7 ms·

Why would I subscribe to Medium in the hope that it becomes some sort of real organisation, with good writing, when those already exist? Sorry, but I think I'll

Why would I subscribe to Medium in the hope that it becomes some sort of real organisation, with good writing, when those already exist? Sorry, but I think I'll just keep paying for The Guardian, The LRB, N+1, MIT Technology Review etc and patronising my local bookshops. I'm not poopooing the idea of Medium going subscription, FWIW, but this author's call to arms is a bit ridiculous.

lmm 10y ago
> Why would I subscribe to Medium in the hope that it becomes some sort of real organisation, with good writing, when those already exist? Sorry, but I think I'll just keep paying for The Guardian, The LRB, N+1, MIT Technology Review etc and patronising my local bookshops. I think I read more and better content on medium than all of those put together. (Of course there's also a huge amount of dreck on there)
- k-mcgrady 10y ago
  Any examples? I can only think of one super interesting article I've ever read on Medium whereas I'll get that at least once a week from a decent news source. Medium, in my experience, is half echo-chamber half opinion from people who have little to no idea what they're talking about.
  - lmm 10y ago
    Nothing specific springs to mind (but that's true for all those sources). Most good articles there I pick up from here or reddit or the like - the only part of medium I "follow" is War is Boring and they're pretty variable. The discovery experience on medium is pretty terrible and the front page often looks like the kind of echo chamber you're talking about.
    - criddell 10y ago
      I'm like you - I end up on Medium because of shared link. If Medium were to go away, I suspect those links would just lead to a different site. What value does Medium add?
      - lmm 10y ago
        Really nice readable design that gets out of the way. And I can know from the URL that the page I'm going to will have really nice readable design that gets out of the way. It shouldn't be hard, but so many sites manage to get it wrong.
        criddell 10y ago
        Maybe that's on reason they are struggling - more and more sites are getting it right now. I used to use reader mode in my browser all the time and I find I use rarely use it anymore.
    - k-mcgrady 10y ago
      Stuff I find linked from other places (HN/Reddit) generally tends to be interesting too. I have had a Medium account in the past and setup their daily emails with interesting stories and it was awful. Just seems like good content is few and far between which isn't great for a subscription service. Edit: This is the one Medium article I can remember really enjoying. [1] [1] https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77#.y83undr89 https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-...
- Veen 10y ago
  Really? I've never read anything on medium approaching the depth and erudition of articles in the LRB, for example. Additionally, organizations like the LRB aren't just about the writing. The selection and editing is hugely important. There may be one or two fantastic articles buried amid the thousands of self-promotional, confessional, and ill-considered pieces of tripe that fill medium, but I don't have the time or the inclination to find them.
- te_chris 10y ago
  "I think I read more and better content on medium than all of those put together." Really? Cheap date.
aaron-lebo 10y ago
Yeah, I don't understand the appeal. The Medium community is pretty insular. Check out what's popular and it is a very narrow part of society - basically what appeals to someone in the Bay Area. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that but why pay money for it? If it couldn't attract a larger audience while being open, this is going to only embed that in-crowd further. And, like you said, in asking people to play money, you are now competing against more diverse free content that is both professional and amateur. The average Medium blog post is already pretty forgettable, there are a lot more quality things to spend money on. I get just as much if not more value from HN or Reddit and don't have to pay a dime. I don't know who's going to pay for this. edit: this is what currently shows up on the frontpage: * An open letter to Jason Chaffetz from someone who attended his town hall * Why did I name it “Dear White People?” * Acquisitions, Mergers, and the Purge * 11 Essential Movies About The Lives of Immigrants and Refugees * Tech and the Fake Market tactic * The Alt-Right Is A Doomsday Cult * This May Be the Most Exhaustive Study of Manspreading Ever Conducted etc That's an incredibly narrow worldview that's only going to turn off people who don't come from it. It's a bunch of political op-eds. You don't have to pay money for that! You can go to any Internet forum and find it.
- bshimmin 10y ago
  I was feeling masochistic so I read the "manspreading" article (having first googled "manspreading", a term I hadn't heard before and wish I hadn't now). Having read this piece, I think the only viable decision Ev Williams can make is to return all the money to the investors and switch the whole thing off, right now.
  - type0 10y ago
    > I was feeling masochistic so I read the "manspreading" I thought it meant some social science term for disproportional migration to other countries by men. I'm not sure if feminists claiming "manspreading" as patriarchal phenomenon are deliberately disingenuous or just plain stupid and uneducated. Being concerned with your reproductive health is a human right, men also have this right (if we would assume that men and women are equal). Spermatogenesis is dependent on male gonads to be about 2 centigrades below the core body temp; too high temperature reduces both quantity and quality of the sperm (that's the whole reason why scrotum is outside the body), I honestly thought even kids knew this. I would say that from scientific perspective I'm much more concerned with "boobspreading" because it solely represents matriarchal oppression of men without serving any physiological function.

lmm 10y ago

> Why would I subscribe to Medium in the hope that it becomes some sort of real organisation, with good writing, when those already exist? Sorry, but I think I'll just keep paying for The Guardian, The LRB, N+1, MIT Technology Review etc and patronising my local bookshops. I think I read more and better content on medium than all of those put together. (Of course there's also a huge amount of dreck on there)

k-mcgrady 10y ago
Any examples? I can only think of one super interesting article I've ever read on Medium whereas I'll get that at least once a week from a decent news source. Medium, in my experience, is half echo-chamber half opinion from people who have little to no idea what they're talking about.
- lmm 10y ago
  Nothing specific springs to mind (but that's true for all those sources). Most good articles there I pick up from here or reddit or the like - the only part of medium I "follow" is War is Boring and they're pretty variable. The discovery experience on medium is pretty terrible and the front page often looks like the kind of echo chamber you're talking about.
  - criddell 10y ago
    I'm like you - I end up on Medium because of shared link. If Medium were to go away, I suspect those links would just lead to a different site. What value does Medium add?
    - lmm 10y ago
      Really nice readable design that gets out of the way. And I can know from the URL that the page I'm going to will have really nice readable design that gets out of the way. It shouldn't be hard, but so many sites manage to get it wrong.
      - criddell 10y ago
        Maybe that's on reason they are struggling - more and more sites are getting it right now. I used to use reader mode in my browser all the time and I find I use rarely use it anymore.
  - k-mcgrady 10y ago
    Stuff I find linked from other places (HN/Reddit) generally tends to be interesting too. I have had a Medium account in the past and setup their daily emails with interesting stories and it was awful. Just seems like good content is few and far between which isn't great for a subscription service. Edit: This is the one Medium article I can remember really enjoying. [1] [1] https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77#.y83undr89 https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-...
Veen 10y ago
Really? I've never read anything on medium approaching the depth and erudition of articles in the LRB, for example. Additionally, organizations like the LRB aren't just about the writing. The selection and editing is hugely important. There may be one or two fantastic articles buried amid the thousands of self-promotional, confessional, and ill-considered pieces of tripe that fill medium, but I don't have the time or the inclination to find them.
te_chris 10y ago
"I think I read more and better content on medium than all of those put together." Really? Cheap date.

aaron-lebo 10y ago

Yeah, I don't understand the appeal. The Medium community is pretty insular. Check out what's popular and it is a very narrow part of society - basically what appeals to someone in the Bay Area. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that but why pay money for it? If it couldn't attract a larger audience while being open, this is going to only embed that in-crowd further. And, like you said, in asking people to play money, you are now competing against more diverse free content that is both professional and amateur. The average Medium blog post is already pretty forgettable, there are a lot more quality things to spend money on. I get just as much if not more value from HN or Reddit and don't have to pay a dime. I don't know who's going to pay for this. edit: this is what currently shows up on the frontpage: * An open letter to Jason Chaffetz from someone who attended his town hall * Why did I name it “Dear White People?” * Acquisitions, Mergers, and the Purge * 11 Essential Movies About The Lives of Immigrants and Refugees * Tech and the Fake Market tactic * The Alt-Right Is A Doomsday Cult * This May Be the Most Exhaustive Study of Manspreading Ever Conducted etc That's an incredibly narrow worldview that's only going to turn off people who don't come from it. It's a bunch of political op-eds. You don't have to pay money for that! You can go to any Internet forum and find it.

bshimmin 10y ago
I was feeling masochistic so I read the "manspreading" article (having first googled "manspreading", a term I hadn't heard before and wish I hadn't now). Having read this piece, I think the only viable decision Ev Williams can make is to return all the money to the investors and switch the whole thing off, right now.
- type0 10y ago
  > I was feeling masochistic so I read the "manspreading" I thought it meant some social science term for disproportional migration to other countries by men. I'm not sure if feminists claiming "manspreading" as patriarchal phenomenon are deliberately disingenuous or just plain stupid and uneducated. Being concerned with your reproductive health is a human right, men also have this right (if we would assume that men and women are equal). Spermatogenesis is dependent on male gonads to be about 2 centigrades below the core body temp; too high temperature reduces both quantity and quality of the sperm (that's the whole reason why scrotum is outside the body), I honestly thought even kids knew this. I would say that from scientific perspective I'm much more concerned with "boobspreading" because it solely represents matriarchal oppression of men without serving any physiological function.