Questions To Answer Before Publishing A Blog Post | Hacker News Reader

Questions To Answer Before Publishing A Blog Post

dragosroua.com

13 pointsedragonu8 comments

I have different rules -- "is this blog post a whiney opinion piece, or is it simply a collection of facts"? If it's facts, I consider it good. If it's whiney opinion, I think twice about publishing it. (It doesn't stop me, though, because I love the comments I get when I write about Java or PHP and their inadequacies. But mostly, I stick to facts, and everyone likes it.)

Facts are good, but opinions, even whiney, can be interesting. Of course, if there's a long history of whining from that blogger, I don't take it into account, but if there's something incidental, that might lead somewhere.

Alternatively, all of these questions are irrelevant if you can answer "yes" to "Is it a list?"

Lists are all over the internet and some people developed a little bit of intolerance to that. I also have this thing every once in a while. But lists are there to stay, and I think the way the internet as a media is structured (as for its specific reading constraints) they will be there for a long time. Lists are making things "browseable" which, in this stay of age, with all that information overload, is a must. If I can pass over the first level of reading, which are the headlines, then I will continue to read. That's where lists are becoming extremely useful.

And by the way, oxygen is so present in the atmosphere that we might sometimes get bored about. But that doesn't mean we'll stop breathing just because it's so present.

My 2 cents...

If a blog post doesn't meet the criteria now all if a sudden it's not allowed to exist? And who am I to decide if something I write will be useful or interesting to someone else?

The world will always have too much information. The trick is filtering the information, not withholding it.

I think number 7 ("Did I Enjoy Reading It") probably covers all of the rest.

If you find it boring, we all probably will; and sure, even if you enjoyed it there's a chance you might be the only person who does, but that's a low chance in a world of infinite niches.

Make sure to actually write and publish a blog post! Don't try to be perfect. Answering just a few of them might suffice in most cases.

Yeap, that's a good point. :-)

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