Why ElementaryOS Left Medium • Hacker News Board

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#81

Post by WBrad » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:32 PM UTC

agluszak wrote: post #25

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 believe the only way to combat this as users is to use agnostic tools. When a website, program or other service wants to force you to use a specific thing to access them just view in a web browser with ad/script blocking or choose to not view it at all if that isn't an option.

As programmers we can refuse to implement such nagware. There's not much worker solidarity in our field so quitting is usually the only option if the company has made up their mind on the matter.

Overall I don't believe it can be stopped at this point. This process is called privatizing the commons and it will continue to happen to every common good as long as capitalism is the system which we work under.

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#82

Post by zubspace » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:35 PM UTC

e_proxus wrote: post #68

zubspace wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried Hugo before but came to the same conclusion. The simplicity draw me into trying it, but in my opinion the solution is not streamlined. That's why i finally settled for a Flat File CMS [1], in my case Grav [2]. Like with hugo you get total control. And with most of them you get a single web interface to administrate the site, manage extensions and write blog entries. And you still have the possibility to git p…

I would love something with a UI like Grav to edit and create my site, but with a static web page export to publish it. I'm fine with running the UI only locally on my computer so even a desktop app would be fine.

There's a plugin [1] for that, but I haven't used it before. It creates plain old html files.

[1] https://github.com/BarryMode/grav-plugin-blackhole

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#83

Post by klarstrup » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:37 PM UTC

WBrad wrote: post #81

agluszak wrote: post #25

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 believe the only way to combat this as users is to use agnostic tools. When a website, program or other service wants to force you to use a specific thing to access them just view in a web browser with ad/script blocking or choose to not view it at all if that isn't an option. As programmers we can refuse to implement such nagware. There's not much worker solidarity in our field so quitting is usually the only opti…

Your point on worker solidarity got me thinking. In some countries(such as mine) we have decent unionization rates for IT workers, would it be a good idea to have such ethical issues encoded into the union lines?

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#84

Post by lookingsideways » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:38 PM UTC

e_proxus wrote: post #69

lookingsideways wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked into doing just that? There are a number of options and more arriving all the time. https://ghost.org/docs/api/v2/gatsby/ https://ghost.org/docs/api/v2/eleventy/ https://ghost.org/integrations/netlify/

It feels a bit overkill to pay $29 per month just for a hosted blog UI. And if you're running Ghost yourself on a server or on your computer, it's not really a static site anymore.

From the OP:

> Of course I'd like a static website for deploying, but I'd love a web gui which acts as a frontend for such generators.

If you want such a gui on your local machine you're not much more than a few commands away

  npm i -g ghost-cli
  ghost install local

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#85

Post by yoz-y » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:38 PM UTC

wastedhours wrote: post #59

yoz-y wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I must say I don't get what unique value proposition Medium think they have that allows them to treat both publishers and readers like crap. My take is that they had a unique value proposition at the beginning: "YouTube for text: audience and authors all at the same place, with recommendations and unified comment platform". But then it became apparent that they will not magically become profitable or bought, so the…

The problem is, with a lot of companies trying to be "YouTube for X", they left out the monetisation stories. The reason a lot of creators have bought into YouTube is 1) it's still expensive to host video elsewhere 2) there's constant noise around the earning potential (as misguided as it might be to listen to it). Medium doesn't have the depth of content to become a destination wholly in and of itself as they don't…

I wonder if they could have started as a sort of readability/patreon style platform for text without taking any investment and build just enough audience to become profitable. I imagine that running their servers should not be massively expensive, especially if they scaled up slowly.

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#86

Post by 013a » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:45 PM UTC

javajosh wrote: post #45

agluszak wrote: post #25

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),…

Well, the fundamental problem is that Capital comes in and builds a really great Thing, a Thing that may not have been built without Capital, but then Capital wants a Return, which causes the Thing to decay. The thing Hackers can do, as in the OPs article, is to salvage the good ideas that the initial efforts of Capital managed to prove, and leave out the rest. This won't work for individuals, in general, because wri…

I like to look at it this way: bad ideas, or bad executions of good ideas, or bad fits for VC, that somehow get funding and die before going public, or even better, get purchased by some bloated old company with too much money; the end result is a wealth transfer from the ultra-wealthy to the middle class. Paychecks get paid out. Stock options liquidate for something usually. Services get purchased to support the business even though they may not be worth supporting.

Right now, the VCs behind Medium are doing the world an amazing service. They're going to see almost no return on investment, but why would any of us "normal people" care about that? Its their money they're wasting. They're paying employees, probably a great wage. Probably providing a ton of benefits to attract talent, including lots of options, great insurance, snacks in the office, unlimited PTO. They're producing a product that is actively teaching competitors like write.as and ghost what Not To Do. I'd bet even most of their employees hate the direction they're going, which means they're learning as well.

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#87

Post by WBrad » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:46 PM UTC

klarstrup wrote: post #83

WBrad wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the only way to combat this as users is to use agnostic tools. When a website, program or other service wants to force you to use a specific thing to access them just view in a web browser with ad/script blocking or choose to not view it at all if that isn't an option. As programmers we can refuse to implement such nagware. There's not much worker solidarity in our field so quitting is usually the only opti…

Your point on worker solidarity got me thinking. In some countries(such as mine) we have decent unionization rates for IT workers, would it be a good idea to have such ethical issues encoded into the union lines?

Absolutely. If you feel you are creating a product that has a negative impact on the people you are serving you should do something about it. Unions can greatly benefit society should they choose to.

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#88

Post by DavidDarnes » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:48 PM UTC

alanfranz wrote: post #10

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…

As much as I love Jekyll, I have to agree with your points. Jekyll isn't very accessible with it's specific front matter and file naming convention. However I don't think Jekyll will ever have a proper GUI.

You can have the best of both worlds though. You can use gulp.js to build Jekyll friendly files coming from Ghost using the Ghost Content API: https://david.darn.es/tutorial/2019/08/11/use-ghost-with-jek...

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#89

Post by agluszak » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:48 PM UTC

hawski wrote: post #79

agluszak wrote: post #25

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.

To be honest, I find writing comments and discussing on this topic very important. Maybe on HN people are aware of such practices and know how to mitigate them, but the general public need to be educated, otherwise they will be completely helpless and at the mercy of corporations relentlessly trying to "monetize" them.

Re: Why ElementaryOS Left Medium

#90

Post by _ks3u » Tue, Aug 20, 2019, 1:48 PM UTC

alanfranz wrote: post #10

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…

I used Jekyll for a long time before I got tired of it for the exact reason you mentioned. I used write.as for a while until I found rwtxt (https://github.com/schollz/rwtxt). You could self host if needed.

It's extremely minimal, but I found that it's perfect for my needs. Sample blog: [link redacted]