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Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by HankB99 on Saturday August 13, 2022 @05:29PM (#32453966)
Bad SEO I suppose. When I search for something, I often get a page by some "expert" in which the information is wrong, commands don't work and so on. I wish I could figure out how to eliminate them from my search results. The worst part is that it is usually impossible to contact the author and point out the errors. Like they would care.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by LtWorf on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:04PM (#32454225)
I think there is a law in India mandating everyone to open a blog and explain linux to people. This must be done in the first 3 months of learning linux.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by bediger4000 on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:05PM (#32454236)
This is certainly true for RaspberryPi tutorials about interfacing with thermometers or other sensors. All the DHT-11 tutorials seem like minor mods of some long lost original, except with new spelling mistakes, and inaccurate pinouts.

This would seem to confirm that advertising ultimately corrupts ad-supported media

Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by bitxbitxbitcoin on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:09PM (#32454262)
The YouTube videos are better because they need it to work on screen.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by bediger4000 on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:36PM (#32454470)
Videos are slow, and it's hard to re watch tricky pieces or compare with other sources.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by imoverclocked on Sunday August 14, 2022 @12:17AM (#32456278)
I wish someone in the ML community would take this on: create a document from video, maybe using the appropriate frames of the video as media in the document. Give people something to glance through instead of having to watch a whole video. Bonus points for making the document interactive with links to appropriate sections of the video as well as links out to the world for products/definitions/etc. Double-bonus points for the ability to squelch awful humor and filler words.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by squarefoot on Saturday August 13, 2022 @08:00PM (#32454946)
Until Google decides to take down one for this or that reason. I would rather use a personal blog (backed up at archive.org just in case) with all the necessary text information, plus links to a video hosted on a decentralized video hosting platform, then maybe publish the video, or part of it, on YouTube as well to attract audience.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by hulitu on Sunday August 14, 2022 @05:15AM (#32457753)
To play videos you need a working video driver and a working soundcard.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by hanble on Saturday August 13, 2022 @05:33PM (#32454000)
Unfortunately you’re probably right. SEO optimized pages have basically taken over most search results, even when they have glaring mistakes :(
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by tenebrisalietum on Saturday August 13, 2022 @05:52PM (#32454130)
Full-Internet search is dead. Collect and share bookmarks.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by davidhaymond on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:16PM (#32454313)
So we basically need to go back to the days when Yahoo! was simply a directory of links to cool websites. Curated by humans.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by tenebrisalietum on Saturday August 13, 2022 @07:07PM (#32454642)
Would be nice, but today's Yahoo would be SEO-steamrolled too I'm sure.

IMHO what is needed is an open, FOSS, royalty-free database-like format for URLs and descriptions NOT intimately connected with the presentation layer (HTML) like RSS.

Open Graph is kinda the start of what to collect per URL.

Then we need browsers to be able to add/delete/update on this database, let you search through it locally, and allow import/export of portions or the entirety of this database.

This is in direct contradiction to today's walled gardens, so it's not ever going to come from FAANG and friends.

Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by rascul on Saturday August 13, 2022 @07:45PM (#32454854)
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by hulitu on Sunday August 14, 2022 @05:18AM (#32457764)
TBH, yes. The state of web search is so bad that, even if today you find something, you might not find it again in 2 days.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by quickthrower2 on Saturday August 13, 2022 @09:08PM (#32455357)
But decentralised on the edge network (top edge of browser, below the url bar)
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by makapuf on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:46PM (#32454533)
Dmoz ftw!
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by yieldcrv on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:49PM (#32454551)
Webrings rise once again
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by dicknuckle on Saturday August 13, 2022 @11:15PM (#32456018)
Do not mention he old magic to me, I was there when it was written!
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by DelightOne on Saturday August 13, 2022 @05:50PM (#32454120)
If we could get the search results from a couple years ago, without the SEO.
Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by rob_c on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:15PM (#32454305)
Let's be honest Google is having a problem dealing with actual intelligence writing bad stuff as well as surgical intelligence rehashing things. Just because half the internet writes a thing doesn't make it true. And again just because the airport writes it doesn't mean it's tested. Figuring that out by raw ML and no context of the material is probably not going to end well. I think the only solution is will be to keep an updated truth curated by experts humans.

Compared to the 90s where spam was spam and three internet was more for the tech savvy it's changed.

Re:Ask HN: Are Linux HowTos dead? Why? by akkartik on Saturday August 13, 2022 @06:22PM (#32454364)
Bad OSE (optimizations on the part of the search engine), you mean.