[231007] Will it still take 30 seconds?

[Chalarangelo]

Hello there! 👋

I've found myself writing these short updates quite often lately, I think they can help you make sense of what's going on behind the scenes and my vision for the repository and the website.

As you might have noticed, I started combining and converting short snippets into longer tips and stories earlier this year. After the summer break, I got back into it, revamping the low-hanging fruits first. This is quite a long process and there will certainly be a lot of bumps along the way.

This decision took a lot of thought and research, but I think it better suits the needs of the website's audience. Overall, having ~1200 pieces, most of which are extremely short and oftentimes repetitive doesn't feel right. It makes searching for them harder, it makes discovering similar use-cases unlikely, it makes the content rank poorly on search engines, it doesn't keep readers engaged, it makes it more likely to copy the code and leave without learning much.

All of these are valid reasons to start moving away from extremely short-form content into slightly longer pieces. Tips are a great fit for this sort of need, as they are still short, but are more explanatory and do not follow the extremely rigid structure of snippet-type content. Stories are a good fit for things that require a bit more context. Questions can help make more sense of why you would need an advanced piece of code. All of these types of content seem more relevant to users and can enhance their experience.

In the process of revamping, more context will be added, some things will be tidied up, more examples and caveats will be provided and some concepts explained more thoroughly. The aim is to keep all of the existing content, but organize it better and merge it where it makes sense. As this is a large scale effort, new content (as in new posts) will not come as often, but older content will be repackaged and republished, so expect a lot of that.

This project started as short code snippets you can understand in 30 seconds or less. You might be asking yourselves if this will still hold true and the answer is most likely no. However, my dedication to keeping content short and to the point has not changed. There already are dozens of published tips that will help inform the formatting of new content, so you know what to expect.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Feel free to provide feedback or share your thoughts in the comments below! 🍻