[PaulHoule]

It is no problem if you participate in HN as a real person.

That is, if you post comments and submit articles from a variety of sites that get some upvotes and slip in a few links from a site of your own that is great.

If you sign up for a new account and start spamming links from your blog that will get you in trouble.

[andrewseanryan]

Thanks. I’m on here quite a lot for the past few years. Do you think the “show HN” is appropriate for things I’ve written? It seems it is typically used for products.

[mooreds]

Show HN is more for something "you've made that people can play with".

Here are the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

If it is something you've written (blog post, etc) then you want to just treat it as a normal link.

[PaulHoule]

"Show HN" would not be appropriate for the blog postings that you've submitted in the past.

[andrewseanryan]

I suppose just throwing it up there is the way? I guess I’d like to be transparent that I am the author and looking for feedback.

[PaulHoule]

Yes. Frankly putting it in any kind of frame is like wearing a "kick me" sign on your back. For instance, people try starting a discussion and put a url in the text and then get surprised that the link didn't get turned into a hyperlink.

To offer some tough love I don't like the posts you've written about COVID-19. The problems are: (1) there is no value in armchair quarterbacking if you're not an expert, (2) the articles are way too long giving that the content is speculative, (3) anything you say about COVID-19 (even if you are an expert!) could be proved totally wrong in a few months... Last summer I shared a lot of speculations with friends and family about how the pandemic would develop and it was all wrong because I had no idea about delta and omicron.

So find your voice and look for something to say that is unique, that you can say better than anyone else. My favorite blog these days is

https://www.righto.com/

the author of that blog started out blogging about very ordinary Arduino projects he did and he grew to write articles that, at first glance, might seem to be about obscure topics but that catch people in various ways and invite everyone to understand and appreciate the world of electronics a little more.

[andrewseanryan]

I appreciate the criticism and tend to mostly agree. I do have much more knowledge than your average Joe on the topic (MPH plus worked full time/still part time on pandemic response for an international NGO) but I’m no expert. But nonetheless, my writing on COVID for them (much different than my writing I posted here) is presented to all of their donors/other international agencies.

I’m more focused on psychology/philosophy at the moment, and intend to stay in that arena for the most part.