
Show HN: A better Math Blog - HaoZeke
https://grimoire.science/rationalizing-the-study-of-moments/
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KajMagnus
To me some kind of "mission statement" would be good, so I know what's the
purpose of the blog.

The homepage starts: _" The site is di­vided into a mul­ti­tude of
col­lec­tions and tags, ac­ces­si­ble from the left navbar and from within
posts ..."_ which tells me nothing about how the blog is useful to me.

And the linked article starts: _" Several terms need to be clar­i­ﬁed
math­e­mat­i­cally to ap­pre­ci­ate the large sets of ..."_ which also doesn't
tell me "what is this about? why is this good for me to read?"

I suggest: Try to put yourself in the mind of the reader. The first thing s/he
wants to know, is (I think): What is this blog / article about? What do I gain
by reading it, how is it good for me? — If those questions aren't answered
quickly, s/he will leave. (I think.)

~~~
HaoZeke
The expected audience is actually people who might be taking a course in
statistical design, especially pertaining to chemical engineering, so that
ought to be clarified too..

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HaoZeke
I'm hoping for suggestions on the content and non disqus commenting systems.

~~~
KajMagnus
Should the non-Disqus commenting system be able to deal with LaTeX style math
formulas and pretty print them?

I'm developing Talkyard [https://www.talkyard.io/blog-
comments](https://www.talkyard.io/blog-comments) and long ago it was working
fine with a LaTeX Javascript library, but ... that was long ago, not sure
about today.

~~~
HaoZeke
This seems like an excellent idea! Thank goodness it's FOSS, could never
afford it otherwise

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KajMagnus
Well if you want to install this FOSS, you still need a virtual-private-
server, which costs some $ per month. Unless you have a server already, then
the hosted blog comments plan is probably cheaper actually.

(Can I ask, in your opinion, what's an affordable/ok monthly cost for blog
comments?)

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HaoZeke
Actually, here at my uni, I run my desktop PC 24/7\. We don't get a dedicated
IP, but I use [ngrok]([http://ngrok.io/](http://ngrok.io/)) to run a sort of
pseudo server, for free basically. (electricity and net costs included in my
hostel bill :D )

Maybe a sort of volume based scalable plan might be good?

Something like a few cents per comment? Or based on the size of the database
generated?

Since the biggest problem is that small blogs, like mine don't get anywhere
near the generous numbers offered in the hosted blog plan... And optimizing
SEO and advertising the blog is way too much effort.

~~~
KajMagnus
> volume based scalable plan might be good [...] cents per comment [...] size
> of the database

I think so too, that's a bit how the embedded-comments price plan works
currently, except that it starts at €3 instead of €0. — I think most people
are fine with paying €3, and, actually, I think it's _better_ for them to do
that, than to _not_ do that. Because then I'll get a bit more money and will
be able to improve the software, which is good for them.

(Maybe shouldn't be exactly €3. For developing countries, where €3 is a lot,
then maybe starting at ... €0.5? or even €0, could make sense.)

Didn't know about ngrok. Seems like perfect, for universities. I suppose the
uni has stationary always-powered-on servers, that host your websites? (rather
than your sometimes-turned-off laptop)

