeissues.blogspot.com
I feel like I've read this exact same comment so many times over the past 3 years. If you think something's off topic, would you please just flag it quietly, as we ask in the guidelines?
[+] [-] josefresco|16 years ago|reply
Also a list of public blog-quitters so we can ridicule them when they change their minds: http://calacanis.com/2008/07/11/official-announcement-regard... http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100301/lets-take-this-offline.... http://al3x.net/2010/03/02/hiatus.html
[+] [-] decklin|16 years ago|reply
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hiatus
Edit: to be fair, the title of this submission is misrepresenting.
[+] [-] cwilson|16 years ago|reply
Congrats and best of luck, Alex.
[+] [-] raganwald|16 years ago|reply
A similar thing happened to me when I wrote a rememberence-day post. Some people reasonably suggested it wasn't Hacker News. I explained why I thought it was tangentially relevant. There was a discussion about that, but nobody suggested that I shouldn't have written the post, we were merely discussing whether it belonged in HN.
I can understand the argument that meta-blogging doesn't belong in HN. But I don't believe it shouldn't be written in the first place.
[+] [-] Willie_Dynamite|16 years ago|reply
Maybe flippant, but that's the nature of the blogging beast. Blogs come and go, new ones replace old ones and somehow equilibrium is maintained.
[+] [-] scott_s|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Vitaly|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jackowayed|16 years ago|reply
You go to twitter: "@al3x why haven't you been blogging recently?"
"@you I decided to stop blogging"
Wouldn't you wish he had written one final blog post letting you know instead of waiting for people to figure it out?
To an outsider who just sees his posts occasionally on HN, it may seem dumb, but it makes more sense for his loyal readers, I assume.
A lot of HN readers and empathize like so: what if pg "just stopped" writing/publishing essays. Wouldn't you wish he had at least written one last amazing essay describing his rationale for stopping and letting everyone know?
[+] [-] raganwald|16 years ago|reply
Is that the case? If so, you may find it more effective to explain why his blogging about stopping blogging is harmful to you. It may be that another solution presents itself. For example, if you aren't subscribed to his blog but are annoyed to have this post taking up space on HN, perhaps the solution is to appeal to HN readers not to upvote this kind of post rather than to appeal to the author not to write it.
Likewise, if there's something in it for the author, explaining that will be a lot more effective as it will appeal to his self-interest. He explains quite clearly that he writes the blog for himself, not for you or I. Therefore,he presumably has already decided that this post is a personal benefit for him. If you can think of a compelling reason for him to eschew such a post, it's best to tell him so rather than making him guess.
That way you will get what you want by helping him get what he wants. Win win!
JM2C on giving advice...
[+] [-] nfnaaron|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Confusion|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmikal|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] al3x|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erlanger|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gyardley|16 years ago|reply
True and beautifully put.
[+] [-] scott_s|16 years ago|reply
With that said, some (unsolicited, I know) advice for if you want to get back into blogging. Try getting feedback from your peers before publishing something, then use their input to edit. That should improve the writing, of course, but it can also indicate to you if the ideas you want to get across are apparent to the readers you care about.
Not everyone who reads your essays will even be willing to meet you on your own terms. Getting feedback from peers - as opposed to random people who feel it's okay to dismiss soemthing out-of-hand - may help with the feeling that your writing doesn't provide the insight you want it to.
This is, I think, closer to how PG approaches his essays. Notice, too, that we don't consider those blogs, but essays that pop up periodically.
[+] [-] al3x|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avdempsey|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dschobel|16 years ago|reply
But isn't twitter the medium which caused him the most grief (the techcrunch manufactured-drama of last week) specifically when he tried to convey a big idea in too short a space?
[+] [-] eam|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikedouglas|16 years ago|reply
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/27/new-twitter-features/
[+] [-] al3x|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joshu|16 years ago|reply
This is why I've decided to just write to get something out of my head and there's no other outlet.
[+] [-] kvs|16 years ago|reply
I do agree that blogging every other day is not going to help either. I would say blog like Dustin Curtis. Treat every post like a book.
As for my street cred: I quit blogging in 2001 after 3-4 years of blogging. Now, thinking of doing what I just proposed above. :-)
[+] [-] k7d|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kloncks|16 years ago|reply
I really feel that that number will only continue to increase as more and more people get online and stop worrying about privacy too much.
Mishaps like this are tragic. Misinterpretation and misunderstanding are bad things...but for the most part, these things are rare.
[+] [-] dschobel|16 years ago|reply
I wonder if the twitter guys are concerned about the logical next step in this reversal of over-exposure.
[+] [-] davidw|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] al3x|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _3ex7|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marshallp|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phsr|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nfnaaron|16 years ago|reply
Now that he has time for some real work, that place is going to be a power house!
[+] [-] jrockway|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bjplink|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sker|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pg|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DaVinMan|16 years ago|reply