Dave Winer writing about the “the Writer’s Web”:

The web was initially designed for writers. Styling, links, paragraphs, titles (at all levels). The ability to edit. No character limits. That’s what we had to work with when we started blogging in the mid-late 90s.

What happened to the writer-centric web I loved in the late 1990s? Building a regular readership is challenging. In the earliest days, sites linked to other sites. Bloggers shared work from other bloggers. RSS provided the ability to subscribe to sites, but after Google killed Reader, the focus turned exclusively to search engines and social media. The competition to be at the top of the search results reshaped writing on the web. The ever-changing social media algorithm provided an audience for writers, but maintaining that audience changed the nature of writing on the web.

Blogs became about ad revenue. Search engine traffic and optimization. Building a “side gig.” Success became about building an audience on each proprietary social media platform. Increasing your follower count. Becoming an influencer. Writing click bait headlines to maximize engagement. Getting subscribers for your newsletter. Blogging became “hard” because it wasn’t about writing anymore. It was about marketing.

Writing became secondary.

So how do we bring the emphasis on writing back to the web? The good news is that great writing is already all over the web. It’s just overwhelmed by all this platform-siloed, revenue-focused, engagement bullshit. It’s hidden among the sea of SEO-laden posts that flood the web. It’s bottled up on Medium or Substack, and other platforms that promise the exposure of social media.

If we value writing on the web, we need to link to good writing and thoughtful commentary. Share what we find through our own sites. Read independent writing and respond. Encourage others to share their thoughts outside of social media silos. I’m glad Dave specifically asked for people to respond to the concept of the “Writer’s Web” because it spurred me to write this post. And hopefully, others will keep this conversation going as well.

Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.