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by Kye 1545 days ago
It's the same situation with everything being a video now. I do better with diagrams and text, but now I have to sit through someone jabbering for 9 minutes for 1 minute of content to please the algorithm. And as someone who wants to make how-tos, getting any traffic to text these days is nearly impossible.
2 comments
Invictus0 1545 days ago
Huh? What serious subject has only video tutorials and no text/diagrams? I also don't understand your argument about traffic to text at all, we're on a high-traffic mostly-text site right now with plenty of how-to style content.
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Kye 1544 days ago
>> "Huh?"

I know, right

>> "What serious subject has only video tutorials and no text/diagrams?"

This sets us up to be at odds because now I feel like I have to mind-read what you consider serious to not have you dismiss any example I offer. Do you consider Minecraft serious? It's Ground Zero for this kind of thing.

>> "I also don't understand your argument about traffic to text at all, we're on a high-traffic mostly-text site right now with plenty of how-to style content."

"nearly"

Have you ever looked at the new link page? Few things get traction. And HN's patience with self-promotion would falter fast if I linked off to a Patreon/Ko-fi/whatever any time I gave good advice. I've only ever had one person wander in through the link in my profile and support my Patreon. I appreciate people who can afford to spend their time going deep here while developing the skills and having the experiences that backstop that advice, but most people are far from that rarified position. I can't do the kind of zero-BS how-to stuff I want to do, get traction in the modern media environment (meaning audio and/or video), and not get some kind of compensation for it.

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Invictus0 1544 days ago
No, Minecraft is obviously not a serious subject, it's a videogame. But even so, there are tons of books with minecraft tutorials out there, and a quick search shows this page [0] with tons of text/diagram tutorials. The fact that you struggle to get paid has nothing to do with the state of tutorials on the web. Other people are making plenty of money selling minecraft books to kids.

[0] https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tutorials

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Kye 1544 days ago
Who said anything about making Minecraft tutorials? It was an example with a comment you skipped over.

You aren't being serious. Shoo.

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scyzoryk_xyz 1545 days ago
Oh I’m with you on that one. It’s like the lazy less effective formats are cannibalizing all the others.
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