I've gotten a number of requests lately to contribute only Python related material to the Planet Python feeds and to be honest these requests have both surprised and insulted me, but they've continued. I am pretty sure they've come from a very small number of people, but they have become consistent. This is probably because of my current habit of writing about NaNoWriMo every day and those who aren't interested not looking forward to having the rest of the month reading about my novel.
Planet Python will be getting a feed of only relevant posts in the future, but I'm going to be honest: I am kind of upset about it. I don't care if anyone thinks it is unreasonable of me to be upset about it, because the truth is Planet Python means something to me. It was probably the first thing I did that I considered "being part of the community" when I submitted my meager RSS feed to be added some seven years ago. My blog and my name on the list of authors at Planet Python are both as old my son, who's birth gave me the push I needed back then to focus on my software craft and build the freelancing business that launched my career.
In my mind you can't separate the Python and the personal. So these complaints that any of my posts that aren't explicitly about Python would appear on the feed feel... wrong. And they also feel strange, because if everyone on Planet Python had only contributed Python material to the feed I would have found it boring years ago and unsubscribed.
I never saw it as a place to read Python content, but as a place to read content written by Python developers. We have a lot more to say than our indented language and that's a good thing. The posts about our other interests give the community character and introduce us to each other. To strip the community down to our writings on and only on Python software developments feels so cold and impersonal. Is that really what people prefer?
Please let me know what you think, on either side of this. Either way, I've been asked to provide a narrow feed and I'll do that. I just wanted to get my feelings out on it and I'd like to know: Am I the only one who would hate to see Planet Python that was nothing but Python posts?
Planet Python will be getting a feed of only relevant posts in the future, but I'm going to be honest: I am kind of upset about it. I don't care if anyone thinks it is unreasonable of me to be upset about it, because the truth is Planet Python means something to me. It was probably the first thing I did that I considered "being part of the community" when I submitted my meager RSS feed to be added some seven years ago. My blog and my name on the list of authors at Planet Python are both as old my son, who's birth gave me the push I needed back then to focus on my software craft and build the freelancing business that launched my career.
In my mind you can't separate the Python and the personal. So these complaints that any of my posts that aren't explicitly about Python would appear on the feed feel... wrong. And they also feel strange, because if everyone on Planet Python had only contributed Python material to the feed I would have found it boring years ago and unsubscribed.
I never saw it as a place to read Python content, but as a place to read content written by Python developers. We have a lot more to say than our indented language and that's a good thing. The posts about our other interests give the community character and introduce us to each other. To strip the community down to our writings on and only on Python software developments feels so cold and impersonal. Is that really what people prefer?
Please let me know what you think, on either side of this. Either way, I've been asked to provide a narrow feed and I'll do that. I just wanted to get my feelings out on it and I'd like to know: Am I the only one who would hate to see Planet Python that was nothing but Python posts?
Comments
I do sometimes read "content written by Python developers", but mostly i get to know them via their python-specific content and find them interesting enough to read their "other stuff".
No offense or insult intended--I'm glad you are writing, but I do like categorization. I do that with my own stuff because I know that most people coming from Planet Python would not be interested in the other categories I write about.
This is the first post of yours that I have read, since it was the closest to Python that I can remember seeing. Your personal feelings notwithstanding, please don't make everyone sift through the posts they are not interested in. Authors' personalities and interests usually leak through in their writings. It has happened a couple of times that I read a blog post from Planet Python, look around the author's site and end up subscribing to their whole blog's RSS feed, because I am interested in the rest too.
In my mind, Planet sites have always been about the community. When you are included as an author, it is an honor that suggests the community feels your voice is important. So I say write what you want!
Sure, as a reader there might be some content I don't care about, but that is always going to be the case. I skip most posts on wxWidgets, while at the same time, I end up reading the posts on Python and biology, even though neither are directly useful. But that is the point! In fact, I specifically have been enjoying the NaNoWriMo post as it is interesting to get a detailed perspective on how a programmer translates his/her skills to creating other content.
Unless the powers that run Planet Python have asked you to filter, I hope you respectfully refuse to filter, unless it is something you wanted to do anyway.
Thanks for writing!
That said, I subscribe to the OpenBSD misc mailing list. Over there, even mentioning another operating system can draw some scolding.
At some point I'll probably get feedback for posting about the BSD's and other stuff. Really, it's my own fault - my blog itself is supposed to be about learning to code well in Python, yet from time to time I wander thematically.
My advice: it's the internet (even if it's the Python community) - try not to take anything too personally. I don't say this from a position of "there, there, you'll understand after a while," but rather, "Trust me, I've learned this lesson through hard experience." Peace.
What I absolutely can't take is when posts have embedded advertisements (seems to have completely stopped lately).
I would also repeat the previous advice: don't get too emotional with what you are doing on the internet. You would not be enjoying yourself in the long run.
In short, I go on planet python if I want python stuff. I go on your blog if I want your personal stuff.
The NaNoWriMo was especially cool as it got me to look around and see what a few other people are up to.
Maybe next time you can write a lit-bot or some kind of python-based editing or composition system. Experimental literature is one of my favorite uses for python.
I was one of the people who told you to select the posts you send to the planet, a few weeks ago.
I agree with your point about the importance of human relations and the community, but I do not believe that Planet Python is the right place to post personal posts or non-python content.
I read Planet Python through RSS and I am subscribed to other feeds too (even personal friends and professional). I like to have everything categorized to reduce the noise-ratio and select carefully what to read and what to invest time in.
Python offers me a way of doing that, but sometimes a personal post appears. I do not have problem with occasional posts. But your non-python posts are very frequent in comparison to other feeds. I guess thats the reason for people asking you to select better what you send.
Cheers and keep writing!
@AGMMGA Haters? I think that we can keep this conversation without resorting to name calling. Don't you think?
If you decide to stop syndicating your non-python content, I'd probably subscribe to your blog directly :)
I'm subscribed to a lot of feeds. Planets are a very strange beast, they accumulate a wide variety of posts even when very targeted. Make it very dense with a lot of posts and people and it becomes a firehose.
Have someone with widely different political, social opinions shared with a disgusting way and it becomes a very very very toxic feeling, specifically when we are reading posts once after the other. The anger or sadness of one read can propagate on the others. Tough choice.
What I usually do is that if someone from a Planet blog write things in an interesting way about the topic I will be encouraged to discover his/her other writings. And start explore his/her more personal content.
Keeping separate the categories give more choices to readers. Not everyone want to know the deep feelings of someone, and those who want can still do it by subscribing to the main feed.
I understand the haters, and think filtering your blog content is the right thing to do (I do the same for robg3d.com). That said, I enjoy reading your personal posts, even when I vehemently disagree, which is why I've been subscribed to your site's feed to a while. I want to make sure I don't miss anything from good bloggers, since I assume most feeds on Planet Python are filtered.
Just showing my support!
My personal expectation would be that a feed plugged in to Planet Python would fit into the "Python (mostly)" category, and these days the planet operators do tend to ask for a category feed rather than a whole-of-blog feed when adding a new account.