Yep, completely agree with this. I wrote about how I created my blog workflow [1] so that I can write from my iPhone and easily publish notes. And it’s a lot of work that on Substack you get for free.

Also I can’t say that I enjoyed tinkering with Go templates, finicky file syncing etc. just for publishing some Markdown text in a pretty package.

If I had to do it again, I would choose Substack, and keep my Markdown files backed up just like I do now. In the event of having to switch, I can always just publish those files elsewhere.

And if Substack also supports custom domains, I would also use that to avoid dead links.

There are cases where your own site is needed however: for unique presentations like those on ciechanow.ski, for sites where the visual look is a defining feature of what is presented etc.

[1] https://notes.alinpanaitiu.com/How%20I%20write%20this%20blog...

That video of you writing on the ipad was hilarious. Definitely not what I was imagining.

Heh thanks ^_^ that is the effect I was looking to convey. You have to try it, it’s a really satisfying way of writing. Feels like handwriting but works 10 times faster with less hand cramping

For some the appeal _is_ the mechanics - it’s fun to build something and put it on the web even if it’s only for yourself.

I must build static site compilers and markdown dialects so that my children may have liberty to write prose and poetry.

This, and also "The blog is about literate programming, and the content of the blog is the code that produce the blog"

my blog is literary criticism of literate programming, and so most of the content of my blog is also the code from your blog.

My blog is about the creation of a coding language that, once finished, could allow for the compilation of the text of the whole blog into a program that would erase the blog. Which is total nonsense.

My new blog forks your language so it still results in compilation of the text of the whole blog into a program that would erase the blog, but it's a quine, so as the blog deletes, it's simultaneously punched out on the cardpunch, a nice neat deck waiting to spawn the next iteration. Oh, hold on, looks like Banksy is calling me.

My new blog is a palindrom program that does what I said first when read, and that does what you said when read backwards. Oh, hey, it seems like Marcel Duchamp has resurrected.

Hosting is the easy part. Monetization is the hard part. Substack writers indirectly promote Substack. With a static site, you are on your own. Although, I admit I do not fully understand the concern. Does substack establish any exclusivity? Can I not simply repost my content if I decide the leave or the site goes away

> ”If there is value in what you write then the readers will be there”

I don’t think that’s true anymore. Of course, it depends on how you define “value”, but I think having something “special” to share not always attract readers. Controversial takes, click bait, hate bait, exaggerated praising to a specific niche, all of this works better than “value” in your writing to get readers. Even if you stick to “value”, you have to do it for months or years to get readers. So consistency seems to be more effective than said value too.

I think that’s similar to SEO. 5 to 10 years ago the common advice was that you should just do white hat SEO because Google would always catch you because they were so smart, thousands of the smartest engineers on earth against your silly tricks. Google would always won. But, now, it seems clear to me that black and grey hat SEO beats Google most of the time.

Part of the value in what is written is the author behind the writing and our understanding of their life and experiences.

In this case Google kind of painted themselves into a corner. Their ad based model was always counter to producing a good product. As time went on Google profits were more and more aligned with black hat SEO practices. They have now found themselves in a position where in order to fight the SEO spammers they would have to take a huge loss in revenue. They sort of just gave up at that point.

I get the point of results counter to common wisdom though. The pendulum is always swinging so sometimes one side is right and sometimes its the other but that doesn't make it wrong. Life requires timing along with critical thinking.

I've been running a blog on a Perl/flatfile static site generator (with MySQL bolted on later for search) since 1999. Made a few tweaks over the years, but the core of the same. Had lots of people over the years suggest better ways to run a blog, but none of them were getting the traffic I got (well, used to get), and none of their options are nearly as easy to use.

If you do use a third party, please regularly download backups of your work. One of the reasons my blog was so popular was because it also has an archive of articles that I shamelessly copied from other sites (with attribution), most of which have since gone defunct, their content otherwise lost.

That last one's good advice. There's nothing guaranteeing that a given YouTube video or article, or even website is going to stay up. If I really like a video, I'll try to download it just in case it gets pulled down - either by the author or by the DMCA/platform. I haven't figured out how I'd like to rehost them but I'm sure there's something out there.

In college, I did my calculus homework on blank printer paper using Sharpie markers. I could only fit one integral per page, maybe two if I was lucky, so I’d turn in these 15-page stapled assignments. It was calculus all the same, and I got great grades. I think the purpose of this comment is to reinforce that the medium doesn’t matter — if you focus on the content itself, you’ll progress.

Why did you do that?

Perhaps your integrals were artistically drawn and deserved the thick strokes and extra pages, but I find it easier to write with thinner ballpoint pens.

This reminds me of an old tip[1] about bringing your own thin dry-erase markers to onsite interviews, because you would get more whiteboard space that way.

[1] https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-goo...

> while no one really cares about consuming any of their output

Most people who blog don't aim to be influential writers. It's more about self expression.

> they will follow you if you decide to move your work elsewhere in the future

Except this almost never happens in the real world

> Except this almost never happens in the real world

Some do. It's not black and white but there are losses.

But setting up the mechanics of content hosting and delivery is what I do it for. The actual writing is just an afterthought. And after a few years of not writing you have a good excuse to set up some different hosting because you don’t have any content to migrate.

It’s like Skyrim modders making the perfect load order with thousands of mods, but go “meh” after a few hours of playing, and the thing starts all over.

In such a case you are not a writer, you’re a tinkerer/mechanic.

How will the readers find you?

> How will the readers find you?

Just like with other products and services: you market it.