> contemplating the scale of the universe (both in space and in time) is really soothing to me.
I contemplate those things and regularly verge on existential crisis.
From a news curation perspective, I typically follow a couple of simple rules: timeliness, importance, and proximity.
For a site focused on 'good' and 'uplifting' I think I would follow your preferences and focus on new research and development (like cancer research, or cheaper drugs/prosthetics, etc.). Perhaps OP could shift focus, or add a section that have posts related to STEM subjects.
> I think I would follow your preferences and focus on new research and development (like cancer research, or cheaper drugs/prosthetics, etc.).
This very quickly devolves into pop-sci clickbait. Cancer gets solved roughly 3 times a week, along with Alzheimer's and every other scary sounding disease. And our battery capacity somehow goes up by an order of magnitude a few times a month. And so on.
Journalism is just broken in the internet age. Clickbait is more profitable than reality. Anger inducing clickbait is the most profitable of all.
I rather like EEVBlog's criticism of tech journalism.
It seems 'journalists' are actually just curators, looking for content that generates clicks. We're trying to feed the ad machine to make a little revenue.
What would a successful model look like? There are a few revenue models that are at least interesting:
Hackaday was purchased by SupplyFrame, doesn't run ads, has an internal store, and has decent articles (with sometimes rage-inducing flaws). The bias is obvious, they are owned by a parent company that now uses the platform to advertise on.
The Guardian is shifting towards an ad-less, pay what you want revenue model.
Patreon isn't really a model that an organization can use... Or can it?
All major players in the social media and news market tend to lean on ad-centered models. Do examples of successful social/media companies exist that don't depend on ad revenue?
I contemplate those things and regularly verge on existential crisis.
From a news curation perspective, I typically follow a couple of simple rules: timeliness, importance, and proximity.
For a site focused on 'good' and 'uplifting' I think I would follow your preferences and focus on new research and development (like cancer research, or cheaper drugs/prosthetics, etc.). Perhaps OP could shift focus, or add a section that have posts related to STEM subjects.