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Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

blog.elementary.io

71–80 of 136 posts

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#71
post #32

You know what's creepy ? "You read a lot. We like that." Or install our mobile app and get more content, or signup and get more content we figured with our fancy algorithm for you. Here's the thing, Medium never worked for me. I had over ~300 followers and if I published something none of them would see it, no reaction, no visit, no read at all and I repeated the same thing over and over again with no luck. I'd only…

but they even can't handle singups correctly if you have 2 google accounts in one browser - show them correctly, you select one, it redirects, and it's still not authenticated...

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#73

My problem with Jekyll (or other static generators) is that it's not as straightforward as anything with a web gui, like wordpress or ghost (or medium or tumblr or...). You still need to handle things manually (e.g. the yaml front matter), the preview is not "out of the box", different plugins/extensions may add unpredictable behaviour, you need to setup a build/deploy pipeline, etc. - the experience is just not stre…

A good compromise is something like Netlify CMS[0], which adds a GUI on top of a static site generator so you can write posts through a web interface. AFAIK it works with a variety of static generators, so you have a few choices. Of course, you're tied to the netlify infrastructure.

[0]: https://www.netlifycms.org

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#75
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to go full "no ethical consumption under capitalism" True but one step at a time in the right direction is all it takes for change. Say if I got shafted by Expedia. I would like to add them to my "do not buy" list and have their other brands (e.g. orbitz, travelocity etc) added to the do not buy list. Could make it social so that if my sister got shafted by some company I could see that too and opt for…

Is there a way to restrict your card so you can’t buy things from certain vendors? Then you could subscribe to a list of boycotts based on which ethical questions are important to you. I’m not sure how else to keep track of everything you want to vote-with-your-wallet against.

Monzo API might make this possible....

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#76

Yeah, so basically modals, banners, reminders to use the app etc. (vide https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2019/06/... ) are new toolbars of the late 2010s ( http://i.imgur.com/X7ipc.png ). I don't like the direction where the Web is currently heading. Shutting down open APIs, forcing users to use the one and only official app (Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Reddit's starting to do so more and more),…

Improve existing platforms: Wordpress, Ghost, etc. There's none of that nonsense on those open source platforms. An aside: Tumblr isn't hostile like Medium is. At least not last I used it. I prefer seeing Tumblr to medium you can really just do any kind of blog you want whether it's a meme feed, or some serious blogging. Edit: Forgot to add, also Tumblr lets you optionally advertise to non-logged in users to join Tum…

Haven’t you noticed a glaring difference between these platforms, namely the fact that Wordpress and Ghost have a completely different business model and basically no social layer to distribute the content?

That’s why they don’t have such problems – but this is also they reason most people don’t care about them.

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#77

Yeah, so basically modals, banners, reminders to use the app etc. (vide https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2019/06/... ) are new toolbars of the late 2010s ( http://i.imgur.com/X7ipc.png ). I don't like the direction where the Web is currently heading. Shutting down open APIs, forcing users to use the one and only official app (Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Reddit's starting to do so more and more),…

I guess you meant late 2000s? We are in the late 2010s right now!

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#79

Yeah, so basically modals, banners, reminders to use the app etc. (vide https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/cdn-origin/uploads/2019/06/... ) are new toolbars of the late 2010s ( http://i.imgur.com/X7ipc.png ). I don't like the direction where the Web is currently heading. Shutting down open APIs, forcing users to use the one and only official app (Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Reddit's starting to do so more and more),…

I think we should code around them, instead of writing comments on HN.

Me included. I previously wanted to write an elaborate comment, but I should really focus more on productive endeavors.

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#80
post #2

I always thought it odd that a team like ElementaryOS with a clearly defined "ethical code and goal" would choose Medium, which is an anti-consumer and anti-privacy company (e.g. try accessing Medium on a mobile phone with a smaller screen). Good on them for changing.

That is explained in the very first paragraph of the article (emphasis mine):

"In 2016, elementary moved to a Medium publication to host our official blog. At the time, Medium was touted as a simple, clean, and reader-focused host for writers. They supported custom domains, a robust API, RSS, rich formatting, and great image embedding. We had been largely happy with the experience—as were our readers—but something changed in 2017."

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