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Boggles my mind how that company is still going after making itself one of the worst reading experiences online with the barrage of sign up forms and nag banner

Boggles my mind how that company is still going after making itself one of the worst reading experiences online with the barrage of sign up forms and nag banners when you try to read anything on it.

gnicholas 6y ago
Startups tend to live longer when founded by billionaires.
Udik 6y ago
Can someone explain Medium to me? I find it makes for a minimalistic, pleasant user experience (later degraded by banners, paywalls), but apart from that? Editing options are borderline non-existent. The comments section, usability-wise, is a bad joke. What's its killer feature or core idea? Why is it everywhere?
- jorgenveisdal 6y ago
  Your question answers itself
  - Udik 6y ago
    I thought so after posting it :)
- whywhywhywhy 6y ago
  > What's its killer feature or core idea? You're looking at their latest killer feature, the founder hanging out with Colin Kaepernick.
meowface 6y ago
Right, it's so ridiculous to the point of being laughable almost. Imgur took the same route. It started off as a super simple image hosting service because every other one was full of all sorts of annoying garbage, and now Imgur's Google description is "imgur: The magic of the Internet // Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination." and has more annoying garbage than almost every other image host out there. Is there some kind of term for this phenomenon? Web apps like Medium and Imgur created with the sole intention of giving you a no-bullshit, clean, straightforward, minimalistic UI and presentation mutating into horrifying abominations that then go out of their way to fill everything with as much bullshit as humanly possible. Are they just typical cases of starting out idealistic, getting investment due to rapid growth despite no solid path to profitability, later frantically realizing it's totally financially unsustainable, and then doing a complete 180 to satisfy investors / not have to shutter the company?
- floren 6y ago
  > Are they just typical cases of starting out idealistic, getting investment due to rapid growth despite no solid path to profitability, later frantically realizing it's totally financially unsustainable, and then doing a complete 180 to satisfy investors / not have to shutter the company? Yes.
Kye 6y ago
It's an example of how what matters to people in the HN crowd is not necessarily what matters to the target audience of things that crowd is aware of. Most people also don't care about banner ads, auto-playing videos, and a long list of very legitimate annoyances. I don't know how people read with so many widgets bouncing around the modern web. They really do seem to not notice or don't seem bothered.
- nogabebop23 6y ago
  or (most likely IMO) they've never seen the web without them. Browse the web with ad blocking on and then go back to the "normal" experience; try watching network TV after a significant break; it is pretty much unbearable - did you know they inject ads into the middle of youtube videos, or make you watch them before you see the content you wanted? ;)

Boggles my mind how that company is still going after making itself one of the worst reading experiences online with the barrage of sign up forms and nag banners when you try to read anything on it.

gnicholas 6y ago

Startups tend to live longer when founded by billionaires.

Udik 6y ago

Can someone explain Medium to me? I find it makes for a minimalistic, pleasant user experience (later degraded by banners, paywalls), but apart from that? Editing options are borderline non-existent. The comments section, usability-wise, is a bad joke. What's its killer feature or core idea? Why is it everywhere?

jorgenveisdal 6y ago
Your question answers itself
- Udik 6y ago
  I thought so after posting it :)
whywhywhywhy 6y ago
> What's its killer feature or core idea? You're looking at their latest killer feature, the founder hanging out with Colin Kaepernick.

meowface 6y ago

Right, it's so ridiculous to the point of being laughable almost. Imgur took the same route. It started off as a super simple image hosting service because every other one was full of all sorts of annoying garbage, and now Imgur's Google description is "imgur: The magic of the Internet // Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination." and has more annoying garbage than almost every other image host out there. Is there some kind of term for this phenomenon? Web apps like Medium and Imgur created with the sole intention of giving you a no-bullshit, clean, straightforward, minimalistic UI and presentation mutating into horrifying abominations that then go out of their way to fill everything with as much bullshit as humanly possible. Are they just typical cases of starting out idealistic, getting investment due to rapid growth despite no solid path to profitability, later frantically realizing it's totally financially unsustainable, and then doing a complete 180 to satisfy investors / not have to shutter the company?

floren 6y ago
> Are they just typical cases of starting out idealistic, getting investment due to rapid growth despite no solid path to profitability, later frantically realizing it's totally financially unsustainable, and then doing a complete 180 to satisfy investors / not have to shutter the company? Yes.

Kye 6y ago

It's an example of how what matters to people in the HN crowd is not necessarily what matters to the target audience of things that crowd is aware of. Most people also don't care about banner ads, auto-playing videos, and a long list of very legitimate annoyances. I don't know how people read with so many widgets bouncing around the modern web. They really do seem to not notice or don't seem bothered.

nogabebop23 6y ago
or (most likely IMO) they've never seen the web without them. Browse the web with ad blocking on and then go back to the "normal" experience; try watching network TV after a significant break; it is pretty much unbearable - did you know they inject ads into the middle of youtube videos, or make you watch them before you see the content you wanted? ;)