Spolsky will update Joel on Software for the last time March 17.
Great stuff from the Inc. column:
In retrospect, Joel on Software was essentially a small, perfectly targeted magazine for programmers with a certain pragmatic philosophy toward software development. It was also free advertising for my company, but the advertising actually looked a lot more like editorial content than anything else; the most popular post I ever wrote, for example, was about how technology companies should never, ever rewrite their code from scratch.
Once I had built an audience among programmers, enough of them turned into customers that I was able to get my bootstrapped company off the ground.
Make your site an indispensable resource—something people care deeply about—and the community you’ve built will support you.
Ostensibly about 20x200 funding, but really about this ridiculous news.
Support a great writer, and Walter will send you something neat in return.
Ryan Gonzalez:
I felt a little disheartened that only a fraction of the people who visited actually took the time to look around and size the place up. They didn’t even give my content the chance to impress them. It made me think about why I write, and who actually cares about what I produce—the kind of readers that I want for the content that I love to make.