Secrets of writing great articles on Habré

Question

Habr

Learned the rules for publishing topics. I checked the boxes in the right places, explored the habramarking ...

I have not yet written (and, accordingly, have not published) a single article (topic) on Habré, but I think that I will ripen very soon. Since the first article is a major event in my life, and it will remain in my memory for a long time, I would like not to lose face.
Therefore, I would like to listen to the parting words of experienced Habrawriters about when it is better to start writing, how to find out that the text is ready for publication, how to overcome the fear of the keyboard.
I would like to see stories of successful posts, unexpected discoveries, and funny situations that arose when writing texts.
Perhaps someone will want to share a negative experience, talk about the underwater rake that novice writers stumble upon.
Maybe someone will remember his first post, and the nostalgic feelings associated with it.

Answer 1

It's well written here

Answer 2

The post should start with an eyestopper image.
In the text, you first need to wag your tail a little and squat in front of a powerful habrazhitel, he loves it.
Either articles from the “on the fingers” series go well (oh, even it became clear to me!), Or, another, somewhat paradoxical extreme - overly abstruse (oh, cool
! topics that are guaranteed to gain pros (habrasrach against copyists and "Mikhalkov", for example). It is not recommended, especially for a newcomer, to write on fan topics ("Apple is cool" or "Apple is shit" in equal measure). The reaction can be unpredictable , depending on which clack in the thread comes first.
Habrastado loves to follow the leader. If the post is clearly upvoted, they will be upvoted. If minus - minus.
They love articles about small companies, startups, homemade products, especially computer ones, gadgets, even useless ones. They don't like it - about corporations (it's Google, HP or Microsoft - it doesn't matter), and everything related to them.
Also, “topics of good” or “topics of evil” are spontaneously organized from time to time, their appearance, and which option will be chosen, is unpredictable.
If you see that in the first few minutes the post went “in the red” (at least minus 5), and you don’t have a group of friends who can quickly get it out of the red, then the task is hopeless, remove it “in drafts”.

Answer 3

Please do not write anywhere about “kat” (“details under “kat”, “you are welcome under “kat”). "Kat" is not part of the article, it does not exist in the article - it only appears on a page that is not meant to be read by the article itself. It terribly infuriates when you open an article you like, read it and by the end of the third paragraph you meet “if you are interested in me, welcome under the cut”. Under what, damn it, cat? He was left far behind, let's get the information!
The only place where you can write about kat is kat itself.

Answer 4

Write something that no one knows about, and by doing so you will do a lot of useful things, they will say a lot of “thanks” to you, your posts will be popular and everything will be tip-top. If you want to be a successful author, don't get involved in other discussions, and even more so, don't take the cardinal side of anyone, because they will merge, and you will no longer be able to write articles. Habr's law - karma is collected by topics and merges with comments. Wrote a couple of good topics on the same topic and calm down, because they will say - "Zaeb *% and!" with your posts about %theme%. My answer is a kind of butthurt, but don't give a shit ;) But I spoke out. The bottom line is simple - give the reader what he wants and rejoice if appreciated. You climb from the discussion - goodbye karma. Or hello karma - but only if you have the ability to write only what they want to hear, then don't express your opinion too hard.

Answer 5

Write from the heart. What do you know what worries you? Own thoughts are highly valued on Habré. Copy-paste, lies, speculation and a broken phone are bad.
I don’t agree with the idea that you need to “lick up the audience” - this is very noticeable and causes discomfort (well, or you need to be able to do it very subtly).
The picture at the beginning is a must.
It would be nice to have a clear conclusion at the end for those who have little time to read the entire article.
On controversial issues - either links to authoritative sources, or a note "in my personal opinion, although I may be wrong."
Humor. If there is not at least one joke in the article, why does anyone need such an article?
Think about when to post. On Friday, people are relaxed, on weekends there is no one here at all.
Try to create some valuable artifact with your article - a piece of code, an instruction, a set of links that people will want to add to their "Favorites". It's just that freestyle text will not be added.
Dig deeper. Habr is still like an IT blog. "How to install the OS" and "hello world" will come here weakly.
Don't skimp on the spellchecker.
Links must be valid and have a habraeffect.
Write in a business tone with a touch of irony or humor. Too dry tone will not be read - there is Wikipedia for this. Solid giggles too - there are Chips.
In general, all of the above will not help you if you do not fall into the “trend”. And then how the card will fall.

Answer 6

If you write something with code, try to format the listings well. It means with the correct highlighting, formatting, and comments.
It makes no sense to post all the code in the article. Insert essential things, and at the end of the article, give a link to the full code. Preferably not in the archive, but where you can walk around it in the browser.
Join homm . It’s also good that the teaser of the article contains information about what exactly will be in the article, and not something abstract about the hard life of the author of the article.

Answer 7

The main thing is either to write something that everyone understands, or that they do not understand at all. When many people see something terribly complex and incomprehensible, they plus without reading (like “oh-oh-oh what a smart uncle”) if something obvious is captain’s, then they also plus (like “yeah, I agree with the author”)
But when if you write something moderately smart, then there will definitely be someone who disagrees, and moreover, not one (or someone smarter and sees your mistakes, or if you are right, then there is, on the contrary, a “smart guy” who thinks he knows better) and vehemently minus ... ^ _^

Answer 8

If you already have the text of the article, and you want to get more pluses, then add a large picture that attracts attention to the beginning of the article - + 50% of free pluses are guaranteed. It is desirable that the picture was with humor, and / or with a girl. And, of course, the picture should at least indirectly relate to the topic.
PS The author, answer me one question - why please the herd? Write as you like, no one will hang you for it. And one more thing: when you write for the sake of the process itself, you get satisfaction; when you write to please others, you start to worry about how you will be appreciated, and all the buzz is lost.

Answer 9

The most important thing is the choice of subject. The article should be in the topic of the selected blog or on the topic of the day. Further, as in any text, there should be an introduction and conclusion (formally it is not necessary to single them out, just first report the problem, then describe the study / problem in more detail, and draw conclusions). Well, come on, after all, this is a blog, not a scientific journal.

Answer 10

If something like an article in DIY, then accompany with a lot of pictures with a description of the steps.
My friend's article suffered precisely for their almost complete absence.