Rules of life habratopika

Summarizing my work on a series of hacking posts about vending , I made some interesting observations and conclusions that can be useful to anyone who is interested in writing interesting and resonant posts on Habrahabr.

Of course, we are not talking about the “secrets of the ideal habratopic”, “how to collect a thousand advantages and raise your karma in fifteen minutes” and other habramagy. The main secret of a successful article is interesting material on a relevant topic (accessible language). And this is for the better - if there existed "the designer of the ideal habratopic, children under 16 and older", then the children would be flooded with the Internet Habr would hardly have become such a useful and respected resource. The material below is just information for thought, which, obviously, will subsequently be expanded, corrected and supplemented - simply as new data become available.

1. Interest always falls.

On the example of my four posts about vending, the tendency to decrease the reader’s interest in the topic can be traced very clearly, we look at the post (number of comments) evaluation: introductory post 113 (80) - post about the peculiarities of legislation and tax regulation 39 (44) - overview of types vending machines with pictures and examples 78 (97) - financial aspects of business, calculations and planning 27 (30). The conclusion is obvious, but nonetheless important: in the cycle of publications on one topic, their rating will steadily go down.
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2. Review articles benefit from applied ones.

Comparing the results of these four articles leads to another interesting conclusion. Because the topics of publications in my cycle of vending were chosen primarily based on the questions of users on the basis of previous materials, two of the four articles had a pronounced applied bias (laws and finance), while the third, as originally planned, was an overview one - and She was on the positive side in the general tende for the fall. Consequently, review articles benefit from applied ones - simply because they have, by definition, a larger target audience. Someone may find this state of affairs unpleasant - they say, Habr is a thematic professional resource, and here applied materials should come first - but let's take the world objectively: Boomburum , a person who has become famous for reviews, is in the first place. This is the current Habr, and figuring out why he is not a cake, of course, you can devote a couple of war games in the comments, but this will no longer be relevant to the practical side of the issue.

3. Pictures they rule.

“The picture to attract attention” is not just a funny turn with a certain amount of self-irony, but also the purest truth. Once I, surprised by the fact that in the first one and a half hours one post collected 1 comment (and then from the troll) and zero votes altogether, I decided to attach a picture to it before the kat - and in the next hour and a half the post was actively overclocked as in the sense of pluses ( home), and in terms of discussion.

Of course, the picture didn’t add meaning to it (although it’s better to choose an illustration not just in the subject, but also with subtext), the very effect of attracting attention just worked: for example, I read Habr via rss, and in a stream of dozens of text-based updates from other resources , headings and textual announcements from Habr are often lost - and in my post with a picture, according to my subjective observations, there are three times more chances to be seen in the general tape.

4. Advertising is evil.

Habr, which is also not new, does not like advertising - and if you are too intrusive to promote a certain topic in your post, it will most likely cause rejection of users - only if you don’t write in “I’m promoting” (and sense of proportion). Habr's user is not a mouse, and persistently laid out pieces of cheese in the order you suggest will not eat. If the user is interested in the topic, then he will go through all the necessary links. If not, then it will not go anywhere, and it will put another minus.

5. More information in the post.

However, the majority of readers follow the line of hesitant - in principle, they are ready to read on the topic, but following links to third-party resources, however, they are not very willing. Thus, it is meaningless to declare a certain thought, without revealing it right there, but only, for example, providing a link to “read more here.” Most likely, the topic will remain undisclosed. And, by the way, for the same reason, it is pointless to write posts-links that do not contain at least a brief summary of the contents of this link - still half of the commentators will not follow it, but will, however less, discuss the topic in the comments - using only that information from your post. And here you are your own angry Buratino, if given it is not enough.

6. Literacy.

If among the first comments that you received, are indications of your typos, then you wrote a bad post. About design (and literacy - design, and not the content part, as some people think) is written only when there is nothing more to say on the subject. And this, of course, your problems as a topstarter. Of course, if you wrote an excellent post with grammatical errors, then you will also write about it - but only in the second place.

By the way, taking this opportunity, I want to once again ask each habrayuzer to remember about a good habr-tone and send messages about typos in a personal, and not leave them in the comments.

7. Comments.

Working with comments, as practice has shown, for the success of the post does not really matter. That is, if you wrote an interesting post, then the people who came to read it and comment out people and perfectly communicate with each other in the comments.

In my first posts, which gathered more than fifty comments, I, as the party owner, tried to somehow arrange and organize communication, moderate and direct the discussion - but quickly realized that such actions a) are not needed by anyone, b) interfere with normal, relaxed communication . So now I respond to comments only if I really have something to say - or joke. And if this “something” is beyond the scope of local discussion, then it is better to open this topic in a separate post.

Bonus track

If you wrote a post on some specific topics, then be prepared for the fact that, regardless of your real competence in the subject, you will be taken as an expert by default, and perhaps on the principle of “bezrybe and cancer”, and will be asked Questions - in a personal, on ICQ, by mail.

These questions are best to try to answer and help people with advice: I called myself a grudge - get into the body. It may not affect your habrakarma and habrasil (many of the questioners will not have an account here), but they will certainly give you +1 to your karma in real life.