I don’t… but purely hypothetically, if I imagine I had a lot of free time now and lots of articles planned to write, here are the arguments.
In favor of LW:
The infrastructure is ready. I don’t need to develop or configure anything, just start typing. It will support text, pictures, TeX equations.
My articles are immediately delivered to a smart audience. I don’t need to advertise, exchange links, or anything; just write. If at some moment I happen to have a writer’s block, and don’t write anything for months, when I overcome it and write another article, the audience is still there.
The infrastructure includes selecting best comments and spam removal. I don’t have to worry about the comment section.
This all implies the same thing—my time and energy could be spent 100% writing, 0% maintenance, promotion, fighting spam and crackpots, moderating flame wars, etc. This is also important because if I decide to take a break later, it’s not like the spammers would take a break, too.
In favor of a personal blog:
In case of huge success, possibility of generating income by advertising or selling my own (hypothetical) products and services,
Freedom to write about topics that don’t belong to LW. I could post kitten memes and/or political propaganda; start my own pseudo-rationality-based cult, sell homeopathics or quantum therapy.
Even in case of selling a serious product, I could censor the discussion and remove mentions of my competitors.
This all implies the same thing—by publishing on LW, I accept some limitations of form and content. By publishing on my personal blog I retain complete freedom.
Not sure if LW allows JavaScript in articles. If yes, this is possibly a security hole. If no, my personal blog would allow me to add all kinds of animations and interactivity into my articles.
Why not both?
I could start posting on LW, just to see whether I have the ability to generate sufficient amounts of interesting texts. I can always move or copy them on my blog later.
To avoid becoming a part-time moderator, I could simply not allow discussion on my blog. The articles cross-posted to LW would have a discussion here, the remaining ones would have no discussion.
I don’t… but purely hypothetically, if I imagine I had a lot of free time now and lots of articles planned to write, here are the arguments.
In favor of LW:
The infrastructure is ready. I don’t need to develop or configure anything, just start typing. It will support text, pictures, TeX equations.
My articles are immediately delivered to a smart audience. I don’t need to advertise, exchange links, or anything; just write. If at some moment I happen to have a writer’s block, and don’t write anything for months, when I overcome it and write another article, the audience is still there.
The infrastructure includes selecting best comments and spam removal. I don’t have to worry about the comment section.
This all implies the same thing—my time and energy could be spent 100% writing, 0% maintenance, promotion, fighting spam and crackpots, moderating flame wars, etc. This is also important because if I decide to take a break later, it’s not like the spammers would take a break, too.
In favor of a personal blog:
In case of huge success, possibility of generating income by advertising or selling my own (hypothetical) products and services,
Freedom to write about topics that don’t belong to LW. I could post kitten memes and/or political propaganda; start my own pseudo-rationality-based cult, sell homeopathics or quantum therapy.
Even in case of selling a serious product, I could censor the discussion and remove mentions of my competitors.
This all implies the same thing—by publishing on LW, I accept some limitations of form and content. By publishing on my personal blog I retain complete freedom.
Not sure if LW allows JavaScript in articles. If yes, this is possibly a security hole. If no, my personal blog would allow me to add all kinds of animations and interactivity into my articles.
Why not both?
I could start posting on LW, just to see whether I have the ability to generate sufficient amounts of interesting texts. I can always move or copy them on my blog later.
To avoid becoming a part-time moderator, I could simply not allow discussion on my blog. The articles cross-posted to LW would have a discussion here, the remaining ones would have no discussion.