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Discussion on: Dev.to Writing: 52 Weeks!

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James Sinkala

Beautifully laid out. Congrats on the milestone, I'm on my way towards that too which, well, should be around November, yah, almost a decade from now 🤔.

Reflecting on your 2nd point, especially that little image, I had a few of those in the beginning which were eliminated by the phenomenon you talk about on the 4th point. That makes me think that your theory is legit.

Thankfully I detoxed from the readers/followers/likes drug some years back, otherwise I would have given up here early days. I took me some courage to start writting, and thinking about it the way @csgeek lays it out is what made me reach this far, otherwise I might have rellapsed to those old habits.

I was "fortunate" to hit a nerve on types of articles that bring in a loads of readers, I tried writting something around the same topic on the following week to test that little finding and I got my confirmation.
I could have written articles around that topic if all I cared about were views and would have probably raked in plenty of views week in week out or at least for a few more weeks. But that would have defeated the whole reason I started writting in the first place, and would eventually have led me back to "those old habbits".

I care about those articles with few readers too, if 1,2 or any number of people below that 25 figure found what I wrote to be useful and it helped them somehow, that means my goal has been achieved. On top of that it remains as documentation and refference for me forever.

I'm not against going after/taking note of views by any stretch, I know they are useful in some cases as I've been lucky enough to guest write for some platforms and it happens that most times articles which generate more views are more favoured in those instances, just that those low stats shouldn't discourage us from writing because I'm sure someone somewhere someday will find value in that piece of hard work.

Dev.to to me represents a platform that has never kept an emphasis on those dopamine pumping stimulating features and I hope it remains that way. A couple of recent features got me uneasy but I hope all will be good.

And lastly, thank you for this interesting article.