Do not, I repeat, do not read the comments

Yesterday, one of my blog posts went mildly viral. I noticed because I have a bot that follows popular forums like Hacker News, Lobsters and Reddit and lets me know if someone posts anything from my followed domains there.

I use it to satisfy a sick curiosity but it’s also handy as I can adjust my hosting plan to avoid expensive bills that sometimes happen when things go viral.

So yesterday, my blog post on dotfiles spent its time on Hacker News front page and that often leads to cross-posting on these other sites.

It looks a bit like this in the visitor graph when it happens. Yesterday was mild compared to some of the worst spikes.

But, then there’s the Internet comments on those sites.

I know I shouldn’t go and read them. Nothing good ever comes from that.

I’m just too curious about what people have to say — and to be fair, most of the comments are good and spark good discussion. I still regret reading them last night. I got to my hotel after a long dinner with a good friend (hi!) and just couldn’t stay away.

That was, as it always is, a mistake. I guess it’s the cost of building in public. I hope one day to learn that I really don’t have to read the comments.

I do read and value all the discussions in Mastodon however. There are so many lovely people who read my stuff there and gets into the discussion with good intentions and I cherish each discussion there. It’s the orange site, Lobsters and Reddit crowds that often cause my mood to go down.