6 ms·

We're mostly developers here and Dave (the author) is in fact one of my personal development heroes, and while it pains me I think we're all mostly missing the

We're mostly developers here and Dave (the author) is in fact one of my personal development heroes, and while it pains me I think we're all mostly missing the point. It's easy to look at a single Medium post and think: I could throw this together with Jekyll and put it on S3 with a custom domain in about 10 minutes. What that _misses_ is that there is a legit community that has grown up around Medium that honestly enjoys reading articles. It's long form Twitter, the community and following of each author and publication are inextricably linked with greater site. You can't replace Twitter with a static site of posts limited to 140 characters for all the same reasons you can't replace Medium so easily. I find it maddening. I wish we were all still using RSS + Google Reader, but if a prominent a voice as DHH can get some wild multiplier of people reading his words if he types them into the box on Medium instead of onto their very well established blog, what chance do the rest of us have? https://m.signalvnoise.com/signal-v-noise-moves-to-medium-c8083ce19686#.jgjbrsfji https://m.signalvnoise.com/signal-v-noise-moves-to-medium-c8...

ckrailo 10y ago
Need something that's like Medium + Reddit. Medium could do for blog posts what Reddit did for links.
rtpg 10y ago
totally this. Medium is a community, not blog software. The blogging software is a nice plus though. It looks better than 90% of what's out there. It's hosting your content too, so no dealing with CDNs. Lots of goodies. Besides, there's a higher likelihood of Medium being alive longer than most blogs this writing would otherwise have gone onto. I wonder if Obama is worried about letting Science host his blog post about climate change instead of setting it up himself.
- et-al 10y ago
  > Besides, there's a higher likelihood of Medium being alive longer than most blogs this writing would otherwise have gone onto. Beg to differ on this note. I can see Medium closing up shop in 5 years like GeoCities, whereas you'll still Wordpress, if not self-hosted Wordpress blogs, well into the 2020s. The latter will still look ugly, but the content will still be there. Generalising here, but the people writing content on Medium prioritise exposure over longevity. Whereas the people still using Blogspot/Wordpress probably care more about controlling their own content and don't necessarily care about things like mentions, top highlights, or nice UIs. And if Blogspot/Wordpress do shut down, the latter would put up much more of an uproar over the Medium users, who'd probably just jump to the next platform. Ideally, Medium would partner with the Internet Archive to preserve its content.
  - aytekin 10y ago
    Medium let's you download all your content and they support custom domains. So, if they close shop it shouldn't be a big deal to switch to another platform.
sharpercoder 10y ago
This community thing may be the case, it doen't bring in any dollars. At least not at any signifcant scale to continue developing the platform. What the world needs is an easy to use web publisher, the Microsoft Word for the Web. Sure, we can type text and publish that. We can't however add in math formula's, pictures, excel sheet (parts), word document links, slideshows anything digital really, with "unexpected simplicity and ease". There's always pain involved, and I know individuals and companies are willing to pay heavily if these problems are solved in an online publishing tool. The community is now just there to generate critical mass for adoption, and used as highly critical feedback userbase.
- femto 10y ago
  Amaya might be of interest. https://www.w3.org/Amaya/ https://www.w3.org/Amaya/ It's the W3C's reference browser implementation, with equal emphasis on creation and viewing. To quote: "Amaya is a Web editor, i.e. a tool used to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium." Last time I tried it (several years ago), it would regularly crash, but it's enough to open your eyes as to what might be. --- Edit: I should add a further quote: "It's development is stopped." Whilst it's not realistic to use Amaya, it would be great if its model inspired others.
  - mrkgnao 10y ago
    Wasn't there some kind of static sites-on-decentralized Internet thing on HN a few weeks back along fairly similar lines?
- pjc50 10y ago
  > Microsoft Word for the Web Once upon a time you could literally publish from Word onto the web with Frontpage. The results were awful. I think Wordpress has taken the torch of easily usable web publisher. Or Facebook.

ckrailo 10y ago

Need something that's like Medium + Reddit. Medium could do for blog posts what Reddit did for links.

rtpg 10y ago

totally this. Medium is a community, not blog software. The blogging software is a nice plus though. It looks better than 90% of what's out there. It's hosting your content too, so no dealing with CDNs. Lots of goodies. Besides, there's a higher likelihood of Medium being alive longer than most blogs this writing would otherwise have gone onto. I wonder if Obama is worried about letting Science host his blog post about climate change instead of setting it up himself.

et-al 10y ago
> Besides, there's a higher likelihood of Medium being alive longer than most blogs this writing would otherwise have gone onto. Beg to differ on this note. I can see Medium closing up shop in 5 years like GeoCities, whereas you'll still Wordpress, if not self-hosted Wordpress blogs, well into the 2020s. The latter will still look ugly, but the content will still be there. Generalising here, but the people writing content on Medium prioritise exposure over longevity. Whereas the people still using Blogspot/Wordpress probably care more about controlling their own content and don't necessarily care about things like mentions, top highlights, or nice UIs. And if Blogspot/Wordpress do shut down, the latter would put up much more of an uproar over the Medium users, who'd probably just jump to the next platform. Ideally, Medium would partner with the Internet Archive to preserve its content.
- aytekin 10y ago
  Medium let's you download all your content and they support custom domains. So, if they close shop it shouldn't be a big deal to switch to another platform.

sharpercoder 10y ago

This community thing may be the case, it doen't bring in any dollars. At least not at any signifcant scale to continue developing the platform. What the world needs is an easy to use web publisher, the Microsoft Word for the Web. Sure, we can type text and publish that. We can't however add in math formula's, pictures, excel sheet (parts), word document links, slideshows anything digital really, with "unexpected simplicity and ease". There's always pain involved, and I know individuals and companies are willing to pay heavily if these problems are solved in an online publishing tool. The community is now just there to generate critical mass for adoption, and used as highly critical feedback userbase.

femto 10y ago
Amaya might be of interest. https://www.w3.org/Amaya/ https://www.w3.org/Amaya/ It's the W3C's reference browser implementation, with equal emphasis on creation and viewing. To quote: "Amaya is a Web editor, i.e. a tool used to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are seamlessly integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. This follows the original vision of the Web as a space for collaboration and not just a one-way publishing medium." Last time I tried it (several years ago), it would regularly crash, but it's enough to open your eyes as to what might be. --- Edit: I should add a further quote: "It's development is stopped." Whilst it's not realistic to use Amaya, it would be great if its model inspired others.
- mrkgnao 10y ago
  Wasn't there some kind of static sites-on-decentralized Internet thing on HN a few weeks back along fairly similar lines?
pjc50 10y ago
> Microsoft Word for the Web Once upon a time you could literally publish from Word onto the web with Frontpage. The results were awful. I think Wordpress has taken the torch of easily usable web publisher. Or Facebook.