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A Platform and Blogging Tool, Medium Charms Writers

nytimes.com

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Re: A Platform and Blogging Tool, Medium Charms Writers

#11

Post by 80 »

skman wrote: post #5
minimaxir wrote: post #2

I have two primary issues with Medium: 1) It's essentially halo-effect-as-a-service. People assume that since it's on Medium, it'll be a high-quality of work, but more often than not, Medium posts lie on the pseudo part of pseudointellectual. Which leads into... 2) Complete lack of any personal branding. Not even a username in the URL. Yes, it keeps things simple, but it dramatically reduces the personal benefit from…

I agree, especially with #2. In fact, I explain why I think Medium is actually a magazine , not a service (like Svbtle, Blogger, Wordpress.com) in this post: http://thetypist.com/329/medium-magazine/ "One shouldn’t compare Medium with services like WordPress.com because, while successfully touted as such, Medium isn’t a service. It’s a magazine. The only “service” in Medium is the service that (mostly) unpaid writers…

It's a content factory - the term 'playbor' seems appropriate. Just glossy and pretty enough that it distracts people from the fact they're working for this centralized for-profit entity for free.

Re: A Platform and Blogging Tool, Medium Charms Writers

#12

Post by k-mcgrady »

aspidistra wrote: post #10

It's one thing to charm writers. But what about charming readers, too? As a reader I am not charmed. I find it all too similar and slick. It is "designed" to within an inch of its life. The text and pictures don't seemed anchored to anything and just seem to float there on the page. This deprives them of any weight. It makes everything feel pompous or grandiose. I agree with a lot of what is said here: http://www.the…

I find it a great site to read specifically because of the design. No clutter, just the text I want to read. The text is clear and the site works nicely on any screen size.

As for the 'reading time' - that's one of my favourite things on the site. I can quickly look at a post and decide whether I have time to read it now I whether I should bookmark it for later.

Re: A Platform and Blogging Tool, Medium Charms Writers

#13

Post by k-mcgrady »

Magi604 wrote: post #4

I dislike the way comments are handled on Medium. Why can't they just appear at the bottom like every other site out there? Also, it's tedious to have to open up every little mini comment thread. I just want to use my wheel mouse to scroll through the comments. Some good articles come from Medium every now and then, and they would benefit from some discussion around them. But I feel like the way the comments are hand…

>> "I dislike the way comments are handled on Medium. Why can't they just appear at the bottom like every other site out there?"

I prefer it. If it don't want to look at them they are hidden. If I read a paragraph and am interested in what other people think I can see the comments directly referencing it. I think it also reduces stupid comments. If it looks like you a referencing something I feel like you'll make a more relevant comment.

Re: A Platform and Blogging Tool, Medium Charms Writers

#14

Post by jscheel »

jeswin wrote: post #6

It is certainly true that Medium isn't for all use cases; and I don't think they have claimed otherwise. For more serious bloggers or writers, it is more of a marketing tool. And they place no value in comments, which looks more like a deliberate design decision. However, I like Medium because they have broken new ground in UI design (for writing especially). It was the app that convinced me that you don't really nee…

Using contenteditable was an important decision for us at populr.me. We've put a lot of work into making the pages you create look the same in the editor as they do when published. Definitely difficult at times, but it is totally worth it.

Re: A Platform and Blogging Tool, Medium Charms Writers

#16

Post by angrymouse »

I gave Medium a spin the other day, it was buggy, crashed a lot and forgot what I had written after it recovered. I am sure I encountered it on a bad day, but I didn't find the writing experience particularly amazing and the lack of personal branding means that it is something that I won't bother with again.

I also think the lack of mobile editing support is a bad strategy (at time of sign-up this was so). I get that people writing articles on Mobile may have the odd "sprelling" error and typo problem but often blog posts come to me on mobile and if I don't get the meat down while on my mobile I just won't write the thing (even if I publish it on my laptop/desktop... I want to be able to create a draft on mobile).

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