Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help future people Googling?

Posted by arduinomancer on Thursday April 22, 2021 @04:36PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I find a lot of times I have some tricky programming problem which has no answers on Google.

Eventually after struggling with it I find a solution.

At this point I would love to be able to just submit that solution somewhere so that future people searching might come across it.

Does anyone else do this?

What are some places to post the solution so that it gets indexed by search engines for future readers?

I've thought of posting a StackOverflow question then immediately answering it, but that seems a bit wonky.

I almost wish there were a website for posting generic tips on any topic.

( 11 comments | 12 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by linknoid on Thursday April 22, 2021 @07:56PM (#26909549)

StackOverflow actually has a checkbox when you ask a question that says: "Answer your own question – share your knowledge, Q&A-style" which lets you post your answer at the same time as your question.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by codingdave on Thursday April 22, 2021 @05:17PM (#26908312)

Just create a blog and submit your sitemap to google - if your solution really is the only one online, google will index it and link people there. Getting a site indexed by google isn't the challenge, it is getting above all the other results, so in such a scenario as you describe where the are no results, the answer of where to post it is literally "anywhere."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by jitbit on Thursday April 22, 2021 @04:39PM (#26907896)

Well, the Stackoverflow thing is what I do.

Except for I post a genuine question - it stays unanswered - I scratch my head for hours - come up with a solution - post an answer.

Happened countless times.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by gus_massa on Thursday April 22, 2021 @05:20PM (#26908361)

Make a blog. When the problem/solution is not too short or not too long, you can post it here, get a few imaginary internet points and a few hundred visitors. (It usually gets more traction if there is a nice story and has few graphics.)

Later, Google will find and recommend it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by shanecleveland on Thursday April 22, 2021 @05:17PM (#26908327)

You could post on a blog of your own. If it is a very specific question and answer, it shouldn't be too hard to rank it. And you may get search ranking benefit for future opportunities of your own.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by BjoernKW on Saturday April 24, 2021 @06:03AM (#26923722)

I use a process called “blogumentation”.

Whenever I come across a solution that I’d like to document for myself and others I create a blog post with the tag “blogumentation”:

https://bjoernkw.com/tag/blogumentation/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by joshxyz on Monday April 26, 2021 @04:36AM (#26940513)

I answer on stackoverflow and comment on gihub issues. Sometimes I google the same damn thing after couple months and see myself answered it already, hilarious.

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Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by joshxyz on Monday April 26, 2021 @04:38AM (#26940522)

Reason why stackoverflow and github issues and not your blog or whatever platform is because SO & GH have good SEO, and will probably stay up longer than your blog and your lifetime.

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Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by zeeshanqureshi on Saturday April 24, 2021 @08:00AM (#26924265)

Funny you should ask, we recently made a platform with exactly this in mind https://ninfex.com/hello

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by mikewarot on Thursday April 22, 2021 @10:33PM (#26910436)

I've been throwing things like that on my blog for decades.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Where to post solutions to problems to help futur... by sidpatil on Thursday April 22, 2021 @08:39PM (#26909800)

There's an xkcd comic for that: https://xkcd.com/979/

[ Parent | on HN ]