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Medium is a poor choice for blogging

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Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#111

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

msadowski wrote: post #96

I started modestly blogging on Medium in 2016. The same year I moved away from the platform to a Github Pages + Jekyll combo ( https://msadowski.github.io/ ). I'd never go back to hosting my content on external platform.

You and me both. Now they support custom domains and HTTPS it's an even easier decision. Authoring posts in plain text and then a commit and a push to put it live (just a click of a button in a half decent editor).

According to most of the posts in this thread this is "too complicated" for your average blogger, apparently.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#112

Post by vlaaad »

tpaschalis wrote: post #83
esotericn wrote: post #61

Sometimes I read articles like this and think I'm past it. It's like the whole web has turned in to this pool of mud and no-one realises what it was like before. A blog is a text file on a screen. There's really no need to do it on a proprietary system, you can literally upload a text file to your own host, but if you can't be bothered, somewhere like GitHub Pages. You want an image? Here's a tag: If the idea is that…

Yes, this a thousand times. One example, Dan Luu [1] gets this absolutely right . His blog would probably look similar on Lynx, or any text-only browser, yet is better than 99.99% of stuff "out there". [1] https://danluu.com/

It's funny that it still has tracking and is painful to read on the desktop because of full-width lines of text.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#113

Post by village-idiot »

tpaschalis wrote: post #33

It's funny, because some years ago when Medium blogs were starting to be posted left and right, people were praising the interface, and nobody listened to the few who objected. Now, we need all kinds of tricks, add-ons and blocks to just read five-minute posts during our commute. It's 2018, and there are a gazillion ways to get yourself in control of your stuff. The next free framework that comes, which promises a cl…

I've been using octopress for years. Too simple to consider changing it out for anything else.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#114

Post by applecrazy »

elcomet wrote: post #75
mockingbirdy wrote: post #25

Nice, everyone is posting their favourite CMS, again. I use https://getgrav.org because I like flat-file CMS. Maybe there are some photographers here: http://koken.me (CMS for photographers). Another idea: Use a static page generator and Amazon's S3 with this neat blackhat trick - https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/how-one-website-exploited-... (mildly joking). OT: I pay 0.19$/month for my blog hosting including domai…

What does flat-like means here? Are they talking about the design (flat) ?

It’s referring to how posts are stored serverside. CMS software such as Drupal, Wordpress, etc. store posts in a database. A flat-file CMS stores posts in a file, making editing and creating posts easier. Also saves on the hassle of securing an admin dashboard.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#115

Post by wild_preference »

aaaaaaaaaab wrote: post #90
RobGav wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a great solution Publii - works like WordPress but generated static files. Great tool for beginners or developers. https://getpublii.com

Come on man, 100% of your posts is shilling for Publii.

They really are. Does HN not do anything against accounts that so obviously advertise?

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#116

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

lookforlight wrote: post #63
criddell wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some benefits to centralization. For example, if I want to watch a movie or TV show, I have to look for it on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, HBO, and my cable box. I wish I could subscribe to a single mega-service that just covered everything.

I wonder if it would be possible to create a service (or if one already exist) where you could select which streaming sites you are subscribed to, and the service could search all those sites for the movie you want to watch, then redirect you to that site. Because it's hard to remember or to know which site has which movies/TV shows.

Android TV has a unified search if you have multiple apps installed. It works very well - and on my SHIELD, highlights shows from multiple apps on the home screen with proper thumbnails etc.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#117

Post by coldtea »

tpaschalis wrote: post #33

It's funny, because some years ago when Medium blogs were starting to be posted left and right, people were praising the interface, and nobody listened to the few who objected. Now, we need all kinds of tricks, add-ons and blocks to just read five-minute posts during our commute. It's 2018, and there are a gazillion ways to get yourself in control of your stuff. The next free framework that comes, which promises a cl…

>It's 2018, and there are a gazillion ways to get yourself in control of your stuff.

But zero ways to get people to read it. I only read his post because it's on HN. And I read Medium stuff regularly on Medium.

The chances of most people discovering some random blog? Not so much. Whereas Medium has concentrated eyeballs and knows their preferences to serve them stuff that's close to their tastes...

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#118

Post by petetnt »

tpaschalis wrote: post #83
esotericn wrote: post #61

Sometimes I read articles like this and think I'm past it. It's like the whole web has turned in to this pool of mud and no-one realises what it was like before. A blog is a text file on a screen. There's really no need to do it on a proprietary system, you can literally upload a text file to your own host, but if you can't be bothered, somewhere like GitHub Pages. You want an image? Here's a tag: If the idea is that…

Yes, this a thousand times. One example, Dan Luu [1] gets this absolutely right . His blog would probably look similar on Lynx, or any text-only browser, yet is better than 99.99% of stuff "out there". [1] https://danluu.com/

On my regular browser size this looks something like this [1], which is borderline unreadable due to the width alone. Sure I can resize the browser at least, but even then I am finding the posts hard to read due to the font-size, letter spacing and line-height. The browser default styles did work perfectly in the 90's, but they didn't evolve when the devices use to browse the pages did. And yes, you can always use Lynx, adjust the styles myself or use a CRT display, but I most likely won't bother.

That said I am not defending current state of Medium.

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/VXestU1.png

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#119

Post by esotericn »

vlaaad wrote: post #112
tpaschalis wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this a thousand times. One example, Dan Luu [1] gets this absolutely right . His blog would probably look similar on Lynx, or any text-only browser, yet is better than 99.99% of stuff "out there". [1] https://danluu.com/

It's funny that it still has tracking and is painful to read on the desktop because of full-width lines of text.

On the latter point, just resize the browser window.

Pow, you have a choice about how wide the lines are.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#120

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

wongmjane wrote: post #7

Disabling 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

Firefox's Reader view works brilliantly on Medium FWIW.
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