3 ms·

Medium's decade-long journey to find its own identity

9 points by laurex 2y ago

lxe 2y ago
Medium is anti-user and have refused to change for a long time. The reason it fell out of favor is because the readers hate it.
- prepend 2y ago
  This is my experience. I have no interest in registering just to read free content. It’s also annoying with its UX and spammy when I did register. I’m not sure what user wants this.
  - Animats 2y ago
    Yes. I'm surprised that the OP's article is so laudatory. Almost like a paid ad.
- minimaxir 2y ago
  The only reason Substack was able to take off as the de facto "thought leader" platform was because Medium massively dropped the ball.
  - rchaud 2y ago
    ...and also because its main competitor Twitter acquired and then abandoned its own newsletter product, Revue.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
tedunangst 2y ago
They should rebrand to Large, after their signature feature, the nagwall popup on every article.
- p_l 2y ago
  Especially when it's so large it obscures all content even when said content is not premium-only. Also, several times I had issues because Medium would go on a crazy loop of trying to push surveillance data to the mothership... which for "whatever reason" was a blocked URL (do not fret, Manifest V3 is going to remove that functionality! Disabling all JS on every medium site still works, though).
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
prepend 2y ago
Medium should have like 5 employees and just simply be a blogging platform. I think the challenge is they want to be something they can’t be. And they have too much capital seeking a high return. We need a good, simple blogging platform. We don’t need a twitter competitor or whatever medium thinks they want to be. Just publish blogs and rss feeds and keep costs low.
- packetlost 2y ago
  There's a lot of platforms that are just that, why do we necessarily need anything new?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- rchaud 2y ago
  Investors tend to lose interest if you tell them the sky is in fact, not the limit.
strict9 2y ago
When Medium first arrived I thought it was fantastic. The readability and lack of distractions and badges was quite different than most reading experiences on the web at the time. But at some point the identity seemed to switch from reader friendly to reader hostile, throwing up a paywall/login wall for seemingly every link. This created a negative feedback loop where I avoided any Medium link for anything and haven't given them another chance. Now it seems less relevant than ever.
- adamc 2y ago
  Worse, when I tried to subscribe it then informed me I was already subscribed, and when I tried to reset the password... couldn't get it to work. I eventually gave up. It is very user-hostile.
- rchaud 2y ago
  > But at some point the identity seemed to switch from reader friendly to reader hostile The cycle of enshittification: companies are happy to provide a friction-free experience at the start. Once it's time to start squeezing revenue out of the product, you have to pay to remove the friction.
brianstorms 2y ago
Fast Company's been on a much longer journey than that, and they still haven't found theirs, so maybe...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- tedunangst 2y ago
  Fast Company has been advertising dressed up as mid grade journalism for as long as I can remember. I think they're exactly where and what they want to be.
meow_mix 2y ago
> At the very least, Medium is doing much better than X these days. huh

9 points by laurex 2y ago

lxe 2y ago

Medium is anti-user and have refused to change for a long time. The reason it fell out of favor is because the readers hate it.

prepend 2y ago
This is my experience. I have no interest in registering just to read free content. It’s also annoying with its UX and spammy when I did register. I’m not sure what user wants this.
- Animats 2y ago
  Yes. I'm surprised that the OP's article is so laudatory. Almost like a paid ad.
minimaxir 2y ago
The only reason Substack was able to take off as the de facto "thought leader" platform was because Medium massively dropped the ball.
- rchaud 2y ago
  ...and also because its main competitor Twitter acquired and then abandoned its own newsletter product, Revue.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

tedunangst 2y ago

They should rebrand to Large, after their signature feature, the nagwall popup on every article.

p_l 2y ago
Especially when it's so large it obscures all content even when said content is not premium-only. Also, several times I had issues because Medium would go on a crazy loop of trying to push surveillance data to the mothership... which for "whatever reason" was a blocked URL (do not fret, Manifest V3 is going to remove that functionality! Disabling all JS on every medium site still works, though).
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

prepend 2y ago

Medium should have like 5 employees and just simply be a blogging platform. I think the challenge is they want to be something they can’t be. And they have too much capital seeking a high return. We need a good, simple blogging platform. We don’t need a twitter competitor or whatever medium thinks they want to be. Just publish blogs and rss feeds and keep costs low.

packetlost 2y ago
There's a lot of platforms that are just that, why do we necessarily need anything new?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
rchaud 2y ago
Investors tend to lose interest if you tell them the sky is in fact, not the limit.

strict9 2y ago

When Medium first arrived I thought it was fantastic. The readability and lack of distractions and badges was quite different than most reading experiences on the web at the time. But at some point the identity seemed to switch from reader friendly to reader hostile, throwing up a paywall/login wall for seemingly every link. This created a negative feedback loop where I avoided any Medium link for anything and haven't given them another chance. Now it seems less relevant than ever.

adamc 2y ago
Worse, when I tried to subscribe it then informed me I was already subscribed, and when I tried to reset the password... couldn't get it to work. I eventually gave up. It is very user-hostile.
rchaud 2y ago
> But at some point the identity seemed to switch from reader friendly to reader hostile The cycle of enshittification: companies are happy to provide a friction-free experience at the start. Once it's time to start squeezing revenue out of the product, you have to pay to remove the friction.

brianstorms 2y ago

Fast Company's been on a much longer journey than that, and they still haven't found theirs, so maybe...

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
tedunangst 2y ago
Fast Company has been advertising dressed up as mid grade journalism for as long as I can remember. I think they're exactly where and what they want to be.

meow_mix 2y ago

> At the very least, Medium is doing much better than X these days. huh