You could make the counter-argument: Why would I want to read something written by someone who doesn't care about their audience at all?

Both of those are extreme positions.

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miyoji 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

I would make the counter-counter-argument: someone who is just trying to make what the audience wants to see to get views doesn't care about the audience either, they just care about the audience's eyeballs and the money/fame/influence they can get from leveraging those eyeballs.

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chongli 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Pretty much everyone on Hacker News is writing comments for one another without the benefit of analytics. We're having discussion about topics we care about without delving into each other's personal details.

If you care about a topic you're going to care about a community you build and participate in around that topic. You don't need marketing-focused analytics to do that. You just need to keep writing and engaging with people in the comments.

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righthand 3 days ago | parent [-]

Careful, upvotes and karma are analytics.

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chongli 2 days ago | parent [-]

They aren't. They're feedback. Analytics is demographic information used for marketing purposes.

	▲	scoofy 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Analytics are often used for demographic purposes, but they aren’t for that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytics Ranking comments by quality is absolutely tangential to analytics. It’s processing feedback, and rearranging the pangs in orders to make it more pleasant to readers… it’s real close to a-b testing.
	▲	righthand 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		If I can see the number of votes and replies and their affect on my account (karma count), those are analytics of my comments and stories. Demography is the genre of analytic.

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chaps 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Today I learned that "caring about my audience" means using analytics against them to understand as much as I can about them without their full consent.

Friend, there are many other ways to care about your audience without being a whimsical stalker from high up.

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palata 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Why would I want to read something written by someone who doesn't care about their audience at all?

That's not what you described. You described a blog writtten by someone who wants to increase their reach.

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MSFT_Edging 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My favorite musicians and podcasts hate their fans.

Seriously, fans are awful. If they found you for doing what you want to do, keep doing what you want to do. Don't let the fans guide you too much.

	▲	chongli 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		We need look no further than The Beatles, who famously and repeatedly tried to pivot their music away from what their fans wanted. In the process, they innovated popular music in a multitude of ways and spawned new genres in the process. If they paid any attention to their fans they would've been playing "Love Me Do" for decades as their millions of screaming preteen girl fans slowly turned into senior citizens.

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breuleux 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You can care about your audience without needing any analytics. Usually, I would think that you personally know a few people who are in your intended audience. Just ask them. And if you can't get feedback from actual people on your writing, analytics is a really, really poor substitute for that.

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Retr0id 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not caring about the size of your audience is very different to not caring about your audience at all.

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plastic-enjoyer 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Why would I want to read something written by someone who doesn't care about their audience at all?

Uh, because you find the content interesting?