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Medium is a poor choice for blogging

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Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#301

Post by spunker540 »

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…

My workplace blocks your site because it has not yet been categorized. Medium on the other hand works just fine.

I'm not saying that's right, but it is something to consider!

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#302

Post by [deleted] »

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/

[deleted]

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#303

Post by aylmao »

jypepin wrote: post #93

I'm amazed at how many people here say that people should simply use a static site generator instead of wordpress or medium. Does anyone else understand that probably 99% of Medium traffic (both reader and writer) don't even understand those words and would have no idea even where to begin? Most of them probably had trouble just signing up on Medium and already forgot their passwords. This is where Medium wins. It lo…

> I'm amazed at how many people here say that people should simply use a static site generator instead of wordpress or medium.

I don't think the author (or the people writing those comments) are claiming that medium is going to go bankrupt vs static sites.

Most people commenting here probably could set up a static site if they wanted, and the author simply hopes people use something else.

Of course medium is gonna continue to thrive on people who think it's the best option, but this is a plea for people who can and know how to do better.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#304

Post by dagoat »

Digit-Al wrote: post #277
alanh wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He took it way too far. Long lines are unreadable and 50 more bytes of CSS would fix it. I humbly submit my own blog as being pretty darn readable without bloat. It’s responsive and simple. https://alanhogan.com Edit: Here’s a relevant article: The problem with new blogging platforms https://alanhogan.com/the-problem-with-new-blog-platforms

I mostly like your design, a nice clean look, but I have a couple of comments and a suggestion that you are free to ignore completely. Firstly, I hate sites that use such a narrow column on the screen. The wall of text from the previous post is obviously too much and is far too difficult to read and keep track of where you are, but using only a third of the screen seem far too little. I'm sure you could double the wi…

Disagree slightly on the width. Perhaps a little wider, but I don't hate it. On the font size: Home page gets it, actual posts the font size is far too small IMO

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#305

Post by saagarjha »

esotericn wrote: post #119
vlaaad wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I literally cannot do this on a mobile device.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#306

Post by KajMagnus »

djhworld wrote: post #264

I think medium has some cool features like the "claps", comment boxes and story analytics. There's a lot of stuff that that just works out of the box However I really dislike syndicating my blog to it because the formatting is so limited. You cannot do bullet point lists for example, which makes it a huge pain having to tinker with your existing post to reformat it for medium. Nowadays I just syndicate an introductio…

Yes they have this claps feature. Isn't it weird, like, cheating, that one can clap 50 times for the same story?

I'm wondering if Medium in this way fools people into thinking their / others stories are more popular, than what they actually are? And in that way Medium thinks Medium will get more traction? Or why allow that many claps and not show # clappers?

I clapped 50 times for this story "Medium is a poor choice for blogging".

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#307

Post by saagarjha »

coldtea wrote: post #124
briandear wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is anyone aware that using code formatting for non-code is extremely annoying because, on mobile, it’s almost impossible to read because of the necessity to side scroll.

That's a HN CSS problem, not a problem of code formatting. They should fix it. Meanwhile, on mobile one can use one of the 10s of HN client apps.

The point of the “code” formatting is so that the text doesn’t wrap.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#308

Post by joeax »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #256
int0x80 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1- Host your blog. 2- Write post. 3- Post to multiple aggregators (HN, reddit, etc) It can even be made (semi)automatic.

Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere https://indieweb.org/POSSE

Thanks! This is what I had in mind.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#309

Post by movedx »

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 agree with the static hosting side of things. However that often requires more technical know-how such as the command-line, Git, and potentially other advanced topics.

Instead I recommend people buy a domain, create a DigitalOcean account, have DigitalOcean manage it for them, and then create a single $10/month Droplet with their one-click deployment of Ghost. Now you have your markdown files and a self-hosted, beautiful blog.

That being said I am a "power user", so I use Hugo and Netlify, but there are deeper requirements to make that work. I would love to see a one-click deployment of a Netlify based blog.

Re: Medium is a poor choice for blogging

#310

Post by saagarjha »

superkuh wrote: post #263
amelius wrote: post #20

In any case, it is stupid to give one platform all the power (see YouTube). Internet should be decentralized.

Yup. These days most people have fast connections. Hosting your personal website from your home should be the default. Huge amount of storage, no changing terms of service, no perverse profit incentives, no third party doctorine problems, no deplatforming problems, and it cuts the gordian knot of deciding what is allowed and what isn't. Then people can associate however they want.

> Hosting your personal website from your home should be the default.

Very few ISPs will hand you a static IP necessary for this to work.

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