5 ms·

I'm amazed at how many people here say that people should simply use a static site generator instead of wordpress or medium. Does anyone else understand that p

I'm amazed at how many people here say that people should simply use a static site generator instead of wordpress or medium. Does anyone else understand that probably 99% of Medium traffic (both reader and writer) don't even understand those words and would have no idea even where to begin? Most of them probably had trouble just signing up on Medium and already forgot their passwords. This is where Medium wins. It looks ok, makes posts look professional, and doesn't give any choices. You don't have to choose a theme, or setup anything. Signup (or even, login with twitter/facebook) and just write. Done. You can't possibly hope that any writer on Medium is ready or interested in a static site generator.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
pier25 8y ago
Medium also liberates writers from social stuff. It has claps, comments, etc, but also when you share a Medium article on Twitter or Facebook you have all the meta-tags to make it look good. Also, no infrastructure headaches either.
- ayoisaiah 8y ago
  Medium comments are up there with the worst comment implementation I've ever seen
  - pier25 8y ago
    UX wise I agree. But, I think those are better than having comments on your own blog.
thomasfedb 8y ago
Maybe a middle ground that could work is Ghost? I use their hosted service and it works well.
- Kye 8y ago
  $29+ a month is steep for a personal blog. They make it clear personal bloggers aren't their target audience on the pricing page by listing how many staff members you can have. It's B2B.
detaro 8y ago
It's not surprising that people on a fairly technical site recommend solutions for fairly technical users - that doesn't mean they mean that everyone should go there. There's tons of other hosted blogging platforms out there for people who don't want to take care of hosting, and which offer basic features Medium doesn't, e.g. the ability to use your own domain.
tech_tuna 8y ago
Wozniak vs Jobs.
- tonystubblebine 8y ago
  I am/was pretty technical--wrote a programming book, was building and maintaining high traffic websites back in '03--and I still managed to screw up hosting a Wordpress site to the point of my blog going down on it's own, going down under load, going down because I missed a message about my credit card expiring. The difference between my technical ability when that's my job and when it's my hobby is huge. And so I'm a huge fan of not having to worry about any of the hosting, i.e. Medium looked great to me from day one.
jseliger 8y ago
Well said. I started a Wordpress blog on a whim, years ago, on Wordpress.com, and I think many people underestimate how whimsical many blog starts are. For the average person (including me), going to www.staticsite.com, entering an email and password, and then starting is the way it happens. If that is not a quick, painless, and obvious process, then the vast majority of people won't do it. Medium got going because it was like that (I think—maybe it is still like that).
egypturnash 8y ago
I cannot upvote this enough. "Just write your posts in Markdown and publish to your site using Jekyll and Git!" is utter gibberish to the vast majority of people.
aylmao 8y ago
> I'm amazed at how many people here say that people should simply use a static site generator instead of wordpress or medium. I don't think the author (or the people writing those comments) are claiming that medium is going to go bankrupt vs static sites. Most people commenting here probably could set up a static site if they wanted, and the author simply hopes people use something else. Of course medium is gonna continue to thrive on people who think it's the best option, but this is a plea for people who can and know how to do better.
sh87 8y ago
Medium started with great writers. Few, but good niche writers producing great content that was hard to find elsewhere. Hardly any junk, just great content, well presented. Ease of publishing, I imagine, attracted more general purpose writers spewing out more general purpose content. More writers (general purpose or niche regardless) is good for Medium. However, to a sensitive niche reader (like me), this looks like a marked decline in quality and Medium is not a great choice to get my content anymore. This is probably good for Medium in the short run. I think its fast headed towards becoming a platform for pseudo intellectual, shallow content that attracts wannabe readers and writers. I am sure there are more of this kind than readers/writers who know their sh*t and value their time. Medium made a choice, and so have I.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

pier25 8y ago

Medium also liberates writers from social stuff. It has claps, comments, etc, but also when you share a Medium article on Twitter or Facebook you have all the meta-tags to make it look good. Also, no infrastructure headaches either.

ayoisaiah 8y ago
Medium comments are up there with the worst comment implementation I've ever seen
- pier25 8y ago
  UX wise I agree. But, I think those are better than having comments on your own blog.

thomasfedb 8y ago

Maybe a middle ground that could work is Ghost? I use their hosted service and it works well.

Kye 8y ago
$29+ a month is steep for a personal blog. They make it clear personal bloggers aren't their target audience on the pricing page by listing how many staff members you can have. It's B2B.

detaro 8y ago

It's not surprising that people on a fairly technical site recommend solutions for fairly technical users - that doesn't mean they mean that everyone should go there. There's tons of other hosted blogging platforms out there for people who don't want to take care of hosting, and which offer basic features Medium doesn't, e.g. the ability to use your own domain.

tech_tuna 8y ago

Wozniak vs Jobs.

tonystubblebine 8y ago
I am/was pretty technical--wrote a programming book, was building and maintaining high traffic websites back in '03--and I still managed to screw up hosting a Wordpress site to the point of my blog going down on it's own, going down under load, going down because I missed a message about my credit card expiring. The difference between my technical ability when that's my job and when it's my hobby is huge. And so I'm a huge fan of not having to worry about any of the hosting, i.e. Medium looked great to me from day one.

jseliger 8y ago

Well said. I started a Wordpress blog on a whim, years ago, on Wordpress.com, and I think many people underestimate how whimsical many blog starts are. For the average person (including me), going to www.staticsite.com, entering an email and password, and then starting is the way it happens. If that is not a quick, painless, and obvious process, then the vast majority of people won't do it. Medium got going because it was like that (I think—maybe it is still like that).

egypturnash 8y ago

I cannot upvote this enough. "Just write your posts in Markdown and publish to your site using Jekyll and Git!" is utter gibberish to the vast majority of people.

aylmao 8y ago

> I'm amazed at how many people here say that people should simply use a static site generator instead of wordpress or medium. I don't think the author (or the people writing those comments) are claiming that medium is going to go bankrupt vs static sites. Most people commenting here probably could set up a static site if they wanted, and the author simply hopes people use something else. Of course medium is gonna continue to thrive on people who think it's the best option, but this is a plea for people who can and know how to do better.

sh87 8y ago

Medium started with great writers. Few, but good niche writers producing great content that was hard to find elsewhere. Hardly any junk, just great content, well presented. Ease of publishing, I imagine, attracted more general purpose writers spewing out more general purpose content. More writers (general purpose or niche regardless) is good for Medium. However, to a sensitive niche reader (like me), this looks like a marked decline in quality and Medium is not a great choice to get my content anymore. This is probably good for Medium in the short run. I think its fast headed towards becoming a platform for pseudo intellectual, shallow content that attracts wannabe readers and writers. I am sure there are more of this kind than readers/writers who know their sh*t and value their time. Medium made a choice, and so have I.