A Blog, If You Can Keep It

Summary

Thomas Ptacek announces that Fly.io is moving away from tightly choreographed EffortPosts and toward a more conventional blog. Its Hacker News strategy used technical pieces over 2,000 words, runnable code, research surveys, minimal promotion, selected topics, and style rules, making publishing a primary outreach tool. The process became an impediment because an editorial function serialized the team, writers endlessly refined drafts, and fear of wearing out their welcome limited them to perhaps one or two Hacker News opportunities per month. After Kurt pushed him to publish BFAAS, involving 500 lines of Go code and a 4,500-word draft, Ptacek reconsidered that theory and plans more frequent, less optimized posts with room for other team members.

Takeaways

1. 1

   The described Hacker News recipe combines technical pieces over 2,000 words with runnable code, research surveys, minimal promotion, selected topics, and style-guide rules.

2. 2

   The BFAAS post involved 500 lines of Go code and generated a 4,500-word draft before Kurt pushed Ptacek to publish it.

3. 3

   Ptacek reconsidered his concern about exhausting the audience and intends to publish more frequently without choreographing every post.