31

I was bored so I scanned through Dev.to and Medium. I lost the remnants of the little hope I had left for mankind...

JS this, Python that, JS that... and so much other mindless articles of exactly zero substance and headlines to make any self-respecting dev cringe for days.

I meant to write something else, too, but I'm too saddened now. I no longer wonder why so many of the fresher self-made "devs" are so idiotic of a breed...

Comments
  • 6
    Write something then so we all can enjoy.
  • 2
    @vane why would I? I have no interest in contributing in either, nor have I got the time to write articles that live up to my own standards - and in many cases I am unsure whether I have sufficient expertise in any subject that would warrant me to write an article that'd make a difference.

    That said, maybe I'll do someday, if for nothing else, to have an excuse to deep dive into a subject and properly research it.
  • 3
    People who read advanced tutorials don't read/trust these sites, Their primary audience is newbies. Also, why would anyone put effort into writing good stuff for free (relatively less revenue) when there are better options.

    Never trust an article which has to compete for traffic. It will never be unbiased.
  • 1
    @rooter If someone writes for a big publication, we can be assured of quality and also he won't have to fight for attention or traffic, so, he automatically focusses on content. Free sites might be good for hobby writing, but professionally, you should go for better options.
  • 3
    @theabbie we can't be assured for quality purely from the fact an article is written for big publication.
  • 1
    @100110111 They get paid, the article is reviewed before publishing, they have to maintain their reputation.

    If that doesn't assure quality, nothing will.
  • 4
    @theabbie not in today's world, when revenue and worth is measured in clicks...
  • 1
    @100110111 Nobody writes without any motive or material gain. Low quality clickbaits might help in temporary traffic, but in long term only quality survives. Big publications have stable revenue irrespective of quality, They won't resort to clickbaits for additional traffic, There might be good writers on Medium/Dev.to too. It's the Reader who decides that. We can't be sure, but surely Big (Reputed) publications are better in any case.
  • 3
    @100110111 I see - you have no time and finding excuses not to do something cause you’re bored.
    I understand it completely, 99% are like that. That’s why 1% is reach. Thanks for doing nothing.
  • 1
    @vane eh, what's your stake in this? As if I'd personally attacked you somehow?
  • 2
    @100110111 I’m sorry if I destabilized your inner peace. I didn’t wanted it. Keep everything in order like you had it in your hands before. Peace.
  • 1
    @vane nah, I'm fine mate. I was just a little surprised and confused from perceived hostility. Don't know where it's coming from all of a sudden.

    I'm not nearly good enough of a writer to write articles any better than the majority of those in dev.to and medium. I'm not saying there aren't any good ones (cause there are), it's just the sheer over-representation of certain types of articles that gets me.
  • 2
    @100110111 well as with always perfection arrives with practice and determination so I am not surprised that there is lots of crap and a few things worth reading.
  • 4
    I have a dev.to account, i mainly use it to lump my bug squashing articles for my future self.. and any other poor lad who may come across the same issue.

    if you reaaaaaaaaaally wanna cringe though, head over to web-dev twitter. Hooly COW. Every other post is:

    JavaScript Quiz!

    var a = 5;
    var b = 6;

    var a == b ? 'hello world' : 'oh no!'
  • 2
    @F1973 i feel personally attacked
  • 1
    @F1973 That's why they won't risk their reputation for some short term gain, It's not very hard to make good quality content. Anyone who is getting paid to write will write quality stuff compared to hobby writer.
  • 1
  • 0
    New languages like dart(flutter) don't get enough attention
  • 1
    @YNWADev

    honestly i think this stems from the possibility that mobile apps are dying. I can't think of the last time i downloaded a new app that wasn't a game. I use email, web browser, and social media apps. nothing else really.

    i don't think that mobile apps are useless, but i do think their use cases are being overtaken by web applications.
  • 1
    @YNWADev personally I think Flutter/Dart gets maybe more attention than it deserves. Or got at least, at some point it was everywhere...
  • 3
    First of all, I wouldn't be as interested in dev.to without it popping up in search engine that much. Yes, you don't usually go to read shitty feed. Rather, just find what you need in particular, and there are still good articles that specialize on something small.
  • 2
    @YNWADev i see medium articles about flutter all the time, flutter has more stars than react now

    @energy-vampire when was the last time you used a webapp that could be replaced with an entire app?
  • 1
    @calmyourtities

    those are very rare cases haha. The one app i LOVE that almost needs to be an app is this little utility called Chwazi. I use it for tabletop game night. everyone places their finger on my screen and then it'll randomly chose someone. thats how we decide who goes first. not so easy with a webapp, unless you did something like, -enter in the peoples names! and then it picks someone... not as fun
  • 3
    I bet we can assume content from the language, but still, there can be some very good things to learn using JS, Python, etc. Even HTML and CSS teaches design and layout which I can assure you takes years to master.

    But yeah, I'm sure these articles are nothing more than a "download helloworld from npm and add Java to your resume"
  • 3
    I don't use Medium to begin with... forced to login to read the bloody article and asking me to pay... noty...
  • 2
    @calmyourtities TYSM that's awesome
  • 3
    @calmyourtities How new is that website? Also, it doesn't filter <marquee> tag, we can create sliding text. That website is in beta stage of beta stage.
  • 2
    @theabbie i made it then got bored 🤷

    i thought i could make a nonprofit, lightweight and more open version of medium.

    unfortunately my attention span didn't allow for that (or financial resources, it's run on a pretty bad vps)
  • 2
    @calmyourtities Yeah, I thought it was some popular service
  • 3
    @theabbie haha that would be cool. i probably could finish it and maybe make it better. i've always liked medium but always thought of improvements that could be made. i'll probably just open source it, i like the idea of helping the community . and it's pretty shitty code, i didn't really expect other people would see my code
  • 2
    @calmyourtities You might consider https://github.com/writeas/... if you want to build a writing Community, it's open-source and customisable.
  • 2
    @theabbie that's very cool, thank you. my intention though was to create a better medium, without likes people can't filter the spam and shit content to what everyone else reads. that site's great for someone who wants a personal blog or small community, but for a lot of people who want their own specific topics it doesn't seem like a viable option.
  • 3
    @calmyourtities Let's hope you get motivated to bulid that site, Anything that allows anyone to post can easily become spam website without proper moderation. Hope you find a method to combat that. Good Luck.
  • 1
    the unfortunate reality is this:

    obscurity is failure.

    the days of "if you build it they will come" are genuinely over.

    even services which habe no competitors will struggle to gain attention (unless they are lucky). attention soans are saturated, and the economy is tight (and has been since 2008).

    marketing is basically the key driver of success now, independant of quality or market-fit.

    thats just the way it is.
  • 1
    HEY. don't shit on python just because python.

    i managed to make a CPU emulator that's 90% unoptimized single-thread if/elif/else Python trash that also runs fairly fast, and i'm not even okay at Python. i'm trash at it, in fact.

    with better code i'd imagine it'd fucking fly, too, as is the nature of better code. That's outside my current skillset, though.
Add Comment