5 ms·

I don't know what Medium is like for writers but it certainly doesn't feel like a better model for me as a reader. I'm reluctant to click on links to Medium on

I don't know what Medium is like for writers but it certainly doesn't feel like a better model for me as a reader. I'm reluctant to click on links to Medium on HN at this point because of their incessant nagging and popups for me to register.

lukewrites 8y ago
No, Medium, let's not make it official.
- Freak_NL 8y ago
  When someone wants to make it official, I expect them to want to marry, sue, hire, or fuck me. None of these is what I expect to be offered when reading a blog. I don't know why the wording of that message irritates me so much, but I can't imagine many people would appreciate it.
  - braythwayt 8y ago
    Way OT, but there's also a referee who does MMA who after giving the fighters their formal instructions, always says, "Now touch gloves and let's make it official."
- sofaofthedamned 8y ago
  Gold :D
rchaud 8y ago
Whereas I'm reluctant to click Medium.com links because I have no idea if the article is from a publication with paid writers, or from the armies of self-styled "thought leaders" and "life-hackers" dumping their blogspam on Medium just as they do with Inc.com, Forbes.com and the like.
- tonystubblebine 8y ago
  I've been working to help Medium with this. They get journalism and have an excellent internal team run by the former EIC at Time. But they don't get expert publications, i.e. pubs run by subject matter experts. I'd put together a self-improvement publication, Better Humans, based on what I'd learned working at O'Reilly during the heyday of O'Reilly books. Those were books for programmers written by programmers and edited by programmers. As a result, you could really trust what you were reading. In our pub, there's a prohibition around publishing any summaries. The author has to have 1st hand experience. And then there's a serious editing pass from someone else who's pretty experienced. All of that is economically feasible because of Medium's paywall. But so far, nobody has done the equivalent Programmer version of this. I got to talk to Medium about why and my theory was that it's twofold. Publishers don't trust that this is the final pivot and also they don't really know how to run an editorial pipeline. We were fast to figure it out because we'd spent so much time working in publishing (the other Better Humans editor is also former O'Reilly and Make). But I know it's possible and I'm trying to help Medium get more publications like this off the ground. When I looked at the existing ecosystem, I pushed away from even looking at HackerNoon and looking more at FreeCodeCamp. What would their articles look like with tighter editing at the acquisition, article, and copy stages? I think it would be a pretty great experience.
  - rchaud 8y ago
    What you're suggesting sounds like a good idea. FreeCodeCamp has a number of talented contributors, but maintaining a consistently high quality of content is hard when there's no real "brand/editorial voice". Good to hear that there's a requirement to demonstrate real subject matter experience. Hopefully that cuts down on the volume of articles that are merely commentary on someone else's original researched work. Step 2 would be to outright ban "link-bait" titles like "6 things that.." "Ultimate", "Start to finish guide" "2019", etc. I know for a fact that I used to read much, much more online when writers didn't editorialize the title to fit what they think would obtain the highest numbers of clicks and shares.
    - tonystubblebine 8y ago
Wowfunhappy 8y ago
> their incessant nagging and popups for me to register. This says more about the somewhat sad state of the web at this point, but I at least prefer that Medium is a known quantity. I get one popup from Medium, asking me to login. On other sites, I might have to click through a couple of ads and a cookie notice.

lukewrites 8y ago

No, Medium, let's not make it official.

Freak_NL 8y ago
When someone wants to make it official, I expect them to want to marry, sue, hire, or fuck me. None of these is what I expect to be offered when reading a blog. I don't know why the wording of that message irritates me so much, but I can't imagine many people would appreciate it.
- braythwayt 8y ago
  Way OT, but there's also a referee who does MMA who after giving the fighters their formal instructions, always says, "Now touch gloves and let's make it official."
sofaofthedamned 8y ago
Gold :D

rchaud 8y ago

Whereas I'm reluctant to click Medium.com links because I have no idea if the article is from a publication with paid writers, or from the armies of self-styled "thought leaders" and "life-hackers" dumping their blogspam on Medium just as they do with Inc.com, Forbes.com and the like.

tonystubblebine 8y ago
I've been working to help Medium with this. They get journalism and have an excellent internal team run by the former EIC at Time. But they don't get expert publications, i.e. pubs run by subject matter experts. I'd put together a self-improvement publication, Better Humans, based on what I'd learned working at O'Reilly during the heyday of O'Reilly books. Those were books for programmers written by programmers and edited by programmers. As a result, you could really trust what you were reading. In our pub, there's a prohibition around publishing any summaries. The author has to have 1st hand experience. And then there's a serious editing pass from someone else who's pretty experienced. All of that is economically feasible because of Medium's paywall. But so far, nobody has done the equivalent Programmer version of this. I got to talk to Medium about why and my theory was that it's twofold. Publishers don't trust that this is the final pivot and also they don't really know how to run an editorial pipeline. We were fast to figure it out because we'd spent so much time working in publishing (the other Better Humans editor is also former O'Reilly and Make). But I know it's possible and I'm trying to help Medium get more publications like this off the ground. When I looked at the existing ecosystem, I pushed away from even looking at HackerNoon and looking more at FreeCodeCamp. What would their articles look like with tighter editing at the acquisition, article, and copy stages? I think it would be a pretty great experience.
- rchaud 8y ago
  What you're suggesting sounds like a good idea. FreeCodeCamp has a number of talented contributors, but maintaining a consistently high quality of content is hard when there's no real "brand/editorial voice". Good to hear that there's a requirement to demonstrate real subject matter experience. Hopefully that cuts down on the volume of articles that are merely commentary on someone else's original researched work. Step 2 would be to outright ban "link-bait" titles like "6 things that.." "Ultimate", "Start to finish guide" "2019", etc. I know for a fact that I used to read much, much more online when writers didn't editorialize the title to fit what they think would obtain the highest numbers of clicks and shares.
  - tonystubblebine 8y ago

Wowfunhappy 8y ago

> their incessant nagging and popups for me to register. This says more about the somewhat sad state of the web at this point, but I at least prefer that Medium is a known quantity. I get one popup from Medium, asking me to login. On other sites, I might have to click through a couple of ads and a cookie notice.