I have been to over 20 calls.
Many people asked me: What platform should I post on?
I think that’s a valid question but the wrong question to ask....
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Great article! DEV is the simplest platform to use and engagement here is pretty amazing.
It's really simple and easy!
My two cents:
Medium and DEV have pretty much turned to crap (from a content perspective) over the last couple of years when it comes to development related subjects. They've been flooded with low quality posts, listicles, AI generated content, and generally nothing much of any interest. Another bizarre phenomenon seems to be the use of these sites as receptacles for homework assignments - it's common to see groups of near identical posts appearing almost simultaneously from users who seem like they could well be following the same course or attending the same college (side note: if you're a teacher setting assignments like this... please stop!)
DEV also has a pretty severe problem with bot accounts, auto followers, and pure marketing content masquerading as development articles.
Hashnode seems to have much the same content as Medium and Dev, but seems to have lower traffic levels. I also find it difficult to find stuff there.
Hackernoon - despite looking like c**p and having awful UI/UX, actually seems to have a lot of good content (or at least the quality stuff has much heightened visibility). I put this down to the fact they seem to have a review process.
I think such a process is actually a very good idea. Labour intensive for sure, but it would certainly help to prevent the 'enshittification' of these kind of sites (to use the popular term). I really wish DEV would institute such a process - it would help restore the site to the great, interesting site it once was. @michaeltharrington @ben - could this be possible?
Regarding the 'homework' thing... it really isn't my imagination. I noticed from yesterday until today that a number of posts about 'binary' all appeared in fairly quick succession (do a search yourself, and order by latest to confirm this).
I investigated a little further, and a number of the posts were from users who say they are CS Juniors at AUA Armenia. I also came across this:
So it looks as if students on this CS course are being asked to do coursework on DEV.
Whilst I appreciate that it is good to learn, is it really appropriate to be using DEV for this purpose? What do you think about this?
@michaeltharrington @ben
I actually do think it's appropriate!
I think of DEV as a community of folks learning together more so than a publication where every post needs to be edited and of high quality. To be honest, I'd actually encourage teachers to use the platform creatively like this; I have in the past. If teachers want to have students turn in coursework by posting DEV articles, I think that's kinda cool — it's a way of learning in public and seems consistent with our values.
However, I also understand that it can be distracting and not ideal to see a bunch of these posts crowding your feed. I was talking about this in Slack with my colleague Rachel (@rachelfazio) who mentioned it might be helpful if we dedicated a tag like #student or #assignment for this kinda things so that folks can hide those tags if they're not interested in them. Rachel also mentioned we could advertise this to folks in various ways (e.g. using our on-site Billboards) so they'd become more familiar with this functionality. I think both of these ideas are pretty cool and I'll most definitely be considering them.
Previously, someone also suggested that we provide away to silently or privately post... post an article without it hitting the main feed or post an article that is only visible in some contexts (maybe only visible to followers for instance). This could open up the platform to be used in other creative ways... for instance, folks taking notes for themselves could more easily do so without sharing their posts to others.
Let me think on your feedback some more and I'll be sure to share your thoughts & discuss with the team. While I don't think the answer is to stop folks from using the platform for coursework, I do understand that it'd be better if you didn't have to sift through assignments to find good-to-read posts. On the whole, we're thinking a lot more about not just how to help community members find the stuff they're interested in, but really how to help them filter out the stuff they're not interested in. Your perspective is helpful in this regard!
This also sounds promising
The problem with tags though is that a lot of posts do not really use them effectively or correctly - they're purely voluntary. I don't think I've seen a single post with the suggested #abotwrotethis tag or similar, making it near impossible to filter out AI generated junk. I think people don't want to stigmatise their own work, so will avoid labels that could potentially reduce views.
I agree that the tag route isn't perfect. You're right that it's a tough one to get folks on board with and tough for us to manually comb through and add these tags ourselves... it's only one potential part of the solution. We're going to need to come up with a multi-part solution and it will likely take some time to figure out what that is.
But again, I just don't think barring folks from creating this type of content is the right answer... that's just as hard to enforce as tagging or requires just as much manual effort. If we're going to put the effort in to remove a post, we might as well just put the effort in to add a #student or #assignment tag to it instead.
You've started with the whole curated trending content (presumably based on tags) - that's good... I've actively found interesting things there. The problem is still that the general feed I get is just full of stuff that isn't really "good" - and I've fiddled with my tag settings etc. You find amazing diamonds in the rough, but you have to invest some serious time.
The top N posts can be interesting, but it's limited and cross topic.
I am not really motivated to write because you have just such a short window to gather interest/engagement and I'm not trying to create a career as a celebrity blogger with the most number of followers, so I don't want to write clickbait headlines and listicles - which I found I had started to do.
I completely shifted to dev.to and I like it here because of the supportive community and it is easy to write on this platform. Most of my articles are doing good on the internet because I write them on dev.to. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to all those who are sharing good content on this platform.
Yuuup. Supportive community is it for me. Top notch!
personal blogs are better than them all honesty
dev.to is full of repeated and unfiltered content, mostly for beginners, very rare to find anything good
Real gems are rare, but now and then you do come across them ... which always gives me joy when it happens :)
Remember those days when you had your stream of carefully curated blogs RSS feeds in your (preferably Open Source) reader...
Same time you could still listen to good real rap 😢
It didn't use to be like that. Sigh 😔
But don't you think it's so because it grants access to people to flex their skills? You see it as repeated and unfiltered, but to the person just signing up on Dev or starting out technical writing, this is their break point.
The point I'm trying to make is that Dev, IMO, is very inclusive. Inclusive in that it gives you the opportunity to start as you are (as a beginner writer with the same content someone wrote two weeks ago), and keep growing and getting better at writing and at technical concepts at large.
Now, unless you're writing in your own personal blog or for a blog with dedicated topics, these things are expected. What you learnt 5 years ago (and wrote about) is what someone is just learning and are super excited to write about as well... And the circle just keeps growing and growing like that.
I've tried Hashnode and have all my articles there, but I like the community here at Dec better. I like the reception of my articles a lot better as well.
yep it's too inclusive
If you want to read some great tech article, too inclusive is bad
If you want to write something too inclusive is good only if you are beginner
Since I more read than write, and I am not a beginner, dev.to just doesn't work for me
Yup. Agree.
There is this:
but it seems to do very little to stem the torrent of low quality posts in my feed. I wonder if a human is actually responsible for setting this level on posts (maybe after a cursory review?) - again, maybe @michaeltharrington or @ben could offer some insight here. I really miss the DEV.to of a couple of years back
@jon Randy, From what I know, the moderators are also responsible for tagging the experience level of a post/article.
Perhaps there should be a guideline to use as to decipher what should be high(er) level or not.
But that's just the thing, what will you describe as high level? Because high level is a pretty relative thing. What might seem like a beginner post to you, could be a high(er) level post to someone else.
I think why you think quality has "watered down" is because there are currently more writers than there were before. More and more people are getting interested in documenting their tech learning/career/journey, and thereby making it look like there's a duplication of ideas/posts.
So,what to do about that?
@denis, so what do you suggest is the solution? Filter/review articles before they're published? That wouldn't give beginner writers/learners much of an opportunity to express themselves. Where's the community support in that?
honestly don't know, this is quite a big problem. Maybe downvotes on posts would help, article writers would rather not post something too easy fearing being downvoted
I like this idea.
The only problem is, what exactly does "too easy" mean?
Experience level varies per person. What you term as "too easy" might be the solution to a bug a newbie has been battling with for weeks. You see how these things aren't as black and white?
yep they aren't black and white, but that depends on what kind of a website dev.to wants to be. For example, there's a Russian website habr.com with technical articles, if you want to write something on it the entry barrier is quite high, which makes articles more unique and of high quality (generally). So if dev.to wants to feature unique and good written articles they may make some tough rating system, but beginners would not be able to write anything because of it. If dev.to wants to be an inclusive website for beginners, then it would not attract much people apart from beginners, and it always will be that inclusive swamp of people solving same problems and writing about same stuff. Personally, I don't think small bugs are worth to write articles about, but I agree that beginners should probably somehow be encouraged to write if they have something interesting to write about, and this is not trivial to implement.
Yeah, it's tricky... I guess they could try and funnel different 'levels' of content to their different 'properties' - I believe CodeNewbie is also run by the same team. The trouble with that though is that it kind of splits it into 'us' and 'them', and the name "CodeNewbie" may not appeal to many people writing here as they may feel like more than a total beginner.
@thedenisnikulin @jonrandy, I think the solution is to implement a stricter ranking system such that if you identify with a specific ranking, only posts in that rank will come up.
This will require more people to sign up for the Dev Community moderator role and be serious about the way they rank.
Again, if I'm a React developer and I'm trying to rank an article about 'setting up docker with go', I don't think I will be able to properly rank the article seeing as I do not know what qualifies as high(er) level or not.
All in all, it's not an easy thing to implement, but measures can be put in place to make something work for everybody.
Good article, one thing I love about DEV is the simplicity of its UI. 😃 Raw markdowns and all that. Hackernoon is indeed the most confusing interface of all!
Hackernoon is a mystery
😂
Nice overview, thank you Nevo!
DEV is definitely the best one in terms of traffic
Thank you so much Igor!
DEV is the best one to post Technology articles ❤️💪
Medium shouldn't be part of the competition. Everyone and their grand-mothers know that if an article is posted on Medium, then it's bad
Since Medium is a platform like DEV where different people post their content on.
I tend to disagree :)
DEV is amazing!
Who else is here because of the Banner?? 🤯
Haha, good hook 😛
Post every where. Coz all the platforms support markdown 😅
Yes, I wrote in the article.
Post in all of them, but launch on one.
I haven't used the hackernoon.
Dev.to becomes a platform “for developers” with content which is not actually related to development - politics, sexual preferences, etc. And there is no ability to downvote an irrelevant or low-quality post. If you want to see a good example of strong professional community - you can check Habr
PS - I’m not against LGBT topics, but dev.to isn’t a right place for similar posts
Hashnode immediately failed for me on accessibility. Because I am partially blind, I have to use white text on a black background to read, so I set a dark theme. Unfortunately, it seemed to take my color choice for text, but not for background, so I got white text on a white background on the login registration form.
Dev.to is my favorite and has been for a long time, ever since I grew tired of Medium and its "clickbait" article headers (for articles behind their "pay wall") :-D
What I noticed though lately is that Dev.to does have something of a little "spam" problem, to put it like that ...
Nothing serious - it's just that there's a large number of "bogus" accounts popping up, unrelated to development or developers - betting sites, airconditioning services, bathroom suppliers, etc - but it's only a very very minor nuisance, you can simply ignore those accounts (everybody does) and that's it.
Not a big deal, and does not turn me away from dev.to.
I published articles on dev.to, hashnode, medium. It is very easy to publish an article on the platforms, which cannot be said about Hackernoon, where editors have to review the material. However, these sites don’t provide any opportunities for indexing in search engines. In the hashnode, due to the fact that you essentially have your own domain, you can influence this. But dev.to and medium are more complicated. My articles are not shown in Google search. I wish my useful material was visible not only to dev.to people, but to everyone from search engines.
This article succinctly summarized my findings after trying out multiple platforms, here my proofs:
• Medium
• DevTo
• Hashnode
• Publish0x
• Steemit
• Sigle
And few more others, the most views I've got are indeed from DevTo. That alone speaks volume of its product-market-fit as a blogging platform. Hope to see better numbers with few more implementation such as enabling subdomain for DevTo users i.e. username .dev.to
Choosing the right platform depends on your specific goals as a developer, especially if you're looking to hire offshore developer :
Medium: Medium is a versatile platform with a broad audience, making it suitable for sharing a wide range of content. It's excellent for reaching a general readership and exploring diverse topics.
DEV: DEV is a developer-centric platform with a strong community. It's ideal for in-depth technical articles, discussions, and networking within the developer community.
Hashnode: Hashnode offers customizable tech-focused blogs, making it a good choice for developers who want more control over their blog's appearance and functionality.
Hackernoon: Hackernoon specializes in tech stories and caters to tech enthusiasts. It can be a great platform for sharing unique experiences, insights, and stories related to the tech industry.
Your choice should align with your content focus, target audience, and personal preferences. Many developers also cross-publish their content on multiple platforms to reach a wider audience.
Buenos días, un gusto saludarles. Bastante interesante tu post. En mi caso, me identifico más con Medium que con Dev, creo que eso se debe que la parte de IT, la abordan de mejor manera. Sin embargo, he encontrado artículos muy interesantes en esta plataforma.
For my experience, I love Dev and for me it's the best platform for devs.
This is a great Article! Thanks for sharing
Medium is a fantastic platform for writers who want to reach a broad audience. Its clean and minimalistic design allows for distraction-free reading, and the Partner Program enables writers to earn money based on the engagement their stories receive. Fairbet9 login
DEV the best. Just give it time, it will be the Tweeter of computer scientist/coders.
reddit no?
Great article @nevodavid!
I mean really the best option is none of them.
Self-host and crosspost.
Great article. Thanks for sharing.
👏👏
I love Dev.to and I want to stay here but I also wanted a personal blog on my own site and for that I choosen Hashcode. I have to tell that it is also a great platform.
That was a good read :) thanks
This article was written right on time! Created my dev account thanks to this post. Cheers!
Great✌
How can one achieve organic growth on these platforms without having a vast audience beforehand?
Writing quality content is a sure way. People love quality, and would keep coming back to it.
Another way is to also engage with others. Engage (meaningfully) in other people's content, thereby making you more visible and increasing your followership/growth.
Also, being active in a community, or the greater developer community.
I feel so much better for still trying to figure out how HackerNoon works! Antonija/ShiftMag
I like DEV, because it doesn't paywall my content behind "memberships", like some other blog hosts.
The community is also pretty nice here. Even when people disagree, they're respectful about it.
Same experience with DEV here.. i was actively blogging in 2021. Got some articles trending and bring much traffics to my blog
Great article👍
Good article.....