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Can we all stop using Medium now?

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Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#241

Post by TeMPOraL »

john-radio wrote: post #118
Semaphor wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I see a "Pardon the Interruption" notice every time I want to read something https://makemediumreadable.com/ I stopped minding medium (as a reader) since installing that.

I'm glad this exists, and very impressed with how front-and-center their source code is, but I decided a while ago that I'm not installing random add-ons unless I have a very high level of trust in their integrity.

This looks mostly like CSS hack (even the little bit of JS there seems to mainly query the DOM and apply styles). Such things should IMO be packaged as userstyle files. I think people need to be reminded of the concept of userstyles, and how useful they are to remove the garbage web designers produce.

Stylus is a godsend: https://github.com/openstyles/stylus. Sad thing is, this used to be a built-in browser feature.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#242

Post by HeavyStorm »

ralphstodomingo wrote: post #190
fiala__ wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with YouTube specifically, is that while blog posts are easy to host on pretty much anything that has a CPU, self-hosting videos at scale is essentially impossible. So while Medium only added a marginal amount of convenience for your average blogger, YouTube straight up enabled the kind of content it hosts.

This. And even if you manage to somehow self-host your videos, YouTube is also a discovery service for these videos. Think about how many times you looked for a video on a certain topic in YouTube's search bar itself, the recommendations and the Trending tab.

Well, so is Medium. I can self host a blog but how will people find me? As the OP said, Medium ranks well.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#243

Post by ralphstodomingo »

HeavyStorm wrote: post #242
ralphstodomingo wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. And even if you manage to somehow self-host your videos, YouTube is also a discovery service for these videos. Think about how many times you looked for a video on a certain topic in YouTube's search bar itself, the recommendations and the Trending tab.

Well, so is Medium. I can self host a blog but how will people find me? As the OP said, Medium ranks well.

It ranks well, but you rarely go on Medium's search bar or feed. I'd usually be here in HN, or Reddit, or some aggregator, where your self-hosted content can be found.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#244

Post by MayeulC »

Jerry2 wrote: post #151
55555 wrote: post #65

I was writing on Medium because it ranks well in Google. I wrote nearly a dozen really great articles on primarily health and dietary supplement topics. After 2 months they started to rank well and were getting daily readers, as the content was really great. Then I wrote an article on a 'research chemical' and they banned my account overnight. I lost the final edited versions of all content. They did not send me a zi…

> When you write articles on Medium keep in mind you're writing on someone else's website and they don't give a damn about you. You are subject to their opinions about what is appropriate and what isn't. Same can be said about other platforms like YouTube etc. When you produce content for all these mega-platforms, you're nothing more than a sharecropper... a digital one. [0] You really have no rights and you're at th…

I thought some about this, and I am a bit afraid about "feudal lords" of some other kind:

I'm starting to self-host my content and services as I am starting to have some income (beginning of my career). However, I have to pay for a domain name, internet access, etc. I can afford to pay all of this right now, but I have no guarantees that the content will remain available in the future. The biggest unknown for me is the domain name, as it sounds much like a single point of failure: what if my registrar closes, or refuses to do business with me, or if I can't afford it anymore? Medium provides some relief against this, but not enough that I would care to use it.

How could this be "solved"?

Ideally, I could write a static page, sign it with a private key (maybe associated to a human-compatible string), and then host it in multiple places. A search engine could pick the right mirror, and interested people could choose to mirror the content. This sounds a bit similar to IPFS, but with the possibility of picking your hosting place and the content you mirror.

And to write something more about paid apps vs. add-based ones (which cropped up later in the discussion thread), when I was younder (kid/student), I was unfortunately in no position to buy paid apps (no income), nor to self host myself (I tried multiple times, but it was a pain to host even static content at the time). It seems to be getting better (github education pack, github/lab pages, etc), but I think that we as a society should think more about what is made available to kids. A free dynamic DNS and hosting service should probably be a minimal offer if you want to make them interested in tech. It could be also a good plan (though long-term) for a hosting platform to gain their trust/mindshare. Also making nice apps freely available to them.

Unfortunately, I had no e-mail address provided by my high school at the time or earlier, so I wouldn't have been able to get a github student pack (if it existed). I think that's something that should be solved at he state level.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#245

Post by PaulRobinson »

MayeulC wrote: post #244
Jerry2 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you write articles on Medium keep in mind you're writing on someone else's website and they don't give a damn about you. You are subject to their opinions about what is appropriate and what isn't. Same can be said about other platforms like YouTube etc. When you produce content for all these mega-platforms, you're nothing more than a sharecropper... a digital one. [0] You really have no rights and you're at th…

I thought some about this, and I am a bit afraid about "feudal lords" of some other kind: I'm starting to self-host my content and services as I am starting to have some income (beginning of my career). However, I have to pay for a domain name, internet access, etc. I can afford to pay all of this right now, but I have no guarantees that the content will remain available in the future. The biggest unknown for me is t…

There are specific measures in place to protect you from your registrar closing or refusing to do business with you.

If you can't afford a few dollars a year for your domain name, you likely have bigger problems. If ICANN disappears, we all have bigger problems.

Your solution is interesting, however hosting other people's content is fraught with danger. If I ran such a host, I'd assume within minutes I'd be hosting potentially illegal content. How would your system prevent that?

The stuff about kids just reminds me of geocities, TBH. There might be an appetite for something like that once again...

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#246

Post by viraptor »

MayeulC wrote: post #244
Jerry2 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you write articles on Medium keep in mind you're writing on someone else's website and they don't give a damn about you. You are subject to their opinions about what is appropriate and what isn't. Same can be said about other platforms like YouTube etc. When you produce content for all these mega-platforms, you're nothing more than a sharecropper... a digital one. [0] You really have no rights and you're at th…

I thought some about this, and I am a bit afraid about "feudal lords" of some other kind: I'm starting to self-host my content and services as I am starting to have some income (beginning of my career). However, I have to pay for a domain name, internet access, etc. I can afford to pay all of this right now, but I have no guarantees that the content will remain available in the future. The biggest unknown for me is t…

> what if my registrar closes, or refuses to do business with me, or if I can't afford it anymore

If your register closes, most likely someone will buy them out with the customers. I can't imagine a registrar going bankrupt - that would require serious skills in mismanagement.

If they refuse to do business, there's a good chance you can file a dispute with someone (depending on a country) to recover the domain. (Not 100% certain, but possible)

For affordability... just choose something cheap. If you can't afford $12 / year, you likely have bigger problems then your online services being unavailable.

But regarding better solutions - ipfs is definitely good. There's also i2p/onion if you're ok with much smaller/dedicated reach. Or use the free credits on some large provider like AWS / gcp. You can host a lot as static content on S3 for ~free.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#247

Post by znpy »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #233
srrr wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really Impossible to selfhost videos? My 5€ webhosting has 250GB storage and unlimited traffic and every decent CMS has video capabilities. I think the hosting is not the problem. But the social features that YouTube provides are not easily replaced...

Self-hosting some very niche videos? Sure. Trying to make a generally popular channel? Forget it. It's the transfer and bandwidth that are the problem. There isn't really such a thing as "unlimited transfer" (there's a hidden limit past which they'll rate-limit you, and kindly ask to stop or pay more). Moreover, once your video gets somewhat popular, you'll hit bandwidth issues. Given how popularity on the Internet s…

If you want your media to be readily available despite your limited bandwidth the answer is torrent. If you still want to have control on who does what, then you're out of luck.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#248

Post by TeMPOraL »

znpy wrote: post #247
TeMPOraL wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-hosting some very niche videos? Sure. Trying to make a generally popular channel? Forget it. It's the transfer and bandwidth that are the problem. There isn't really such a thing as "unlimited transfer" (there's a hidden limit past which they'll rate-limit you, and kindly ask to stop or pay more). Moreover, once your video gets somewhat popular, you'll hit bandwidth issues. Given how popularity on the Internet s…

If you want your media to be readily available despite your limited bandwidth the answer is torrent. If you still want to have control on who does what, then you're out of luck.

True. Unfortunately, there's another problem with p2p: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19937861.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#249

Post by teh_klev »

coldtea wrote: post #219

> When did reading stuff on the web become pay to play? At the moment authors wanted to get paid. When did somebody else's writing became a free for all? If, as you say, that [Medium] is where "all your favourite content lives" (which means you appreciate the content), then it's troubling that you don't want to pay for it. > Just so we are clear. Medium takes your content, rolls it up into a pretty SEO friendly packa…

> We've only read your blog because it was picked by an aggregator (HN)

But then I only read articles on Medium because they're picked up by an aggregator (HN). After I've read the article I rarely find any of the suggested/related articles of any interest. I never head over to Medium to find stuff to read because I find quite a lot of the content is just puff, fluff and bad writing. It's kinda like Quora, mostly uninteresting, annoying to use but has a rare gem now and again that got linked to in a news aggregator.

Re: Can we all stop using Medium now?

#250

Post by dickeytk »

reificator wrote: post #111
dickeytk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What on earth are you talking about? From the link you posted: > Stories become eligible to be part of the metered paywall if the writer selects that option in each story’s distribution setting. Medium will never meter a story without the writer’s permission. > During the publish flow, you have the opportunity to check the box to be eligible for curation review and distribution across Medium. Checking this box means…

Your second quote implies that the paywall and the partner program are separate.

Partner Program is a prerequisite for having paywalled articles.

https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018677974-About...

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