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Ghost [1] and Substack[2] seem to be popular alternatives within dev and tech communities. [1] https://ghost.org/publishers/ https://ghost.org/publishers/ [2]
by humbleferret 4y ago
Ghost [1] and Substack[2] seem to be popular alternatives within dev and tech communities.
[1] https://ghost.org/publishers/ https://ghost.org/publishers/
[2] https://substack.com/ https://substack.com/
- candiddevmike 4y agoSubstack is moving towards the same paywall setup as medium AFAIK
- cratermoon 4y agoWho didn't see that coming, though? The web has become broadly influenced and geared towards a certain way of doing things that happens because: 1. it costs money to create and maintain a substantial web property. Medium, Substack, Patreon, gumroad, ghost, buttondown, etc all run on top of services that cost money. Maybe AWS, maybe Google App Engine, plus Cloudflare, Heroku, Netlify, Digital Ocean, etc. Oh and Stripe, PayPal or some payment processor, if the site has a subscription model, too. 2. the web of the 2020s really has only one way to make enough money to pay for these services: advertising. There's only one way to get enough money through advertising to be profitable, and that's to have some portion of attention-getting, clickbaity, top 10 list content. That content generates enough 'virality' to show up on Twitter, FB, here, or wherever. A no-paywalled, no-ads site (like Hacker News) is a cost center maintained as a sort of vanity project for a company that makes money elsewhere. What people are complaining about around Medium is really a complaint about how content on the web is, and must be, monetized, if it is to be a money-making business, as opposed to my blog, say, which is just money out of my pocket. It's going to take a concerted effort to break away from the current economic model of the web. Just turning up our noses at Medium or Substack and pivoting to the NEW new thing won't change anything, as the new new thing inevitably gets dragged into the web economy or goes broke.
- joshspankit 4y agoI’m kind of surprised we don’t have a “decentralized Medium” at this point. Yes, Mastadon and others exist and have traction, but they don’t fit the specific demographic that Medium does (an easy place to write content that gets ranked and monetized). With less costs would come more sustainable integrity, as well as a bigger share for writers.
- ninethirty 4y agoStrong disagree, the barrier to entry should be higher. That's why GitHub Pages is a signal of quality, at least the author knows what GitHub is. As cost approaches zero (time/effort/money) spam approaches infinity. Then you need gmail-level spam filtering and you end up with centralization.
- hsn915 4y agoIs it? Substack was made with paywall in mind from day one. The difference is that the writer decides.
- MerelyMortal 4y agoI'm not a dev or too much of a tech person, but Substack also has a slight stigma in my eyes. I really haven't looked into either platform, but as far as I know, it's similar to Medium, no? (It has a low barrier to entry?) I guess anything with a low barrier to entry, has to do more to prove itself.
- pid-1 4y agoI'd like to recommend Hashnode[1]. I've been using it for the past few months and enjoying it so far. Highlight - it has a non paywall based monetization system. [1] https://hashnode.com https://hashnode.com
- opnitro 4y agoReading the site, what's the catch? What is the monetization system?
- forgotpwd16 4y agoMaybe https://hashnode.com/sponsors https://hashnode.com/sponsors?
- djbusby 4y agoHow do they make money? It's not clear from that site.
- hsn915 4y agoNope. Hashnode is about the same level as Medium in terms of community / culture.