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Discussion on: Looking For Feedback

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yerac profile image
Rich

The real answer: Write whatever makes you happy, forget about views and such, just make sure you get something out of it and don't focus on volume/consistency of posting and ignore my ranting below :)

My personal answer: Honestly _(and this isn't just you!) I am not a fan of the "noise" posts, like ones that are discussions that I would just to to sites like Twitter or Reddit (and avoid them there too), for example the _"What gets you out of bed" and similar. I come here to see new tech or new takes on things. This isn't a problem with you or your writing, but my expectation/desired outcomes of visiting. This could be solved by having better usage of tags perhaps, for example the above doesn't need to be in #webdev, but is there as that's the most popular tag I guess?

Again, I really don't want this to come across wrong! You do you and enjoy it, I can just filter my feed :)

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taillogs profile image
Ryland G

This is an amazing piece of feedback. Seriously, this is the most critical and honest response I think I've ever received on my content. I really really appreciate it.

My personal answer: Honestly _(and this isn't just you!) I am not a fan of the "noise" posts, like ones that are discussions that I would just to to sites like Twitter or Reddit (and avoid them there too), for example the _"What gets you out of bed" and similar. I come here to see new tech or new takes on things. This isn't a problem with you or your writing, but my expectation/desired outcomes of visiting. This could be solved by having better usage of tags perhaps, for example the above doesn't need to be in #webdev, but is there as that's the most popular tag I guess?

I completely agree with everything you've written here. Obviously, I have a different perspective on a few of the items. "Noise" posts are a mixed bag for example, some of them (such as get out of bed) were merely as you described "filler content" (as described in this post dev.to/taillogs/how-i-started-exis...) because I wanted to post something every day as a personal goal. It was also my 3-4th post ever, and I think if I had written it today, it wouldn't be recognizable as "filler" (because of how I've improved as a writer over the last month).

Unfortunately, I do see another type of value in the "filler posts". One of the most powerful mechanisms to create success is persistency. I started blogging only a month ago, so this is easy to discuss. I strongly believe that if my posts had been 10x higher quality, but 1/10 the volume (so 2-3 posts last month), we would not be having this conversation.

I try to quantify what set of metrics will allow me to write the most "visible" post with the time I have available. You may wonder, "why strive for visibility and not something more honorable like quality?". The simple answer is that I really believe I have a unique and substantial viewpoint on the world. As a repercussion of that belief, I want as many people to hear what I have to say as possible. If I had started with the quality over visibility route, I might have written some great articles, but you and nearly no one else would have read them. Obviously this is not the guaranteed outcome, but it's definitely probable.

Society has become centered around instant gratification, meme-driven sensationalism. High quality content can succeed in this new society, but almost never will, unless the brand associated with the content is well known. My choices are based on this fundamental observation, and my long term plan is to exclusively produce high quality content, once I have the audience.

For a direct example, I looked over some of your past posts. You wrote some posts such as dev.to/wabbbit/using-time-tracking..., which is a very nice post. If I had posted that exact same content it would be front page on Dev.to instead of sitting at 7 reactions. That is the power of visibility.

What I've considered recently is separating my content (on one account) into different "tracks" using the organization feature available on Dev.to. I would use it similar to how youtubers divide content across multiple channels to not mix up different audiences. This is related to the tags remark you made, I'll definitely try to be better about that too, but I honestly just copy-paste my tags a lot of the time and forget to change them.

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yerac profile image
Rich

Thanks for the response! I was hoping it came off right and not just a rant about your content :)

I _totally _get why though, my rant aside. Blogging is something I want to get into more, and I have a lot of ideas but still really new to all this! I want to tell myself that I won't do the filler posts, but I think the strategy you are using is sadly the only real way to build up momentum based on how people consume blog content these days. (Which is also why I moved from dev.to from a personal host as it wasn't getting any traction).

As for the tags thing, I think we are all a little guilty of this either on dev.to or twitter ;)

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taillogs profile image
Ryland G

I’m worse on twitter, hashtags are too easy to abuse.