Translation

This blog is written in en-GB

The blog's author refuses a request to make their writing more globally accessible by avoiding British cultural references. They point out that their blog explicitly declares its language as en-GB (British English), and argue that localization is about acknowledging cultural differences, not erasing them.

Background

- The author, Terence Eden, is a British technologist and blogger who writes about accessibility, open standards, and digital culture. This post is a response to a reader who asked him to "globalise" his British English references. - "en-GB" is the ISO language tag for British English, used in HTML to tell browsers and assistive tech (like screen readers) which regional variant of English to expect. It also signals the cultural context of the content. - The post argues that demanding all online writing conform to a bland, globally neutral style erases local culture and reinforces cultural dominance by the biggest English-speaking market (the US). This is part of a wider ongoing debate in tech about localisation, accessibility, and whose "standard" English wins by default.

Background

The Great Blogging Collapse: What Happened to 100 Successful Blogs?

3.0

The article analyzes the decline of 100 once-successful blogs, finding that only a small fraction remain active. Most blogs were abandoned due to burnout, lack of monetization, shifting priorities, or the rise of social media and other content platforms. The author suggests that sustainable blogging requires clear purpose, audience connection, and adaptability rather than chasing trends or scale.

Show HN: I measured the half-life of 41,301 Show HN launches. It's 7 hours

2.5

A developer scraped 41,301 Show HN posts from the past year and analyzed comment timestamps to measure attention decay. The median launch gets 2 points and 0 comments; for those gaining traction, half of all comments arrive within 7.2 hours and 90% within 26 hours. The analysis is fully reproducible from a public GitHub repository.

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0.5

The article examines optimal blog post length, noting that while longer posts (1,500–2,500 words) often rank better in search engines, the best length depends on the topic, audience, and purpose. It advises writers to prioritize quality and reader engagement over hitting a specific word count, and introduces real-time word counters as tools to help maintain focus and efficiency during writing.

How Word Count Is Important for Social Media Posts

0.5

The article discusses the importance of word count for social media posts, explaining that different platforms have optimal post lengths for maximum engagement. It provides guidelines for ideal character counts on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, noting that shorter posts often perform better by capturing attention quickly and improving readability.