4 ms·

This is an on-point rant, but what alternatives are there that combine clean, useful publishing tools with the ability to reach a wide audience? Sure I can host

• imglorp 8y ago
  What does Medium do for engagement that ye olde static site doesn't do? Is this something that can be done outside Medium?
  • yitianjian 8y ago
    Users actually discover/browse Medium, and will hit content that isn't directly searched through their explore features/algorithms. Hosting your own site means relying on cross-posting/SEO/etc.
    • thrower123 8y ago
      This is a thing that people actually do? Who are these people, and what other interesting things do they do? I have never gone to medium.com directly, I have only ever wound up there through an article being crossposted on this site, Twitter, FB, or the rare case that one of my email newsletters links to something on there.
      • _coveredInBees 8y ago
        Even if that were the only way people got to medium posts, when you finish a post, you see recommendations for other related medium posts/articles. Writing posts/articles on Medium means that a lot more people could still find their way to your article when they didn't intentionally go to medium specifically for your article.
      • mikedd 8y ago
        You know what..when you put it like that you make a lot of sense. I too get most of my reading done this way. Through cross-posting on HN or /r/ or mastodon.
• int0x80 8y ago
  1- Host your blog. 2- Write post. 3- Post to multiple aggregators (HN, reddit, etc) It can even be made (semi)automatic.
  • foo101 8y ago
    I have found Reddit to be a very hostile place to post content. You post your blog post. Regardless of how much hard work you put into your content, the first few comments on Reddit are going to be a snarky one that attacks some trivial point and adds nothing to the discussion. I don't know why people do that. HN, on the other hand, feels like a more matured community. Any other such matured communities where one can feel comfortable about posting their blog posts?
    • type0 8y ago
      I have seen a couple of good discussions on Lobste.rs The number of users is not very big- they're invite only. I know that some HN regulars are posting there so maybe you could ask for invite here or head over to their IRC and then try it out. I don't use it myself, HN is big enough time sink as it is.
    • dredmorbius 8y ago
      Worse, for Reddit: there is no sustained discussion. I've been thinking and working a lot on discussion (first law: conversation scales poorly), and what sites do and don't work. G+, for its many, many, many flaws, could keep a discussion going on those rare instances where it started in the first place. In ways few other sites do. The fact that all members of a conversation (up to a point) are informed of new posts, helps. That's a two-edged sword: low-value comments, if left standing, merely annoy others, and tend to cause them to mute out of the discussion. But it's a dynamic few other sites match. I've also been using Reddit as a blogging platform (not simply syndicating content) for several years. I'd already been in the process of moving that elsewhere when the G+ shutdown announcement hit -- I've been somewhat engaged in that over the past month or so. I do plan to continue syndication, though I moderate strongly for quality.
  • joeax 8y ago