Archive | March, 2014

I love this song so much, but this video is why I never drink alone.

When did it become cool to bury your crappy internet writing behind a terrible stock photo?

Somewhere between 2013 and 2014, bloggers thought that they need to make their content look cooler. This probably occurred because of Medium, which features a huge image prominently with each post.

Maybe bloggers want to look cool. I don’t blame them. Blogging is pretty much the lamest thing you can do in 2014.

Maybe that giant image buys you two or three more seconds of a reader’s time. That’s a measurable but meaningless stat you can report to advertisers.

But a giant image at the top of post doesn’t signify great content. Some random person’s opinion does not gain meaning and gravitas because there’s a giant peacock standing on top of it.

Images shouldn’t bury great content. Images and blog posts need to be paired together. Think wine and cheese, not flies and shit.

Make it easy for readers to find your writing. Don’t be afraid to let your writing stand on its own. And use images meaningfully, not just because they boost meaningless metrics.

I turned off comments on this blog.

We had a good run, but comments no longer add value to this site.

Here’s why:

• SPAM comments are not worth dealing with, both the robot generated kind and by people looking to be “influencers.”
• There is no meaningful conversation in the comments. None.
• There are more than enough ways to comment on my blog thoughtfully through Twitter, Facebook and other social channels, like your own crappy blog.

Some people will argue that a blog isn’t a blog without comments. I say fuck them.

You can’t add to a conversation after skimming a blog post. You’re giving a half-hearted attempt at best. You’re most likely trying to make yourself look smart to a bunch of strangers on the internet.

All old comments will be archived and displayed. But moving forward, I’m done with comments.

Got a problem with this? You can still yell at me on Twitter and Facebook, or god help you, via email.

This is my ultimate nightmare.

I wish I had thought of this.

Also, what’s up with this world where people’s arms are too weak to lift a phone up to eye level?