I do this and I have for years. I don't feel it has accomplished much of anything.

I have 6 years of college. I worked at a Fortune 500 company for a time. I was Director of Community Life for The TAG Project at one time. I was a moderator on Cyburbia at one time. Those last two gigs helped me attend related conferences affordably, though I was a homemaker and student.

My blogging has led to no serious career traction, in spite of being interviewed by reporters repeatedly regarding one of my projects. Most of those interviews never published. The one that did misgendered me and outright made up specious quotes.

After 8.5 years on HN, I have exactly zero strong personal connections here. There are like 3 people who email occasionally. I have zero actual friends here. I have zero serious professional connections.

I was not homeless when I joined. At that time, I had a corporate job and an apartment. So, no, that doesn't really explain it.

I do get hit on by men who know of me through HN. But that is about it.

When I comment that 99% of men have only one reason they would ever really talk to me, it gets described as an offensive exaggeration. [1] I am not claiming 99% of men do this to all women. Just me. It is firsthand testimony regarding my own life. It is not an exaggeration. Think how offensive it feels to me to be treated that way to begin with. Now add in dire poverty that I cannot solve and then being told I am offensive for remarking on the reality of my life.

So I find myself unable to draw any conclusion other than "sexism is alive and well." I wish I could find another explanation.

The only thing I need to make my life work is a middle class income. That's it. But that simply isn't happening and no amount of effort or other virtue from my end is resolving the issue.

So my feeling at this point is "Maybe that (little b blogging to network) works if you are a guy. It sure as hell has not worked for me and I very strongly suspect that my gender is a significant factor in that undesirable outcome."

I assume that means it doesn't work for most women. I assume that in part because I appear to be the only woman to have ever made the HN leaderboard. If there are scads of women here successfully networking via HN and/or little b blogging to further their career goals, please speak up. Toss me a clue. (Email is fine. You don't have to say it publicly.)

Given my background, I remain dumbfounded that this problem remains so intractable. I don't think it should be this hard to turn my knowledge and skills into an adequate income. But I consistently find that it backfires to tell people "No, I actually am that competent" and no one ever seems to conclude it on their own, much less vouch for me or promote me. I see men promote other men here all the time. I don't get any of that. It just doesn't happen.

Asking for help has not worked. Patiently waiting for 8.5 years to be noticed has not worked. Complaining about my poverty gets ugly reactions to the effect of "Shut up and go away." Trying to figure out how to turn my work into income gets routinely pissed on. My favorite: some jerk on Metafilter said I was panhandling the internet for trying to figure out how to earn a living online.

If someone would just show me the secret handshake, that would be awesome.

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16389666#16394963