Proposal: personal blog @ SN
1292 sats \ 77 comments \ @dtonon 18 Oct 2022 meta
/cc @k00b
Lurking SN I see that original and moderate long content is really appreciated. If a user invest some time producing it is a shame that it could be lost in the archive pagination. Why don't let the user mark his own discussionss as "blog post" and so categorize them in a specific tab in the profile?
This automatically enable a blog platform for every user and will increase the discoverability of the best contents. I would visit a user's blog for sure if I discover him through a great post in the homepage; don't you?
Bonus point: in the future will be trivial to let the user create paywalled post, so SN can become a Substack competitor too >:) And @DarthCoin could settle here permanently!!
Stackers: would you appreciate this feature?
write
preview
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359 sats \ 6 replies \ @sb 18 Oct 2022
Yes please @k00b. I intend to publish 5 long-form articles (more than 4000 words each) as soon as this feature becomes available on SN.
I am currently setting up a Substack but will delete it immediately when blogging on SN is available.
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13 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
This is the reaction I would love to see! :)
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1 sat \ 4 replies \ @ek 18 Oct 2022
What would make this better on SN then on substack? The ability to comment?
I don't understand why you would move to SN.
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68 sats \ 3 replies \ @OneHungLow 18 Oct 2022
So he can earn sats for his articles.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @alpacachino 19 Oct 2022
Substack on lightning sounds dope
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 18 Oct 2022
Okay, I can see that this would make it easier for SN users. But everyone who only wants to read and isn't logged in can't tip. Then, simple donation addresses at the bottom (or wherever) would make more sense as is already done on blogs. But yes, translating upvotes to tips makes tipping pretty accessible. More pages should work like this. Maybe this could work by better integration of extensions like Alby?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
But everyone who only wants to read and isn't logged in can't tip.
Every NS user has a @stacker.news address that can be used for tipping if you don't want to register/login.
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205 sats \ 18 replies \ @DarthCoin 18 Oct 2022
Not sure if I would be using too much SN. Lately the amount of shitcoining / shitposting on SN is increasing at levels that makes me not anymore interested to visit SN and posting more stuff.
Slowly the alternative to reddit, cleaner and more interesting, became a new old reddit full of useless "news" and ramblings around shitcoins.
I notice that also bitcoin / lightning devs start avoiding to come back here, exactly because of that. Shame, I thought SN will be a nice platform for Bitcoin/LN discussions, but seems to became a "milking cow" of sats by people that don't have any intention to bring some good content.
The few users here that post good content, I feel them tired too.
I don't know how SN could get out from this chicken and egg game. I think will be better to give less incentives for all and don't make SN as another "passive earning" tool. People must work hard to earn real sats.
Maybe a separation of "boosts" from tips, will help. Tipping sats must be something that the reader really appreciate and want to show that appreciation. Boosts must be only when the reader want that post to be more visible and more discussed. Right now not all SN users know that.
And btw... I do not want to "paywall" my guides. Bitcoin information and guides must be free forever. If the reader really want to send some sats as appreciation for the help I provided, is their own choice, I do not force anybody to pay for my guides.
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115 sats \ 11 replies \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but I haven't seen any shitcoining here, can someone link some examples?
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0 sats \ 10 replies \ @DarthCoin 18 Oct 2022
of course you don't see them, you are still influenced by them and still consider them a "normality". That means you are quite "new" in bitcoin space. #82303
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16 sats \ 1 reply \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
An empty zero sats comment by 2 days ago? Really? :) No one noted it, and this is absolutely fine.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
He is actually referring to my own comment expecting it to be some kind of sick burn.
Some some-called "hardcore" bitcoiners still have the mentality of a 5 year old.
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9 sats \ 6 replies \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
Care to explain how am I still influenced by them?
Do you even know how long ago I was orangepilled or are you just forcing your own blinded narrative anyway you can?
Your sense of entitlement and ad hominem attacks is in very poor taste.
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126 sats \ 0 replies \ @kilianbuhn 18 Oct 2022
Care to explain how am I still influenced by them?
https://i.imgflip.com/6xchqy.jpg
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100 sats \ 4 replies \ @Brunswick 18 Oct 2022
Don't take DarthCoin's jabs personally. He is hardcore bitcoin, thus the vader reference in his nym.
Having to defend bitcoin gets tiring, and even though bitcoin doesn't really need defending, working to educate people about it and having to answer the same questions and objections over and over can lead a maximalist to look for something that is more echo-chamberish. Hoping for a public platform like SN to be that echo chamber is probably misplaced. SN is intended (I think) to be that sword edge to slice through lies and ignorance for those seeking the truth.
Darthcoin has explained himself many times, that he was never a shitcoiner, and therefore has no empathy for those repeating the objections against the design decisions and optimization for decentralization that were made by Satoshi himself. To attempt discussions about these topics, revisiting the block size/time debate years after its been settled by the market should bring with it an expectation you will be confronted. For the moment, its a horse long dead.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
None of that relates to "being a hardcore bitcoiner" or "defending bitcoin". He's just being a douche.
No one here attacked bitcoin.
I don't take any of it personally, I just criticize that kind of nonsense, he can either take it or leave it.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Brunswick 18 Oct 2022
He is using one of your posts as an example, but its probably not a good one. There are lots of discussions here about blocksize and blocktime, and he seems to respond forcefully to almost each one. Agreed, he tends to come across as a dick or a douche, but as Saylor says this is a necessary service to enable adoption.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
There are lots of discussions here about blocksize and blocktime
Where? I specifically asked in my original reply for stuff like that and was instead given an ad hominem attack.
I only found this:
#1631
Which is from last year. So 1 post in 2 years that respectfully asks about blocksize is the real basis for the tons of block size debates on SN?
Agreed, he tends to come across as a dick or a douche, but as Saylor says this is a necessary service to enable adoption.
I'm fine with being toxic to scammers and shitcoin shills, that is a white blood cell response. That is totally different from attacking other bitcoiners or even noobs without apparent reason.
Claiming that is a "necessary service" is disingenuous.
Also, I couldn't give a single fuck about who DarthCoin is or what is personality is like on Tuesdays. In bitcoinland everyone is an equal pleb. If he is expecting some kind of special treatment or seigniorage then he should shill fiat or other random shitcoins instead.
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 18 Oct 2022
To be honest, that's a bad example.
I also didn't notice any significant change so far.
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70 sats \ 0 replies \ @CheezeGrater 18 Oct 2022
This will inevitably happen to any platform that becomes popular, plus SN has the added incentive of being rewarded for submitting popular content.
Hopefully, subs will help with this.
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Thanks for the feedback!
became a new old reddit full of useless "news"
The few users here that post good content, I feel them tired too.
people that don't have any intention to bring some good content.
People must work hard to earn real sats.
So let's move thoward a format that promote good content instead of links spammed to earn some sats.
Bitcoin information and guides must be free forever.
It is now an universal law :)
I do not force anybody to pay for my guides.
Legit. But someone could find a balance between work hard to produce good content and earn to live.
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15 sats \ 3 replies \ @kilianbuhn 18 Oct 2022
Slowly the alternative to reddit, cleaner and more interesting, became a new old reddit full of useless "news" and ramblings around shitcoins.
Then upvote the stuff you'd like to see, onboard people that you think will upvote the right content and let the free market decide.
If you're pissed that your specific topics and opinions are not shared by everyone nobody can help you with that. You don't live in a world revolving around you and no site in the world is going to change that. You're substack is the pinnacle of this vanity.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 18 Oct 2022
What do you mean with
You're substack is the pinnacle of this vanity.
?
You think his substack didn't add any value to the world regarding bitcoin and helped people to form opinions about it?
Regarding:
If you're pissed that your specific topics and opinions are not shared by everyone nobody can help you with that. You don't live in a world revolving around you and no site in the world is going to change that.
Also, nowhere did he say that he is pissed or that he thinks the world revolves around him. He just added his thoughts to the post and why he thinks so. You just jumped to conclusions based on your own view about him. Your whole second paragraph is probably exactly what he complained about. Very reddit-like. No thinking, just jumping to conclusions and personal attacking. You could have left it at the first paragraph.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 18 Oct 2022
I don't give a shit if you read or not my SN posts or substack. Those are not for you in the first place.
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90 sats \ 0 replies \ @kilianbuhn 18 Oct 2022
Well, then stop complaining that not everyone is an exact copy of you 🙈😂
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238 sats \ 2 replies \ @TonyGiorgio 18 Oct 2022
I think recreating blogging software might be a beast of its own, but I think a good middle ground that I would love is being able to pull in stacker news comments into existing blogging software. Thinking Disqus but lightning enabled. Brings users to stacker news too because if they want to comment, it has to be lightning enabled and with SN.
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53 sats \ 1 reply \ @Thriller 18 Oct 2022 freebie
🎯 i've told @k00b this for over a year, i forgot the reason why it couldn't be done just yet
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TonyGiorgio 18 Oct 2022
I also told him a year ago too in the pleb lab lol. Right about when i stopped using twitter and wanted comments on my blog.
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16 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 18 Oct 2022
I think this is an excellent idea.
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1 sat \ 2 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Great :) Would you be a reader, a writer or both?
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1 sat \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 18 Oct 2022
Definitely a reader, and possibly both when my responses get too long!
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
:D
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheWildHustle 18 Oct 2022
Sounds like a good idea to me
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @satoshe 18 Oct 2022
Great idea! Not only would I read the blogs, I would also read the blogs that you read @undefined, and so on so forth. I would tip you for suggesting which blogs to read, and also of course tip the writer of the blog.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
This! ^
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6 sats \ 8 replies \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
What prevents a user from doing a series of texto posts resembling blog articles and you clicking on their profile to find their other articles?
Maybe there is an angle I'm missing.
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1 sat \ 7 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
If the user do a lot of posts including links or questions, might want filter his "best posts" from a content perspective and group them as a blog.
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131 sats \ 6 replies \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
Hmm then I think tags solve that issue in a more generalizable and future-proof manner.
Hardcoding a personal blog functionality just looks like feature creep, specially if users don't engage with it and it never takes off.
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1 sat \ 5 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Hardcoding a personal blog functionality just looks like feature creep, specially if users don't engage with it and it never takes off.
Yes, I could agree on this point. But you have to valutate if you want to advocate a function to give a form to the project, versus let him plasmate himself. It the users don't engage let's fix the function or remove it, not fear. On the tecnical side you can use tags to star the post, of course; the critical point is give them visibility in the profile via a proper section/button. However I think that a checkbox is minimalist (KISS) and the migration to a tags system, if needed, is trivial.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @sommerfeld 18 Oct 2022
I actually love this kinds of design discussions even if I disagree with the original idea, many great ideas can come off it (I think it was John Carmack who said something like that as well).
Maybe allowing users to curate their own profile (similarly to github) is the answer. Tags can be part of the implementation and blog-like profiles can arise from it.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Both roads can coexist, a proposed feature and some flexible tools as tags to let the community create a spontaneous usage pattern.
PS: I my opinion tags can create quite chaotic and spammy structure if the user is completely free to create and use them.
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5 sats \ 2 replies \ @ek 18 Oct 2022
Pinned posts also come to my mind here. Like pinned on your own profile.
Also subscribing to users since you would want to know about new (blog) posts from them for proper "blogging functionality".
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Yes, "pinned post" could be a more neutral alternative to the "blog" narrative :)
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
But the user should be able to pin the post only at the creation, not after facts in an edit. This express the intention to create a valuable content and is not used to showcase a conversation.
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6 sats \ 5 replies \ @l0k1 18 Oct 2022
I think some thinking needs to be done regarding the game theory to prevent scammers from getting cheap publicity. I'd say that would mean default ordering should show ranking by tips, as garbage won't get tipped. Untipped items in other views could be somewhat dimmed perhaps if they are old also, to indicate they are probably not interesting.
I think topic-related posts like megathreads in old school forums would be a great feature, it just needs the possibility of setting the default view to chronological order rather than "hot".
And there could be a separate way to find posts with text versus link only perhaps.
I dunno. Anyway, the current interface design definitely could benefit from some careful design to mitigate the growing number of crossposters from Hive and similar shitcoin forums, from ungracious morons who brag about how much "sats" they earn for their platform praising waffle.
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72 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Interesting points; user interface and content discoverabiliy can be modified and probably improved in a lot of way.
However my proposal is just about letting every user to "star" is own content to highlight it in the profile. It is not related to the main page appearance / structure / ranking engine.
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69 sats \ 3 replies \ @satoshe 18 Oct 2022
I also like the chronological view idea like the old school forums. It is also very Bitcoinian since Bitcoin teaches us to think about the time chain, ordering events by time.
With regards to the game theory, I think it is essential to deal with the issue of fake upvoting. You can easy send sats back and forth between multiple accounts to upvote your own content without spending any sats. This a circular economy. So how do you detect fraudulent circular tips? I warn against sorting by tip amount.
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50 sats \ 2 replies \ @l0k1 18 Oct 2022
yeah, catching circular paths is tricky. It's not an easy thing to write code to detect it. But what you can do is decrease weighting of the vote, not the value, by frequency, which reduces the advantage gained and realigns the incentive.
it is amazing to me how the obvious game cheat teks of scammers is still not well understood. I must be getting old.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @satoshe 19 Oct 2022
Frequency of what?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @l0k1 20 Oct 2022
frequency of voting. As in, the votes don't matter as much if the user makes them more often, some kind of time decay factor of effect that declines the more votes they make.
There is also the possibility of tracking the circular paths of funds going into these "votes" as well.
Gaming these kinds of forum micropayment systems has got to a point of an art on platforms like Steem and Hive.
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5 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheBTCManual 18 Oct 2022
I like the idea but I feel like a reputation system and categories of some kind is important, look at substack and medium, it's filled with rubbish and curators work hard everyday to clean it up and have things filter to the top, many people just syndicate their content on those platforms hoping to get them to their website as a funnel
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
This can already be done. The blog sub section does not boost this dark pattern in any way because I have to actively visit the user profile to discover the "best posts", aka blog; and I don't visit it if his content is not good enough.
Imagine the blog section as the Post one, filtered. Nothing more.
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50 sats \ 6 replies \ @WordForm 18 Oct 2022
Check out WordForm.
It's a WIP but aligns with what you're describing.
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Unluckly the login via LN is not working form me. But I grasped the idea, nice!
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10 sats \ 4 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Nevermind, I was able to login, was just a UI trap :)
PS: I think the login/signup should be direct without any friction via LN; on signup the user can choose/change the username after. I was blocked by the Login button under the ID and didn't note the login/new switch above the QR.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @WordForm 18 Oct 2022
Appreciate the feedback.
What device are you using that's giving the UX display issues?
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10 sats \ 2 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
It is not a device problem (I tried with a smartphone and the with a PC) but a (I think) UX one. When I login/signup via LN I expect to be logged automatically, without do any other step before or after. I saw the QR and shot it without noticing the login/create switch above that ask for the username; so when the ID appared below the QR I hit "Login" but a validation error popup above and was quite puzled by the dynamic.
I suggest you to do post to showcase the project and ask for feedbacks :)
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @WordForm 18 Oct 2022
Ah gotcha.
The reason for the is a user account is not mapped 1-to-1 with a wallet, but rather 1-to-many. This gives a user the ability to sign in from multiple wallets/devices.
That being said, your feedback is very helpful. The UX is probably unintuitive for most since it's a new signin flow.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
You are welcome!
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18 sats \ 0 replies \ @8 18 Oct 2022
Ya Mon!!
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5 sats \ 1 reply \ @alpacachino 19 Oct 2022
Huge fan of long-form content.
In particular, SN'ers really got together to support @HomelessMokum and it's really refreshing to see community members support each other, but also what living on Sats really mean - e.g. #79125
Personally, it helps me envision a less dystopian future.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satorin 19 Oct 2022
Yep, I started following @HomelessMokum on SN and other platforms. Not sure if SN is his primary / go-to though :)
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1 sat \ 1 reply \ @gd 18 Oct 2022
Can we call these proposals SNIPs?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
Yeah!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @rawbe 20 Oct 2022
The blog idea for me is a good point, i would love to share more and write some articles too... (only few days i'm here but enojoying a lot). But i don't know if paywalls could help, even if is true that hard work and good content should be rewarded and in the same time avoiding useless comments only for sats. I would have to think more about it, thanks for all your effort!
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @hussamfyi 20 Oct 2022
A starter idea could also be to highlight specific posts or comments in a user's profile.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 21 Oct 2022
Can be nice but I suppose it is quite different in the outcome, because you can highlight after the publication. Flagging a post as an article force to put energy in the writing and don't only show it after facts (es. I got a lot of sats/replies) to indulge in the self promotion.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 19 Oct 2022
Bonus point: a RSS feed for every user! (and a main one for the recents)
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Modus 18 Oct 2022
👍
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 18 Oct 2022
I don't think this would be a good idea. I don't see the benefit compared to just adding a link to the personal blog in the bio. I only see feature creep and SN not knowing what it wants to be when it would implement such thing (reminds me about Ethereum).
There are lots of turnkey blogging sites out there, don't need another one which isn't even about blogging. Example: https://prose.sh/
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
I don't see the benefit compared to just adding a link to the personal blog in the bio.
  • Benefit for SN: keeping the content inside the platform
  • Benefit for the user: avoid to have another account/hosting
SN not knowing what it wants to be
From #81862:
Stacker News is a place for Bitcoiners to connect and share interesting ideas.
If you’re not sure what to share, follow your curiosity and share content that you find fascinating.
We are talking about good content, thats all. Perhaps the "blog" word is misleading if someone think about Wordpress and a full bloated bloggin structure, think about a collection of contents that you would like to group, share and discuss easily with a community.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kilianbuhn 18 Oct 2022
Isn't this usecase solved automatically if you just write long posts... and soon^TM we will have subs or tags or something...
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @dtonon OP 18 Oct 2022
The use case is "let an user to group and showcase his favorite informative posts, so others can read them easily". I don't think subs or tags, in their traditional use, can help here.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @_elsanchez 19 Oct 2022 freebie
I think this is very interesting because having a monetary motivation may boost your ability to improve your attention span, giving yourself the time to read, to write, to think and to learn.
And also practicing English as a second languange -as it is my case-.
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @afas1972 18 Oct 2022 freebie
Hi