“Like and subscribe!”
“Help us get our next thousand (or million) followers!”
I was using Linux before it was popular. Back in the day where you had to write Modelines for your XF86Config file — and do it properly, or else you might ruin your monitor. Back when there wasn’t a word processor (thankfully; that forced me to learn LaTeX, which I used to write my papers in college).
I then ran Linux on an Alpha, a difficult proposition in an era when web browsers were either closed-source or too old to be useful; all sorts of workarounds, including emulating Digital UNIX.
Recently I wrote a deep dive into the DOS VGA text mode and how to achieve it on a modern UEFI Linux system.
Nobody can monetize things like this. I am one of maybe a dozen or two people globally that care about that sort of thing. That’s fine.
Today, I’m interested in things like asynchronous communication, NNCP, and Gopher. Heck, I’m posting these words on a blog. Social media displaced those, right?
Some of the things I write about here have maybe a few dozen people on the planet interested in them. That’s fine.
I have no idea how many people read my blog. I have no idea where people hear about my posts from. I guess I can check my Mastodon profile to see how many followers I have, but it’s not something I tend to do. I don’t know if the number is going up or down, or if it is all that much in Mastodon terms (probably not).
Thank goodness.
Since I don’t have to care about what’s popular, or spend hours editing video, or thousands of dollars on video equipment, I can just sit down and write about what interests me. If that also interests you, then great. If not, you can find what interests you — also fine.
I once had a colleague that was one of these “plugged into Silicon Valley” types. He would periodically tell me, with a mixture of excitement and awe, that one of my posts had made Hacker News.
This was always news to me, because I never paid a lot of attention over there. Occasionally that would bring in some excellent discussion, but more often than not, it was comments from people that hadn’t read or understood the article trying to appear smart by arguing with what it — or rather, what they imagined it said, I guess.
The thing I value isn’t subscriber count. It’s discussion. A little discussion in the comments or on Mastodon – that’s perfect, even if only 10 people read the article. I have the most fun in a community.
And I’ll go on writing about NNCP and Gopher and non-square DOS pixels, with audiences of dozens globally. I have no advertisers to keep happy, and I enjoy it, so why not?
@jgoerzen My most hit blog posts:
– clearing a clogged pump on a New Zealand made washing machine
– putting a file into the read-only and sharable text segment of a binary, in a machine-independent way
Dozens I tell you, dozens.
@glent And suddenly there are two more topics that I’m interested in 🙂 Can I get links please?
You are on Planet Debian fwiw. ;-)
Yep! Not as much happening there as there once was, but I still like it.
Yep, been following for years through Planet Debian. Keep up the great work!
I’d like to hear if you’ve tried out Gemini protocol and any other smolnet thoughts/experiments.
Yes indeed. In fact, http://www.complete.org is also compiled to gopher.quux.org, and I wrote the pygopherd server. I also run the world’s last Internet Kermit server; see https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10555-try-the-last-internet-kermit-server . Also take a look at my page at https://www.complete.org/old-and-small-technology/
Long time lurker… I enjoy your posts and am glad someone is still blogging… :)
Thanks @jgoerzen for https://changelog.complete.org/archives/13519-im-not-very-popular-thankfully-that-makes-the-internet-fun-again/I’m one of your twelve readers. I have no idea how many people read my blog. I may have a “big” number…
Landed here thanks to Ploum ;-)
I read you too
Well I read your writings through Feedly, as soon as they appear :-) I have a love of old-school, no-nonsense, back to basics, first principles content, and I appreciate your writings liked this one.
@glent I knew I’d enjoy it. Didn’t expect a comment about keeping a cat clear of a washing machine pump, but it makes sense 🙂
That was an interesting deep dive on ld and objcopy. I saw the ld and then wondered “where is it going to get names for symbols for this?” and then you showed it generates some automatically. Perfect.
One small bug: write() doesn’t guarantee it will write the entire buffer all at once. Usual aproach is a loop while maintaining a running count of how much was written
@jgoerzen cantou uma bela de uma pedra: na internet a gente não tem que buscar número; na internet a gente tem de buscar comunidade. •…
@jgoerzen I love that post.
HN is something other people report to me that someone added my blog post. And comments there are usually not worth reading.
Keep up writing about things. It is good to have some random new knowledge from time to time.
For me, this represents a form of freedom.
Worrying about the number of followers, the visibility of each blog post, and its popularity would be a huge burden for me.
As your profile grows, so do the expectations of your audience. You feel compelled to post regularly, write follow-up texts, and constantly explain yourself. It feels as if part of my life is controlled by external influences.
In addition, there is a certain amount of insinuation. Many followers assume that you want to profit financially from your posts. Private opinions are quickly put to the test, with questions being asked as to whether they are really authentic or whether they serve the interests of third parties whom you want to please. And every scrap of personal information attracts the less pleasant participants of the internet.
For me, not being popular does not mean being unpopular. Rather, it means finding recognition in the right circles. That is enough for me. Whether it is a dozen or three dozen does not really matter. It is the quality of the discussions that counts.
I hope you continue to stay with us for a long time and continue programming and writing. There is so much for me to learn. But please do not feel pressured.