December 4, 2025
History vs the Algorithm
I have been writing a niche history blog for 15 years
15 years of weird history: fans cheer, wallets twitch, AI lurks
TLDR: Historian Benjamin Breen marks 15 years of Res Obscura and invites support for his old-school blog. Comments split over paying vs sponsors, dunk on YouTube history videos, and joke about AI scraping, turning a nostalgic celebration into a debate over how quirky, quality writing survives online.
Historian Benjamin Breen just marked 15 years of his niche blog, Res Obscura, a love letter to the old internet’s daily-post, bookmark-on-your-laptop era—now revived on Substack with a “Crystal Anniversary” support appeal. The community didn’t hold back. One reader echoed Breen’s stance with a fiery “no thanks” to YouTube history explainers—protocolture chimed in with a blunt “100% agree”, cheering long-form writing over endless scroll and snackable clips. Meanwhile, web veteran simonw flexed receipts: he’s linked Breen five times since 2023, turning blogroll nostalgia into modern-day link love.
Then came the money talk. Commenters gasped at “35 paying subscribers out of 8,000,” with colesantiago urging sponsors over subscriptions—cue the classic internet debate: who actually pays for niche, brainy writing? Drama escalated when N_Lens dropped an ominous one-liner: “Just in time to be scooped up in AI training sets!” stirring fears that human-crafted history will be swallowed by the machine. For comic relief, beritdotdev tossed in “written by … BrowserExtension,” sparking jokes about bots ghostwriting the comments. Through it all, fans reminisced about viral gems—cat paw prints on a 15th-century manuscript and a snail water cameo on New Zealand radio—begging for more weird history, less algorithm. Want the vibe? It’s nostalgic librarian meets internet street fight with a side of meme.
Key Points
- •Res Obscura, Benjamin Breen’s history blog, ran from 2010 to 2023 and remains accessible in its original blog format.
- •Breen began the blog at age 25 while a second-year history PhD student in Austin, initially aiming to post daily.
- •He built a community with outlets like the Public Domain Review and connected with bloggers including BibliOdyssey and Lindsey Fitzharris.
- •Viral moments included a post about cat paw prints on a 15th-century Croatian manuscript and a 2018 spike from a 17th-century food post leading to an RNZ interview.
- •By the late 2010s Breen was shifting focus to his first book, and he now appeals for support on Res Obscura’s 15th anniversary.