Long Form Content On Stacker News \ stacker news ~bitcoin

2198 sats \ 15 comments \ @siggy47 29 May 2023 bitcoin

I have been thinking a lot recently about whether Stacker News is an appropriate place to publish long form content, by which I mean posts that exceed a few hundred words and may be intended to be of a more permanent relevance than a simple discussion post.

I have seen the issue from both sides, I think, and I am torn.

As a writer of a long, carefully crafted post, it can be frustrating to watch it disappear into the sea of other posts of varying type and quality after a day or two. You can promote your own stuff in replies where appropriate, but that can be time consuming in having to dig up a link, and can come across as shilling.

On the other hand, as a reader sometimes I just want to skim around and see what people are talking about. Often I don't want to commit my time to a long involved post, and I'm sure I miss great content because of this.

I have some thoughts, and I'd be interested to know what others think:

Some kind of long form pinned article sub?
Individual blogs where members can post and collect their own prior posts?
Some sort of a signature footer for message replies, like a canned email signature response, where a few prior posts are linked?

I'm just throwing this out there because I feel like a lot of good content gets lost the way things are currently set up. Also, established writers who visit and read Stacker News would never consider publishing original content here as it stands. Perhaps SN is not the place for long form content? I really dont know the answer.

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655 sats \ 4 replies \ @mudbloodvonfrei 29 May 2023

I'm a fan of the POSSE paradigm - Publish [on your] Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. Not everyone has the time/desire/technical skills to self-host a site, but it is the content equivalent of self-custody in bitcoin. Realistically, not everyone will, but holding it up as an ideal has a lot of benefits even for those who choose not to.

That being said, from the few days I've been on SN it seems like a small and cozy community so it makes sense to post long-form content here, but as it expands that may change.

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 OP 29 May 2023

You raise excellent points. I know that's the popular path, and it has worked for lots of people for many years.

I just think that legacy methods like traditional web pages, substack, medium, etc are not bitcoin native and will quickly become obsolete. Maybe nostr is the answer? I feel it's not usable for long form content yet either.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @mudbloodvonfrei 29 May 2023

I actually haven't played with nostr yet although I'd like to. From what I understand it's just a protocol, no? How you display the data is a matter of client design. If you're relying on someone else's node then there isn't much difference between nostr and SN. If you run a node, then you're back to POSSE.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @bataroot 22 Sep

You are definitely right about POSSE. I am trying to be better at this :)

Related to Nostr, you can see relays as being alternative syndication targets, and ideally will always publish to one that you control directly or which you trust the hosts/maintainers.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @bataroot 22 Sep

The nice thing is that if you publish long form articles to Nostr relays as NIP-23 events, they will render like blog posts in some Nostr clients...

1020 sats \ 1 reply \ @baileyjakob 30 May 2023 freebie

I post LF content on here & they are always my most popular posts + receive the most comments saying content was super informative or useful, or just saying thanks and they learned something new.

LF content can definitely look weird on SN if not done correctly. The key is breaking up the content into smaller chunks and adding in images and different text formats (i.e. larger titles, quotes, etc).

Below is my most recent LF post, which you can see is broken down into easier bite-sized chunks of info. Additionally, at the top of the article, I always first put the estimated read time.

#185240

Overall, IMO the benefits of LF content are:

- Richer and in-depth information - Enhanced discussion quality - Encourages diverse content creation - Promotion of expertise and thought leadership

Some kind of long form pinned article sub?

Yep.

Individual blogs where members can post and collect their own prior posts?

Good - it would give writers a stronger sense of identity and ownership over their contributions.

Some sort of a signature footer for message replies, like a canned email signature response, where a few prior posts are linked?

50/50 on this. Could be valuable, but would need to be implemented correctly - to avoid appearing cluttered or from the feature being misused for spamming.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 30 May 2023

Thoughtful response. You make very good points.

162 sats \ 1 reply \ @_b_o_n_e_s_ 29 May 2023

I'm not a writer, just a browser of SN:

I think of this site as being modelled on Hacker News. HN was about being the front page of the internet: good content from around the web rising to the surface through updoots.

Maybe I'm old-school, but I wouldn't think of publishing to/on SN, or thinking of it as some form of a Substack thing. To me its about sharing good finds from the www and discussing them. I think there's a comment here already about self-hosting and that sounds like a better way to go imho.

But did I read your piece on Zen and SN and really liked it. So if you want to use SN as a place to publish, please do, it looks like you have some great things to contribute and I look forward to reading more.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 29 May 2023

Very good points,and I am thinking out loud and don't have strong opinions one way or the other. The article I wrote is obviously SN oriented, so I wasn't really thinking about that. I'm thinking more about what indranet posted yesterday: #185088

or like @DarthCoin 's content.

280 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 29 May 2023

Perhaps SN is not the place for long form content?

I notice that not so many know how to that SN uses markdown format and don't know how to use it. A wall of text is hard to read and pay attention.

I agree, if the story/article/post is very long is better to post on SN only a short introduction and insert a link to the full post on a blog or something.

I use to bookmark in SN my own selection of posts (mine or others) and what is interesting is to to check others bookmarks and you see what their interest is (some have none 😂 and hat says a lot about them).

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Atreus 29 May 2023

If it's interesting, people will read it.

People have made long form posts here that did really well. And they've done long form posts that didn't.

The sats will tell you what people want to read. I wouldn't worry about it.

If you write an article elsewhere, this is a great place to syndicate for more visibility too.

EDIT: You definitely want to learn formatting here though. The same principles of web writing apply on SN — you can organize a post visually so that people enjoy reading it. Everyone hates text walls!

43 sats \ 0 replies \ @halalmoney 22 Sep

Some ideas:

One-click options to have long-form content ‘saved for later’ or emailed to the user.

SN to introduce an optional widget which allows the poster to display an estimated reading time of the post.

Ability to filter by long-form content.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Murch 30 May 2023

That’s basically the same issue I had with reddit. You could answer the same questions every week and nobody would ever see it past the first day. It’s one of the reasons I stopped contributing there and posted more to Stack Exchange.

I’d post LF to your blog and then submit a link here.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 29 May 2023

Yeah I write on medium then post links on here. As an active participant on SN sometimes I open a link and im just overwhelmed with a multi page scroll of text to read. Sometimes I skim sometimes I am lazy and think im not going to read all of this. But I definitely understand your position some of the links I see im like this is clearly a sat grab.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @03daca0451 29 May 2023 freebie

Creating long-form posts can have both advantages and challenges. Some key points to consider are:

Advantages:

Depth and detail: Longer posts allow for a more thorough exploration of a topic and provide additional details, helping readers gain a better understanding.
Comprehensive analysis: With more space, in-depth analysis, extensive research, and well-founded opinions can be included on a particular subject.
Greater context: Longer posts offer the opportunity to provide a broader context and encompass different perspectives related to the topic.

Challenges:

Reader attention: In the age of quick information and online reading, capturing and maintaining readers' attention in long-form posts can be challenging. It's important to ensure the content is engaging and well-structured.
Reading time: Longer posts require more reading time, and some readers may prefer shorter and more concise content.
Format and presentation: It's crucial to present the content in a visually appealing and organized manner to facilitate reading and comprehension.

Ultimately, the choice to create long-form posts on news platforms depends on the content, target audience, and communication goals. Some stories or topics may require a more extensive narrative to convey all the necessary information. The important thing is to adapt to the context and effectively present the content to provide a valuable reading experience.