Every blog has a yelling dumbass reader

16 October 2025

Hamilton Nolan writing at How Things Work:

If you make a joke, they won’t get it. If you use sarcasm, they won’t detect it. If you exaggerate for effect, you will be taken literally, and if you try to be understated, you will be accused of a contemptible lack of urgency. If you make a reference, it will not be understood; if you choose one topic, they will wonder why you didn’t choose another; if you try to focus on one thing, they will ask why you didn’t focus on something else.

Nolan is not writing about blogging per se, but his words will be all too familiar to anyone who’s been publishing online for any amount of time.