Forget Twitter Threads; Write a Blog Post Instead (2021)
41 comments
·March 6, 2025asimpletune
jasode
> how close humanity was to having pretty nice stuff right before Facebook came along. [...] RSS/atom [...] IRC for real time message
Those protocols are "nice" to you but they're actually not nice technologies to use for most normal people who are not techies. The decentralists who evangelize RSS & IRC have to step outside of their heads to understand why normal people don't find them compelling and easy-to-use. The web couldn't have "stayed as RSS & IRC" unless it also stayed a small niche community for geeks. I tried to explain why those technologies are not useful to a lot of internet users:
Why a lot of normies don't use RSS: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35861928
Why many chat groups don't use IRC: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42964882
If you still insist, "I don't see why regular people couldn't just adopt RSS and IRC like me" -- it means you still haven't truly stepped outside your mind to internalize why users have different preferences and priorities on how to interact with the web.
stared
And Usenet groups for discussion.
A lot of the traffic (especially in pre-Google times) was due to organic networking, i.e., not an AI algorithm for "engagement", but people on their websites recommending cool websites—knowledge, humor, and jokes (it was big things before social media), interactive experiences (especially Flash, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43225560), fun projects, personal social profiles with GeekCode, etc.
gonzobonzo
> Admittedly it still wasn’t easy for everyone to have their own website
At least by the Geocities stage it was incredibly easy. Probably about as difficult as making a PowerPoint slideshow. Lots of non-techy kids were doing this in the 90's and early 2000's.
Blogging was the first big degradation of the web that I noticed. There was a big shift from evergreen content to churning out quick dopamine hits matching the time sensitive nature of blogging.
rsynnott
> Admittedly it still wasn’t easy for everyone to have their own website
It wasn't _that_ difficult, tbh, with blogger, Wordpress, livejournal etc.
3stripe
Perhaps RSS makes a comeback in some shape or form, as a way for LLMs/agents to fetch the latest content from sites?
YetAnotherNick
These all still exists no? Why do everything have to be popular. In fact popularity kills the fun.
Also I don't understand how people liked IRC. Is there any reason I am missing? Surely discord has everything that IRC had.
lapcat
> Also I don't understand how people liked IRC. Is there any reason I am missing? Surely discord has everything that IRC had.
"Discord in Early Talks With Bankers for Potential I.P.O." https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/technology/discord-ipo.ht...
panorama
As much as I enjoy writing and teaching, it feels like a fruitless endeavor when your content doesn't get any visibility. I've written on Twitter, Bluesky, and self-hosted my own blogs (I've even been front-paged on HN before), and each time I give up eventually because it's so hard to build a consistent readerbase.
Of course, I’m self-aware enough to recognize that it might be because my writing is terrible or because I’m covering topics no one cares about. But the point is, I don’t blame people for posting on Twitter instead of going through the effort of setting up a blog. The vast majority of written content gets little to no reach, so choosing the platform with the lowest barrier to entry makes the most sense.
Chathamization
> Of course, I’m self-aware enough to recognize that it might be because my writing is terrible or because I’m covering topics no one cares about.
I've hard similar issues with you, and actually think the opposite to be the case. When I was trying to build an audience, I actually found that it was the low effort nonsense that would get the most traction. At a certain point I was attempting to try to get followers by making a lot of those, and then trying to mix some quality posts in, and had some success. But I started asking myself, to what end? What kind of community am I building that's only interested in low quality junk?
And one thing I noticed about Blogging and Twitter is that they're extremely cliquish. From what I've seen, most people would rather interact with popular Bloggers/Twitter users that they hate or say are idiots than they would with users who have a low follow count/seldom read blog. Sure, there are ways you can juice your follower count so that you're large enough that the big guys will think you're worth enough to pay attention to. But again - what's the point? When you see the complete vapidity of many of these supposed thought leaders, is it really worth it? So what, you can get into the daily Twitter slap fights that they seem to love so much?
I mostly wish their were more places were thoughtful people to find and chat with each other, without having to get involved with petty blog/Twitter vanity games.
Angostura
Maybe pop your Bluesky profile id in your Hacker News profile?
sph
Write for yourself. I (rarely) write on my website because I am terrible at it and I want to improve, though most of my writing is on private journals. I don't check analytics and don't even have comments: I don't care to know what randos have to say. Sometimes a person directly contacts me via email to discuss a post, which I appreciate much more as it feels like talking to a fellow human.
As you started with "I enjoy writing and teaching", just do that. Not everything has to become a venture centred on growth and engagement.
(No offense, just being a bit cheeky here: your profile says you're into influencer marketing.. that might be the reason of your disappointment in your blog's performance. Fuck metrics and KPIs, man. Enjoy what you enjoy.)
panorama
Sure, I do journal for myself and do a lot of in-person teaching/coaching, but presumably the original article is geared towards those who still choose to write publicly, which I now rarely do.
No offense taken, but I had been blogging _way_ before my marketing tech startup (which itself is almost a decade old). It's not so much about the metrics, it's that there are far higher-leverage things I can do than publish articles that only a handful of people will ever see.
sph
In any case, advertise your personal blog in your HN profile. I find it's a better source of "organic engagement" than Google or social media, that don't like third-party links as they want to keep people within their walled gardens.
black_puppydog
Honestly, I find it quite simple to "blast out" a text that may not be the most concise it can be, but still is helpful for organize my thoughts.
But putting that into the format that fits a twitter thread (or mastodon, really) is just one more effort I need to make.
Compare that to the "effort" of using a hosted blog with ghost, wordpress, or sth else... I really don't see how twitter threads are lower effort.
stared
Using long threads is an abuse of Twitter format. While people do that? Well, because some of them have a large enough audience there. So, better to use a suboptimal solution than not being read. Yet, I think it is both bad for reading (even in the Thread wrapper), for public access (Twitter changed to X, and who knows what will be available only after logging in or disappear forever), and generally for preserving quality content.
So I really, really recommend self-archiving and having a working copy (I admit, I am biased here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43137616). With current LLMs, asking it to edit it for a blog post is easy. I mean, it's not even rewriting, just a minimal edit, so it works as a separate blog post. You can link both ways to get the best of both worlds.
Again, posting is easy. If you like tinkering, there are many great static site generators. If not, Substack looks like the way to go as of 2025.
Also, I often hesitated to post otherwise outstanding content here on the HN, as it was a chaotic mess. Should I post to the core tweet (which is unclear without the context) or to the root one (which does not yet indicate that the content is worth reading)?
Yizahi
> who knows what will be available only after logging
Nothing from Xitter is visible to not registered people, only the top post. Media from the top post is only visible in previews. Lately I don't even bother using xcancel to read linked threads, I just consider xitter a black information hole and never interact with the site, regardless of the supposed quality of the post or the author.
wodenokoto
I too think that the idealized solution is to post the first tidbit to twitter followed with a link to the rest.
The problem is most of the web is trash. And a link might be stupidly slow to open, and then require the user to click away cookie banners, sign up forms and ads before getting to the content.
This is a problem on HN as well and imho why so many comments without reading the article.
There’s a few more mechanics specific to twitter threads. The format pushes the author to end every paragraph with a hook for engaging the reader to read the next. And the format also baits the reader to continue because “it’s just one more tweet”
As to what to post to HN, write a short blog post about the exchange. Summarizes the context, link and quote the core, sprinkle a bit of opinion and save everyone on HN a click to twitter
pjc50
Also Twitter specifically penalizes outside link posts, so if you do this you have to put the link in the second comment in the thread.
timeon
> The problem is most of the web is trash. And a link might be stupidly slow to open, and then require the user to click away cookie banners, sign up forms and ads before getting to the content.
Same goes for Twitter link. If you are not logged-in (like most people are not). You meet nag-ware just after it loads - if it loads at all.
ljf
I think I commented something similar when this was last posted.
Blogging is better in so many ways, and if you have built up a community of people who visit your blog and engage with it, it can be very fulfilling and fun. Even without an audience it can still be fun.
But what the author seems to miss is that people like doing things where their community is. When I used to use Twitter regularly, I loved posting stuff there as I had friends (both real world and online) who I knew would engage and talk to me there. It felt like being in a busy pub where I could chat to loads of different people, and while sometimes something I shared would get no traction, other times we could chat for days.
That is why I posted things there, not because blogging is beyond me, but the effort to build an manage a community of your own is so much harder, than piggybacking on a social network.
----
Actually it seems my point was a little different last time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28945797 - I still agree with it though (though I have totally bailed on Twitter now as it is terrible.
3stripe
"It felt like being in a busy pub where I could chat to loads of different people"
This is one of the best descriptions of how social media feels (when it's at its best, anyway) that I've seen
theshrike79
Past discussion from 10/2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28945112
I'm interested in seeing if the sentiment is different now that Twitter has ... changed.
mcintyre1994
In addition to sentiment changing, you can no longer view tweet threads without logging in. Nitter etc still work so people who know about them can work around it, but most people without a Twitter account or who can’t be bothered to log in are probably just going to bounce.
theshrike79
Just the fact that you can't share tweets (or Instagram posts/reels) on most platforms and have the preview show you anything has a massive effect on people just not bothering with sharing stuff.
I'm not clicking a link without a preview, why would I?
miohtama
It's one of the worst UX decision ever.
Probably was done to prevent scraping, but still.
If I recall correctly it was done pre-Musk.
Angostura
It's probably the main reason the organisations I work with are considering an alternative like Bluesky or Mastodon - the ability to have a widget consistently displays your own posts on yoiur website is very handy.
rsynnott
> If I recall correctly it was done pre-Musk.
It was sporadically AB tested, IIRC, for _years_, but it was certainly _rare_.
One gets the impression that the first thing Musk did on arrival was demand that every feature flag Twitter had for experimental changes be turned full on; a lot of early Musk changes were things that Twitter had flirted with in the past.
pavlov
Based on some quick googling, it seems like this anti-feature (login wall for threads) was tested pre-Musk on some users, but it was switched on globally by Musk.
For example here’s a mention from 2021 where some people report getting the login wall and others don’t:
markoa
For me the sentiment is even stronger, further amplified by the presence of AI. Big reason why I started a personal blog around New year.
jbhoot
After I publish a blog post, I sit back and look at the published post. At that point, I feel a lasting moment of fulfillment. Whether or not I get views on that post doesn't matter. I write for this feeling of fulfillment.
I don't get that feeling after I put out a post on Bluesky.
kelnos
I 100% agree with this, and much prefer reading blog content than micro-blogging threads (regardless of platform). I no longer read anything anyone links to on Twitter, since it now requires a login to see replies to tweets. Whenever I see a link to a Mastodon instance or to Bluesky, I sigh, but usually still click through if it sounds interesting.
But at the same time, I get it. Setting up a blog may not be hard, but it's still more work than starting a Twitter thread. And there are some people who have claimed they just don't have the attention span to write a blog post, so if they were forced to do that (instead of form their thoughts as a series of tweets), they just wouldn't write at all. I think that (if true) is a bit sad, but it is what it is, and I have a lot of respect for people who find something that works (for them), rather than continuously banging their head against something that doesn't, just because it's "the right way to do things".
Nowadays, though, considering the direction Twitter has gone in, I frankly find it a little gross that left-leaning people still use it.
miohtama
Twitter also supports blog posts nowadays, but you need a premium account
brokegrammer
I imagine that the average writer will simply pay for X premium instead of going through the trouble of setting up a blog.
There are platforms like Substack where it's easier to set up a blog, but X makes it easier to build an audience as well.
I currently write on my personal blog, but I have to spend time syndicating my posts to other platforms in order to get any visibility. I'm thinking about moving the whole thing to Substack or just use X premium because I can't be bothered to go though that every time I post something.
rsynnott
> I imagine that the average writer will simply pay for X premium instead of going through the trouble of setting up a blog.
Everyone can see your blog. People who don't have a Twitter account will either get an error message, get redirected to your profile, or will get the first post only, on Twitter, depending on phase of moon. Unless you're catering exclusively to an audience of Twitter users it's a pretty horrendous user experience.
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maxehmookau
Since Elon took over Twitter, you can't even see a Twitter thread unless you create an account.
So if you use Twitter threads I, and many others, can no longer read it.
lambdadelirium
Imagine if using a fedi service instead that allows like 10 000 characters or more
RockRobotRock
RSRSSS
aaron695
[dead]
It’s crazy to think how close humanity was to having pretty nice stuff right before Facebook came along. I don’t think it was obvious at the time but in retrospect, just before Facebook there was:
- RSS/atom for notifications without requiring an account
- Creative Commons for establishing a legal framework to choose how you wanted your stuff to be shared
- IRC for real time messaging
- Wikipedia for knowledge
- Craigslist for local
Admittedly it still wasn’t easy for everyone to have their own website, but if we had built off these things I think the web itself could have been the platform.
I know in the last few years some of these have come back in popularity (eg RSS/atom), and for me it’s been an absolute revelation experiencing what the web could have been.