We invite you to participate in the competition .
The most important thing in Habré is its readers, who are also authors. Without them, Habr would not exist. Therefore, we are always interested in how they are doing. On the eve of the second» we decided to talk with the winners of the last contest and the top habraauthor about their hard life as a writer. We hope their answers will help someone write more and better, and someone just start writing.
What motivates authors to write on Habr
Pavel Zhovner (), published 42 articles on Habré
Habra is simply the best dviglo of collective blogging platforms on the Internet. For some reason, no one was able to make a NORMAL site for technical blogs, in which you can simultaneously write long reads and full comments.
The medium is just trash for no one knows. Three lines of text fit on the screen, it is impossible to write comments - each comment is made out as a separate post on the author's blog.
Reddit is just links to other pages. You can't write a full post on Reddit itself.
Slashdot - it seems like the closest English-language analogue of Habr. In fact, uncomfortable, slow and also without normal posts.
As a result, two options remain: either a standalone blog that one and a half people will see, or Habr.
Evgeny Trifonov (), published 274 articles on Habré
There are several things that motivate you. For example, while you are preparing a text, you learn something new and organize what you already know in your head. And when you see that someone is interested in your texts, it helps to release dopamine.
Ivan Bogachev (), published 18 articles on Habré
Writing articles is a good way to structure information in your head and "save it to an external medium." This helps to free your head for fresh ideas and develop further. As a bonus, articles can help other people in some way, and this is a plus for karma and reputation in the professional community.
Marat Sibgatulin (), published 116 articles on Habré
Habr became for me the gateway to the world of technical articles even when the right to write comments had to be earned.
It still remains a community that is interested in original articles and can give adequate feedback.
Ivan Gumenyuk (), published 54 articles on Habré
I sincerely believe that a little chaos and madness needs to be brought into the world. All these serious ones are walking around - mortgages, careers, meetings and all that. For me, publications are an opportunity to share some ordinary things with people from a new perspective.
There is another motive as well. I am extremely happy when I manage to explain to people in simple terms the complex things that I understand. In this regard, I am very proud of my cycle dedicated to vision correction, posts about connective tissue dysplasia and more.
And sometimes you just want to share some news or problem in order to hear the opinion of the community and get feedback. Yet it is the response of the audience that is the key moment for the author. No one is interested in writing at the table.
Alexander Borisovich (), published 19 articles on Habré
- There is interesting material that no one else will do except me. The only chance to keep the importance of the topic that you felt is to convert your experience into something. The best thing I came up with is publications. Converting personal interesting experience into the attention of readers fits perfectly into Habr's economic model. You keep materials from sinking because of your economic interests.
- Reader feedback. This is little different from a miracle. Interest friends are one of the best things on the internet.
- Desire for attention. Many authors will say that they are either unique in their knowledge among their working circles, or feel the need to speak out where they will be appreciated. Why should I write somewhere if I feel good? Or maybe someone feels his role as a teacher, but he is not allowed to show it anywhere else.
In Sberbank, as well as on Habré, information security is the most important topic. And one of the most difficult. It mixed not only technology, but also psychology with sociology. We want every client of the bank to know that the company they have trusted is doing everything possible to keep their data and finances safe. And it is important that a person knows how he can protect them in situations where it depends on him. Educational work in cybersecurity is one of the missions of Sberbank, so we look forward to articles on this topic at TechnoText.
Sberbank ()
How the text is written
Alexey Statsenko (), published 601 articles on Habré
I'm waiting for the topic to find me. When I make a plan, it turns out to be lifeless shit. It's like a plan to meet a girl. I want, they say, a blonde 100-120-100, and you go looking like a fool for this one. And you miss out on the best.
Alexander B.
I don't know when the preparation of the post starts. There are many things going on in my head. There is a feeling when it's time - all the material is felt inside and out. If I had not posted the latest posts, I would go crazy because of a sense of personal unproductiveness.
Ivan Bogachev
I do not come up with topics artificially - I just describe what I see around. Usually a post matures in the head for a long time, but then it is written in one day. My experience shows that if you clearly see the image of the article, then writing it simply cannot take much time.
Ivan Gumenyuk
I write posts for a very long time, for which I am often very uncomfortable in front of readers. Most often, you need to dive very deep into the problem, put a bunch of experiments in order to make something really cool.
For example, a post about how we did coffee spectrophotometry. This experiment took us over a month. We created wild garbage according to all the rules of science with the labeling of samples and compliance with technological processes. It was just fun.
I also remember my post with profiteroles. And endless packages of eggs spent on the experiment. There I really wanted to reach the final and get the very ideal recipe with the most described physical model, so that everyone could get a repeatable result.
Bunin's conferences are not just conferences about high workloads, they are a place of power for a senior programmer. In a blog on Habré, we always want to make good content: interesting, highload, but one that will get a wide coverage. Interesting task, isn't it? We will conclude contracts with the 10 best authors of the contest for a year to develop content for Oleg Bunin's blog. The authors will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the world of highload loads, upgrade at 20 conferences dedicated to the most relevant topics in the industry. We hold the best professional conferences in Russia: RIT++ (Russian Internet Technologies), HighLoad++, TeamLead Conf, DevOpsConf, Frontend Conf, Whale Rider and many others.
Oleg Bunin, who are "»
Do authors read comments?
Pavel Zhovner
Often, comments on Habré are more valuable than the post itself. Especially criticism, which makes it easy to understand whether the author really understands the topic and how competently he is able to defend his position. The ability to correctly and respectfully lead a discussion distinguishes a professional with experience from an amateur (loha).
In corporate blogs, comments always show how much specialists are involved in the discussion of problems and the public life of the company. Worst of all, when PR people have to take the rap for all the jambs, who, out of ignorance, are forced to give streamlined, meaningless answers.
Most comments are left on posts that do not require any special knowledge, where everyone can feel like an expert: about politics, relationships, psychology, taste. I advise you to avoid such posts and never comment on them, so as not to look stupid.
Marat Sibgatulin
Feedback, whether negative or positive, is the reaction of the audience. And it is for the sake of the audience that we write. So feel free to comment.
Alexey Statsenko
There are a couple of favorite comments. I don’t remember all of the 600 publications, but I know for sure that I laughed and rejoiced at the comments a couple of times. And he even wrote: "That's why I love Habr."
There is a shortage of writers in Russia. It is not always easy for us to find the authors of training courses: for this we need specialists who are well versed in their field and know how to write interestingly.
I'm glad that Habr is organizing a competition for technical authors. This is an opportunity for employers and participants to find each other.
We have established the category "Simply about the complex": we will choose a text that accurately and simply talks about technology. And for the best work we will give a prize from the Practicum. We hope the authors will want to take part in the competition, and we wish them good luck!
Yandex.Workshop ("")
Good text - what is it?
Alexey Statsenko
For me personally, as a reader, a text is good if I return to it in a year or three and recommend it to my friends.
Alexander B.
Honest and found a reader. Even if marketing and advertising.
Ivan Bogachev
Written in plain language, neatly formatted, containing unique information.
Marat Sibgatulin
Competent, structured, reaching the goal. Accordingly, the goal must first be defined.
Ivan Gumenyuk
Alive. Write in a simpler way, do not try to depict multi-storey structures that are difficult to read. Show your emotions, share a story about how you soldered equipment with a nail and a lighter in the middle of a field in the wind.
Simplify the text, throw away the water and rely on facts and history. Structure the material, it should have a clear division into modules. Look for or draw illustrations. Seriously, even doodles on a napkin can look great as an explanation.
Evgeny Trifonov
In my opinion, the texts are very different. It happens that someone successfully gropes for the sore spot of IT people and makes a resonant post with heated discussions and a bunch of views. And it happens that a specialist shares his expertise in some narrow topic, and then there are ten times fewer views, because the audience of the post is limited to this topic. But for those who are connected with her at work, the post is very valuable. They are both good, and it's pointless to find out "who is better" by comparing the view count.
But, of course, there is something that does not interfere with any text: literacy, harmonious expression of thoughts, high-quality work with information.
Habrawriters are the best audience with whom we interact a lot and want to get feedback from them. We invite everyone to test our service and, based on the results of the test, write an article about "Cloud Services from RUVDS". For tests, we allocate a virtual server for 2 weeks with a 2.2GHz CPU configuration - 2 cores, 2GB RAM, 40GB SSD in a data center in Kazan, St. Petersburg or Yekaterinburg with an ISPmanager or Plesk panel to choose from. An author who publishes at least 2 articles with a rating above +20 will receive a VPS for 6 months for free.
RUVDS ()
How to deal with procrastination?
Alexey Statsenko
Often procrastination gets in the way and wins. But when the buckwheat ends, I win.
Alexander B.
If you have a need to write, you will write. If you come up with an idea without a real personal need, you will enjoy imagining and procrastinate.
Ivan Bogachev
The best way to fight yourself is to look at your peers. And to understand that a creative person gets more goodies than a person who plays dot-com all day long. If it does not help, you can think about your place in history. Writing articles can be a good step towards creating something bigger.
Ivan Gumenyuk
You don't have to fight her. This is a sure sign that the topic is not very interesting. If you don't get up with red eyes at 4 am, forgetting about the time, then you probably won't be able to convey your emotions to readers. You can diligently sit down and write down a good technical dryish article according to the schedule. But not the fact that it will turn out very lively.
Tips for beginners
Alexey Statsenko
Write a lot and all sorts of garbage. And then the bang happens!
Ivan Bogachev
Write. There will always be a person who does something better, but this is no reason not to do something. Don't be afraid. Don't feed the trolls. Do not complain. Write politely and to the point, and then everything will go by itself.
Evgeny Trifonov
There is a fallacy common to beginners: to assume that the more experienced already “know everything” (and experience impostor syndrome because of this). But in fact, these “experienced” people themselves run into dead ends every day and google some basic things. Recognized people like Dan Abramov admit: “People think that I can do everything in my field, but here is a list of what I can't kick.”
I don’t know if many habraauthors experience similar feelings (“experienced people understand everything about what and how to post, but I don’t”). But for those who experience, I would like to inform you: here, too, there is no magical boundary, after which "you know everything." For example, with experience, you seem to roughly understand which topic will collect how many views on Habré - but still sometimes you scratch your head - “why it turned out so little”, and sometimes “why so many”.
Alexander B.
Write to support with a beta version of the text. Evaluate the quality of the material is not at all long. If you are not sure about the quality of the material - most likely it is. If you are sure that it is interesting, but you are afraid for the style, you can easily find a school of writers. FAQ webinars. Podcasts. But not vulgar in the style of online schools. This is bue. I have met open hatred among techies for artistic texts. It is clear that it was caused by the inability to connect the two words and the unwillingness to recognize this for oneself. But this is not Habr's audience.
Ivan Gumenyuk
Reach out to authors you like. Many will agree to take the text at least for a superficial review. I always try to help new authors. Unfortunately, few of them reach publication. But in general, just feel free to ask for feedback before posting.
Similarly, almost any author will help to correctly formulate the topic and key points. If there is a cool topic, then it is worth writing.
Nothing threatens you. Seriously. Maximum - your pride may suffer a little if you are downvoted. And yes, I also worry when I post my posts. If the post is written with love for details, but with some flaws, then the community can kick a little. But, damn it, somehow benevolent at the same time.
If the topic is initially delusional, built on the manipulation of facts, false pseudo-theories, contains a bunch of factual errors, then they will bury it without much regret. But here is the question of self-regulation.
Engage with the community, be communicative, and admit your mistakes. It is important. Do you like any author? Great. Try to imitate, isolate the features of the structure of the text and the presentation of the material.
And most importantly - develop and learn. All the time. You can't just be a spherical writer in a vacuum. First, vacuum is a rather uncomfortable environment. Secondly, there is simply nothing to write about if nothing happens in your life. Found something new and cool? Got it? Awesome. Please post and help others. This is how a community is created.
Marat Sibgatulin
You can write a thousand articles and not get better if you don't work on style. It is useful to re-read your post in a couple of months - this is almost a view from the outside. You can immediately see the ambiguous, incomprehensible wording, it is noticeable where he did not reveal the topic. If possible, give the post for review to other people. They will help both to point out unfinished places, and to find factual, spelling and other errors.
Evgeny Trifonov
I think you can first write the text and show it to friends/colleagues for feedback. It is desirable not to those who, in any case, will say “well done”, but to those who can constructively criticize: “in my opinion, this will not work on Habré, but if you refine it in this way, it will immediately become much better.”
TechnoText is being held for the second time. The jury this year is Denis Kryuchkov (, creator and leader of Habr), Ivan Zvyagin (, chief editor of all Habr) and Ivan Sychev (, head of the content studio), Grigory Petrov, (, DevRel at Evrone, developer, generalist, amateur neurophysiologist, event organizer, and just a real habra-man).
Many companies became interested in the competition, which support separate nominations: "Information Security", "System Administration" and several special nominations.
So until November 17, inclusive, send your publications and participate in . The main thing is that the article is written by you (translations and co-creation are not accepted) and published between 20.11.2018/17.11.2019/XNUMX and XNUMX/XNUMX/XNUMX inclusive on any of the blog sites, on the corporate website or in the media.
Source: habr.com