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I remember there was a time when people were excited about medium. Then medium needed some money so they started blocking readers behind login dialog boxes. The

I remember there was a time when people were excited about medium. Then medium needed some money so they started blocking readers behind login dialog boxes. Then come substack and everyone got excited about it. Sooner or later it will be on same path that medium took. When will we realise that blogging websites (not personal blogs) are not sustainable in long run.

spaceman_2020 3y ago
Imo, a blogging software company really does not need to be valued in the billions or make a ton of money. The tech can be maintained by a relatively small team of people - see all the independent blogging platforms and open source tools. This is a classic case of VCs corrupting an industry with money that’s really not needed at valuations that really can’t be supported.
amadeuspagel 3y ago
People will realize that once there's some easy-to-self-host blogging software with support for comments and newsletters.
- rchaud 3y ago
  Easy to self host? We live in a world where Mastodon had to change their signup screen to de-emphasize "pick a server" because people had no idea what that meant.
lapcat 3y ago
> Then come substack and everyone got excited about it. Sooner or later it will be on same path that medium took. Substack is already far, far more paywalled than Medium ever was. Subscriptions are the business model.
- nkozyra 3y ago
  Yeah, it appears their growth strategy is the inverse of Medium's.
nkozyra 3y ago
One could argue that social media is technically all "blogging websites" Advertising works there because of the numbers. People will quickly consume enough bite sized content to drive traditional numbers. Medium broke the things that made them appealing in an attempt to sweeten the advertising sell, but this made the platform unappealing. It was a self inflicted wound.
- cratermoon 3y ago
  > Advertising works there because of the numbers. People will quickly consume enough bite sized content to drive traditional numbers. To be more specific, advertising works there because of the feed algorithms. The platforms gather data about user interests and use that to tune what they choose to show the users, favoring things the algorithms suggest will get more "engagement". In turn, they sell ads on those favored items. On top of that, they charge both users and advertisers a premium to be featured on the favored topics. Take away the algorithms that determine what content and ads to feature, and you get back to the basics of blogging websites. You get happier users, but no advertising money.
- amadeuspagel 3y ago
  Medium broke things (by making people login) precisely because they wanted to charge money, because they did not want to use advertising (and AFAIK they still don't).

spaceman_2020 3y ago

Imo, a blogging software company really does not need to be valued in the billions or make a ton of money. The tech can be maintained by a relatively small team of people - see all the independent blogging platforms and open source tools. This is a classic case of VCs corrupting an industry with money that’s really not needed at valuations that really can’t be supported.

amadeuspagel 3y ago

People will realize that once there's some easy-to-self-host blogging software with support for comments and newsletters.

rchaud 3y ago
Easy to self host? We live in a world where Mastodon had to change their signup screen to de-emphasize "pick a server" because people had no idea what that meant.

lapcat 3y ago

> Then come substack and everyone got excited about it. Sooner or later it will be on same path that medium took. Substack is already far, far more paywalled than Medium ever was. Subscriptions are the business model.

nkozyra 3y ago
Yeah, it appears their growth strategy is the inverse of Medium's.

nkozyra 3y ago

One could argue that social media is technically all "blogging websites" Advertising works there because of the numbers. People will quickly consume enough bite sized content to drive traditional numbers. Medium broke the things that made them appealing in an attempt to sweeten the advertising sell, but this made the platform unappealing. It was a self inflicted wound.

cratermoon 3y ago
> Advertising works there because of the numbers. People will quickly consume enough bite sized content to drive traditional numbers. To be more specific, advertising works there because of the feed algorithms. The platforms gather data about user interests and use that to tune what they choose to show the users, favoring things the algorithms suggest will get more "engagement". In turn, they sell ads on those favored items. On top of that, they charge both users and advertisers a premium to be featured on the favored topics. Take away the algorithms that determine what content and ads to feature, and you get back to the basics of blogging websites. You get happier users, but no advertising money.
amadeuspagel 3y ago
Medium broke things (by making people login) precisely because they wanted to charge money, because they did not want to use advertising (and AFAIK they still don't).