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Ask HN: What to do, blog post or HN post ?

3 points by jacquesm ↗ HN
I'm working on a fairly large posting, I expect it to be ~20K characters when it is done.

Is there a limit on HN post size that I should observe ?

Is the preferred method to post elsewhere then post a link on HN ? (that seems rather blog spammy)

9 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 32.4 ms ] thread
slater
i vote for blogging it, and NOT posting a link to that blog on HN.
jacquesm
Why ?

The subject is a switch from the PHP environment to Django/python, after asking a lot of questions here regarding this subject I figured I would give something back for all the help I got (including unsolicited emails with great advice).

slater
wow, i got downvoted :) sorry i didn't reply earlier.

for some reason, i thought there was some (un)written rule of not linking to your own stuff, like on metafilter and other sites. I checked the HN guidelines again and didn't see any such rule. That mix-up was the reason for my "and DON'T post it to HN" line. Sorry for the snark, and maybe just post it with a small intro text in the HN post?

kineticac
I don't think there's a rule, written or not... it's just the mob mentality towards self promotion can be pretty brutal sometimes, and people on HN generally don't like that. Get some traction on your blog post, and hope someone else posts it around HN.
mooism2
Post it on your blog, then post the link on HN.

Whether you post it here or on your blog doesn't affect whether we will find it interesting (you have already decided that some of us will), but it will affect how easy it is for us to read: mid-grey on light grey is not that legible in large quantities, and it is nice to be able to click on links.

dsteinweg
Regarding the colors and un-linkability... why is that? To discourage lengthy "Ask HN" posts?

While I appreciate the commenters who do it, I think it's kind of silly to have to comment a "clickable link" for HN submissions that need it. Why not just change that?

mooism2
The unlinkability is to prevent people who post a link from essentially posting a (biased) comment that can't be voted down.

The colours is just to discourage lengthy "Ask HN" posts I think, yes.

cperciva
that seems rather blog spammy

Don't worry about that. This point has been raised on many occasions, and the conclusion every time has always been the same: Submit interesting material, and ignore where it comes from. If you've written something which you would submit if it had been written by someone else, you should submit it anyway.

mechanical_fish
that seems rather blog spammy

Only if you do it several times a day, or several times for the same post.

And you definitely shouldn't write something that long on HN itself.