So why the hell did you use it to write this article, then?
I wrote a tool which converts your Medium blog into a Jekyll blog, for publishers hoping to migrate:
Medium is a poor choice for blogging
11–20 of 396 posts
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#12What would be a good alternative ?
After way too many years of running my own web server, about half the time writing raw HTML or Markdown, I started using https://www.silvrback.com/ a while ago. It has a pretty nice editor with special consideration for posts including code or mathematical formulae, and without most of the warts the OP mentions at Medium. Might not be for everyone, but I find it quite pleasant.
Non-disclosure: I have no relationship with Silvrback other than as a plain old customer.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#13What would be a good alternative ?
I don’t know if it’s a good alternative, but I blog on GitHub using GitHub Pages. It’s a minimalist experience: I use Markdown (optional), and I have my own domain (critical!)
If they ever shutter the service, it is very easy to generate all the HTML pages with Jekyll, and then throw them up on a static host.
Every single one of Medium’s discoverability and traffic benefits feel like Faustian bargains to me, so I am not going there.
The last time I experimented with publishing in a walled garden was Posterous, mostly because they were a YCombinator startup at a time when that wasn’t some kind of golden ticket, and I wanted to make a gesture of support for them and for YCombinator.
Posterous shuttered, and I republished my work using GitHub Pages, but all the old urls broke, and I’m never doing that again.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#14What would be a good alternative ?
Ghost (https://ghost.org/) is pretty nice. You can host it yourself or pay them to host it for you, either way there is no nag screen.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#15Pretty convincing. I didn't notice how bad medium was since I'm always logged in and have an ad-blocker. I also don't think they do much in terms of discovery. My blog [0] has about 370 followers and my posts only get about 10 - 20 views unless I put them on social media. Then they'll get between 100 and 10k+. Does anyone have experience with an alternative platform? Preferably free and hosted. [0] https://medium.com…
Github Pages + something like disqus if you need comments? Add in a simple enough theme like http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/, and that'll probably do the job.
The main downside is having to use social media for discovery, but in that regard it doesn't sound too much worse than medium by your reckoning. You can even use your own domain.
Myself, I'm using a VPS (5€ a month, but 10€ a year goes to the OpenBSD foundation) to host some static html (generated from markdown), and have done away with comments entirely. (The VPS isn't just for that blog. I'm serving multiple domains from it and hosting my own fossil repos there as well)
It's obviously not for everyone, but maybe it'd suit you.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#16Disabling JavaScript and cookies for medium.com domain, and a bunch of uBlock rules [1] should do the job [1] Here's mine: medium.com##.metabar medium.com##.js-stickyFooter medium.com##.js-postAttributionFooterContainer medium.com##.js-postActionsFooter .buttonSet medium.com##.button--follow
Wow, this is great. Thanks for sharing!
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#17Outline.com strips away all the distraction.
Although in this case it duplicates all the images somehow: https://outline.com/uZc4XF
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#18What would be a good alternative ?
I don’t know if it’s a good alternative, but I blog on GitHub using GitHub Pages. It’s a minimalist experience: I use Markdown (optional), and I have my own domain (critical!) If they ever shutter the service, it is very easy to generate all the HTML pages with Jekyll, and then throw them up on a static host. Every single one of Medium’s discoverability and traffic benefits feel like Faustian bargains to me, so I am…
I'm curious as to why you say it's 'critical' to have your own domain on Github pages? Is it to do with search engine listings?
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#19PostHaven is $5/month, but it is much better than medium. They add a tiny little chip with the logo and get out of the way.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#20In any case, it is stupid to give one platform all the power (see YouTube). Internet should be decentralized.