Discussion

Blogosphere

chistev: Great job.Submitted my blog.

ramkarthikk: Thank you. I approved your blog. Quick note: It looks like your feed items don't have published date which makes it hard to store and sort recent posts.

the_axiom: What if I have a personal handwritten blog but it has nazist content?

ml-: Nice job. A small suggestion, unless I completely missed it, an option to filter by post / blog language.

ramkarthikk: Great feedback. I will add search to this minimal version. The non-minimal version comes with search. Filter by language is something neither has and will be a great addition.

AndrewStephens: I love this (and submitted my blog) - people bemoan the death of the Old Web™ but in reality there is still heaps of great content still being created.

setnone: This is great. I'm curious what's your vision on adding comments?

postalcoder: If anyone looking for something even more minimalist, give the HN x Small Web RSS feed a tryhttps://hcker.news/feeds/atom?period=day&limit=50&smallweb=t...

reconnecting: I thought:<meta name="generator" content="FrontPage 4.0">

chistev: >Thank you. I approved your blog.Can't find it.> It looks like your feed items don't have published date which makes it hard to store and sort recent postsOkay, you mean the RSS feed?

ramkarthikk: If you're referring to comments on the website, I plan to keep it minimal (the text version is a static site).If you're referring to comments on blogs in general, I have many thoughts. Back in the day, comments used to be how you connected with people and let other people find you. It also came with spam (spam plugins could only do so much).With the rise of static site generators, most people don't have comments on their blogs now. It is something I miss though.

SirFatty: Did you use Frontpage to create your frontpage?

randusername: Great work, I haven't updated my public site in years while I waited for the LLM stuff to play out, but you've inspired me to put it back out there and submit.

obsidianbases1: Something like this is very much needed.I hope to see more things like this.What would be really cool is if there was a personalized algorithm (for you page) that stored data and processed locally.

ramkarthikk: Thank you. I wanted to mostly stay away from algorithmic feed to stay true to RSS. On the non-minimal version of the site, you can sign up and follow blogs to have a "For You" tab, but it's still recent posts from blogs you follow.

Miraltar: Instead or in addition to following blogs, what I'd love to have is a way to filter out those I don't like.

kangraemin: This is the kind of thing I wish existed 10 years ago. The discoverability problem for personal blogs is real — you either get zero readers or you have to play the SEO game. How do you handle ranking? Chronological, or some kind of voting?

ramkarthikk: Its chronological - most recently published first (no algorithm or voting).

reconnecting: <meta name="generator" content="FrontPage 4.0">

cr125rider: Then add A BUNCH of extra XML to bloat the page nicely

Biologist123: Nice. I can see a version of this working for ever more niche areas. Curated reading lists for areas of interest. At which point a curated list of curated lists becomes viable!

Hard_Space: Incredible that we are regressing back to webrings and hand-curated lists like this, both of which I remember well. That's not a criticism! I guess that the quality-drop in search wasn't quite enough to make it happen, but the advent of AI content predomination will be.

coldpie: > Incredible that we are regressing back to webrings and hand-curated lists like thisOne of these hand-curated blog aggregator websites pops up on HN about every month. They're cool and good on the author for trying to solve the problem, but it seems like the wrong approach to me. They're too disorganized, a random collection of mostly tech- and politics-related writing from random people with zero way to vet the quality of the writing. I never revisit the aggregators.I wonder if webrings are a better fix here. The low-tech version could be to put a static-URL page on my blog that links to other blogs I like, with a short description. Then people who find my blog interesting might also enjoy the blogs that I enjoy. That could be powerful if it caught on widely.Maybe a clever person could come up with some kind of higher-tech version that could present a more interesting & consistent interface to users, encourage blogs to link back to each other, and also solve the dead-link problem.

avanwyk: I wouldn't even call this a regression. Hand curated and edited feels like the future I want right now.

sebastianconcpt: Yeah we need to make curated human signals stronger.

Wojtkie: Couldn't you technically crawl all these blogs for their "blog's I'm reading" and create a social graph? You could start vetting based on how often other blogs link to that one, sort of like an impact factor in research.

jasoneckert: This is great, thanks! It sort of feels like browsing for gems in a used bookstore and stumbling onto authentic, personal writing. I'm always up for that, and plan on spending plenty of time exploring the list.I’ve submitted mine as well - cheers!

dchuk: Very clean site, well done. I’ve built something similar, but it also has an algorithmic front page option as well based on the “standard” algorithm from Reddit&#x2F;HN: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;engineered.atI also have it wired up to gpt nano for topic extraction and summary creation per post, if you register for an account (free) you can also follow sources and topics to fine tune things.I have a big list of features to continue adding to it, like an ability to “claim” your site so you can get some analytics from the site, and potentially to boost your site in the algorithm. Might also add a jobs board.If you’re interested, while this site is closed source, the feed monitoring rails engine is open source: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dchuk&#x2F;source_monitor

obsidianbases1: Local keyword exclusions (to keep the server requirement minimal) might be pretty high impact.

renegat0x0: I follow awesome lists. These are curated lists of software. It reverts google indexing, because search is awful.About personal blogs... I have many many personal blogs in my repository. Around 4k. Respository below. The real problem is to find quality stuff. You can have millions of them, but if they are not worth my time, then what is the point?I cannot verify and decide what is good manually. Obviously.I think we cannot also rely on Google to provide rating, nor any corporation.So I have my own ratings, because at least I will be able to find what I found worth before.Link to my repo:https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;rumca-js&#x2F;Internet-Places-Database

nextaccountic: The OP doesn't need to approve every blog that is submitted

nextaccountic: Question, is this strictly chronological, or is there anything at all to make this an "algorithmic feed" like HN, reddit, twitter, or facebook? (list is roughly in the order of less shitty to more shitty, but note that none of them are chronological, unlike, say, a RSS reader aggregating some set of blogs)

ramkarthikk: This is strictly chronological. No voting, no algorithm.

flir: I think we're going to reinvent Google's "circles" mechanism from G+. We all (well, the terminally online, at least) are going to be part of several more or less overlapping villages, and the people in those villages are going to trust each other to not be bad faith actors. Everything else... everything that tries to scale... everything public... wasteland.Something something Dunbar's number, Tragedy of the commons.

danielszlaski: Nice and clean.

AndrewStephens: I haven’t had comments on my blog for over a decade now and I don’t miss them. For every useful and informative comment I got several spammy or rude reply. Anyone who wants to let me know something about my blog can message me on social media.I’ve seen blogs that do not host comments themselves but instead automatically surface social media (usually mastodon) comments which I think is a useful technique.

paulnpace: > Anyone who wants to let me know something about my blog can message me on social media.But, can they?

nate: Similarly, I feel like book publishers are about to become a thriving business soon again. With any book being most likely just a bot creation, trusting "Random House" sounds like a thing more of us will start paying attention to to make sure we're buying a human made thing.

RobotToaster: That's assuming publishers don't decide to replace all their authors with AI.

setnone: My literal brain pictured blogosphere's frontpage as something with users, rankings and comments on the websibe.But moderation and spam are still the hardest problems indeed.

gibsonsmog: I think a web ring combined with some kind of web of trust style system would be nice. Ideally they could be both centralized where an initial creator holds the keys to what's allowed and decentralized where it just sort of exists. I haven't quite been able to sketch out a reasonable way to keep sites persistent and consistent except DNS records, though. DNS of course making it hard or impossible for smaller and less tech-savvy creators while also having it's own issues regardless.I'm a big web ring person though so I might be biased and trying to use a hammer in place of a screwdriver.

Imustaskforhelp: Yes!! I found a new website to use :-)I just hope if you can add dark-mode, I use hackernews essential which adds dark mode and more features which I really like in hackernews, Perhaps something like this can be added but overall I really like it!You have (essentially) just made something which I imagined 2 years ago:https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=41789661: Ask HN: Are you interested in a Hacker News alternative which doesnt focus on AI (Oct 9 2024)My point, which has only grown to an even larger degree is that Hackernews has too many AI discussions, which both feels a bit fomo to me and also I am seeing AI generated blog posts and comments now on Hackernews as well.At some point, I want a website where I can talk about the more human aspects, some occasional AI mention is fine but not if a quarter or half of front page is hackernews and some genuinely nice projects don't get the attention :(I had joined hackernews to read those content pieces and fell in love with the human discussion aspect but now there are definitely moments of browsing hackernews which makes me feel as to what I had written in the ask HNmy last line within the ask HN was: I just want people who don't want the latest ai hype to gather around and discuss some other cool things which are "not" AI. This kind of fits into thatAdding my submissions of blog-posts into it in sometime :) See you there!

bovermyer: There's also this: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;minifeed.net&#x2F;globalHowever, I think (text.)Blogosphere has a nicer interface, personally. Maybe I'm just used to HN.

LostMyLogin: Love this! New homepage for me. Do you have a buy me coffee button to help keep it live?

glenstein: Right! My concern with these tools is sometimes they are too good for this world and likely to live a few months.

RobotToaster: I'm honestly not sure what these do that federated link aggregators like lemmy&#x2F;mbin&#x2F;piefed don't already do.

glenstein: It's a good question, and I think worth trying to answer. I think the key thing is that discovery is derived from a curated index rather than social link posting and voting, and the darwinian race to the bottom&#x2F;popularity&#x2F;campaigning that drives link aggregators is replaced by a more deliberate human curation with all of its good and bad. You find new things, you feel a slower pace, but maybe get bored more frequently too.

bryanhogan: Any plans on adding a way to filter out "lower quality" posts which usually dominate chronologically sorted post lists?And, possibly a way to filter type of content more in-depth than just one category?

colejhudson: Lovely!Those who enjoy this might also like:- https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kagi.com&#x2F;smallweb- https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogroll.org&#x2F;- https:&#x2F;&#x2F;minifeed.net&#x2F;welcome- https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ooh.directory&#x2F;

BrokenCogs: Now please build a frontpage for all the frontpages on blogs

efilife: This doesn't have an RSS feed? bummer

gorfian_robot: yeah +12 if it had an rss feed

ramkarthikk: It's the next item on the list I plan to add. Likely will be adding it today.

joenot443: I love it.I'd love a search bar and maybe a means to sort by popularity (however you define it.)I like that it's free and clean and direct; I hope it remains that way!

arrty88: super dope. now make it infinite scroll and put ads all over the place! &#x2F;s

glenstein: Love this! I very much appreciate the inclusion of a lightweight version, as I think lightweight discovery for blogs and the small web is where good tools and apps are needed.Also, given that the lightweight version is very hn styled format it naturally leads my brain to imagining a version with upvotes and commenters (which may be a good or a bad thing) but with the link submission part automated. Not necessarily the intent here but it was the first time that particular combination of possibilities occurred to me as a way to do things.Also curious about how these blogs are indexed&#x2F;reviewed. Is the list ever pruned over time due to inactivity?

ramkarthikk: Thank you. The initial list was from blogroll.org (mentioned in the about page, and I emailed the person who built that). From then on, I review every submission that happens via the form.The scheduler flags blogs that fail and doesn't try to fetch after a few tries. I'm still working on an effective way to re-review and prune. Open to any feedback.

efilife: Don't engage. This is a bot.

InsideOutSanta: I wonder how to deal with the growing number of bots on HN. Right now, they are easy to spot, but they're getting better (and maybe I just think I can spot them because of the obvious examples).Maybe a "this is a bot" button, but no doubt that would be abused.

ramkarthikk: Yes, unfortunately spam and rude replies come with comments. I also don't have comments on my blog. I instead have one of those email masking services that allows to people to email me (and I have found this effective).

ramkarthikk: Appreciate it :) I don't have one. This is hosted on Cloudflare as a static site and a cron that runs on a $5 VM (that also hosts other things). So it doesn't cost me much to keep it alive other than the domain cost. I built it this way intentionally so that I can keep this running forever.

Yokohiii: Interesting. Each time I think about how we could reboot the (social) web I have this on mind. I don't want exposure to everything, so kind of whitelisting the contacts&#x2F;peoples&#x2F;blogs is the first thought. I guess it could work to carve your own cozy echo chamber that once in a while lets something new in. The conflict I cannot penetrate is that some things (could) need a larger exposure surface. I.e. OS projects, maintainers that will naturally generate a large following. There are also individuals that want to maximize exposure, mostly for the sake of it. The latter could be neglected but the former not. That leaves an natural backdoor to turn any networking into the same cesspools we have right now.I am not sure, maybe we have to subdue to the fact that a massive focus on a single thing will turn out into something bad. Considering the importance of Linus Torvalds to the software world, it can even work. He isn't really digitally socialized in a "modern" sense and he still is networked enough to manage an high impact project. Sure he is networked via the linux ecosystem, but that walls him away from direct interactions with the general public.

_HMCB_: Superb! Thank you. Psychologically, the minimal version feels perfect; as if it were more connected with the spirit of blogging.

reconnecting: Back in the day, FrontPage was indeed synonymous with nested and unreliable page structure.I wish I could go back and tell them it was nothing compared to what passes for web output in 21st century.

wonger_: FWIW hackr.news has a smallweb filter: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hcker.news&#x2F;?smallweb=trueBut kudos for different people working on similar good ideas

Lerc: I like the idea of tree curation. People view the branch of their interest. Anyone can submit anything to any point but are unlikely to be noticed if they submit closer to the trunk. Curated lists submit their lists to curators closer to the trunk.The furthest branches have the least volume (need filters to stop bulk submission to all levels, but still allow some multi submission). It allows curators to contribute in a small field. They then submit their preferred items to the next level up. If that curator likes it they send it further. A leaf level curator can bypass any curator above but with the same risk of being ignored if the higher level node receives too much volume.You could even run fully AI branches where their picks would only make all the way up by convincing a human curator somewhere above them of the quality. If they don't do a good job they would just be ignored. People can listen to them direct if they are so inclined

Imustaskforhelp: > I wonder if webrings are a better fix here. The low-tech version could be to put a static-URL page on my blog that links to other blogs I like, with a short description. Then people who find my blog interesting might also enjoy the blogs that I enjoy. That could be powerful if it caught on widely.I have been doing this by linking my linkhut profile with either my profile picture (I used to) or just mentioning it in comments like I am doing right nowhttps:&#x2F;&#x2F;ln.ht&#x2F;~imafh , Although not really entirely to blogs, I have this place to recommend cool musicians,projects,links that I have found and I write a short note in all of them as to why I really liked the link. But with tags you can especially have a #blog #webring and use linkhut with notes featureWhat do you think about linkhut, I had submitted it to hackernews as a submission after finding it but there wasn't really much traction to it, I am not going to lie when I say this when this feature really resonated with me so much.I hope more people come to know about linkhut, I hope I am doing my part in making people know about it :)

cosmicgadget: That is a cool project. Sorry to see it not get out of &#x2F;new.

sodapopcan: Very nice, this is great! Love that you give the two UX options.FYI (bug report): In the non-minimal version, navigating by category is janky in FireFox. The logo briefly disappears with the nav jumping up in its place every time you click a category.