Ha. I was about to write an identical blog post. Must be zeitgeist.
Medium is a poor choice for blogging
141–150 of 396 posts
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#142Sometimes 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…
"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: " Don't be surprised if someone has this "idea" soon and makes a killing with it. A lot of people seem to get tired with the current stream of "innovation" that makes the web slowe…
> Don't be surprised if someone has this "idea" soon and makes a killing with it.
Let's change the world. You can find my contact details in my bio[1, 2, 3].
[1] please note that by e-mailing me you are agreeing to my privacy policy which states that all e-mails may be read by me
[2] your IP address will be logged and tracked by both your ISP and Hacker News when you click the link to my bio
[3] [modal] this isn't actually anything, I just wanted to put something in your face [ yes ] [ yes ]
[4] alert('ha! gotcha! there's another one!')
edit: [5] would you like to sign up to my newsletter? [ no ] (there isn't one)
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#143No site has perfect UX, but some of these complaints don't seem true, e.g.: > No, those do not go away as you scroll. They literally (yes, literally) take up 25% of your vertical space On my computer the bars do go away the instant I scroll down (Chrome on a Mac, and logged-in, not sure if those matter), and 25% is a made-up exaggerated number for a window the author has made much shorter than any reasonable person w…
Here's what I get opening the post with a landscape iphone: https://imgur.com/a/ywJtaCn (that's after I dismissed the cookie warning popover)
Neither bar disappears when I scroll down. You can test this with Chrome dev tools and see the same thing.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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...
Our data doesn't support that. Most of our traffic comes from hackernews, reddit and similar. However because our blog is too niche? https://medium.com/@buckaroo.pm
You’re discounting the security/authority that “medium.com” brings over a random domain name. You might get less traffic from HN and Reddit if you weren’t on Medium.
Edit: just because a few people (myself included) have a negative reaction to a Medium link doesn’t change the fact that many Medium links are upvoted on HN.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#145It'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…
Netlify maintains a handy list of the bajillion Static Site Generators: https://www.staticgen.com
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#146Virtue signaling hippster sheeple use medium.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#147Sometimes 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/
The total lack of styling makes it almost unreadable. Even if you resize the window to get a sane page width the lack of margins makes it uncomfortable to read.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#148It'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...
Do many people browse Medium like this? I read a decent number of posts there, but only because someone sends me a link or shared it on another platform.
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our data doesn't support that. Most of our traffic comes from hackernews, reddit and similar. However because our blog is too niche? https://medium.com/@buckaroo.pm
You’re discounting the security/authority that “medium.com” brings over a random domain name. You might get less traffic from HN and Reddit if you weren’t on Medium. Edit: just because a few people (myself included) have a negative reaction to a Medium link doesn’t change the fact that many Medium links are upvoted on HN.
good point!
Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging
#150Most of the popular online services have screwed up their interface.
I think it started with Digg. It was once a loved website. The screwed up the interface and everyone ran to Reddit.
Now Reddit has screwed up their interface too.
We all used to love Google for its simple and elegant web interfaces. Look at what a mess GMail is now.
If there is anything that more than 10 years of Web 2.0 teaches us, it is that once we host our content on another company's service, we are at the mercy of that company. They can take our content and serve it over absolute crap interface providing an absolute crap experience to our readers whenever they want to. They are never going to care about the presentation of the content the way the original author might. So I think it is time to take back control and host your own blogs. I know not everyone wants to buy a domain name, buy a VPS, set things up, and keep a blog running. And no, GitHub Pages, is not a solution. GitHub Pages is great today but if there is anything that more than 10 years of Web 2.0 teaches us, it is ... Do you see my point?
So as technologists, we need to think how we can make it easier so that anyone (from young kids to the suits type) can setup their blogs and publish content with ease. Any interesting solutions? Any takers?