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This is off topic, but does anyone else have a "This Week’s Top 5 Posts" section smack in the middle of the article? Is that something new Medium are automatic

by junto 13y ago

This is off topic, but does anyone else have a "This Week’s Top 5 Posts" section smack in the middle of the article? Is that something new Medium are automatically injecting? If so, I don't like it. I do like the idea of being pushed to more content _after_ I've finished reading, not _during_ the middle.

huhtenberg 13y ago
Came here to say the same. This is obnoxious. If it happens again, it'll be the last medium.com visit for me.
aptwebapps 13y ago
Whoops, thought that article was a little short ...
jitl 13y ago
I think that this "feature" is an arXiv exclusive -- the links point only to their articles. I left an angry comment on the link block: Is this “This Week’s Top 5 Posts” Medium’s new deal, or is it yours? This is like HuffPost mid-article attention-bait. I can’t stand it. I’ve previously equivocated Medium with an intense focus on single article content — no distractions. It was very confusing to find this totally unrelated link block here. I thought the article had suddenly ended. What sort of click-through statistics are they trying to drive here? They don't have pageviews to pump on Medium (do they?), so what's the play?
cousin_it 13y ago
Good point. It seems that if you wish to create value for end users, you should avoid middlemen, because middlemen will bundle your product with something obnoxious that adds value only for themselves. The more valuable your product is for end users, the more obnoxious stuff will be added by middlemen.
dredmorbius 13y ago
In my increasingly reflexive editing of website CSS: - I disable ALL nags. If there's a modal, slider, fixed bar, or fixed social element, I nuke it. - If it moves, I nuke it. - If anything is labled "viral", "tease", "nag", or "social" there's really good odds it's getting nuked. Really, stuff like that just makes it too easy, and I may add some wildcards to my default CSS. - Unless it's a premier site (e.g., NY Times, the Guardian), I'll nuke the "Recommended", "Trending", "Most Viral", etc., columns. - I'll strip any 3-column (or otherwise multi-column) format into a single column of body text, generally about 40-50 ems (about 850-1000px) wide. The LH column generally becomes a full-width header, the RH column a full-width footer. If they survive at all. - Bump all fonts to 15pt (body text), 14pt (usually for overview pages), 10-12pt for most navigation elements. - Backgrounds to to white or very close to it, text to black or very close. #fffff4 background, #222 foreground, is about as much as I'll push either. I've noticed that the result is much more soothing reading experiences, with far fewer distractions. It literally affects my ability to focus and peace of mind. Had my stylesheet manager (Stylebot) blow up on me a week or so back, having to deal with The Web As Published ... just drove me nuts. Most site's design simply sucks. I've got over 500 sites styled to my preferences (many are just very quick and light changes, a few more involved). The results are ... mostly pretty nice. Among my favorites: Buzzfeed: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/posts/5890225669560306434?pid=5890225669560306434&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... Unbuzzed: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/posts/5890225669560306434?pid=5890225669560306434&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... A 3-column to 1-column design: 3 cols: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/5896495055961929169/5896495071944854994?pid=5896495071944854994&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... 1 col: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/5896495055961929169/5896495062245958898?pid=5896495062245958898&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... And this seems to kill the "Top 5 posts" bits: blockquote.pullquote, blockquote.pullquote + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p + p + p + hr { display: none; }
- d4nt 13y ago
  Have you considered maintaining a [paid] chrome add-in with all this stuff in?
  - dredmorbius 13y ago
    Hrm. Some of my edits are pretty rough. Most aim to please one key customer: me. And I do virtually no compatibility testing for devices, browsers, or even display settings. Still ... could be useful. If only because exporting and uploading the stylesheets would give me a backup. What would you pay for this?
    - d4nt 13y ago
      It would have to be an ongoing service, a sort of "Clean Web Subscription" that got updates. Believing that there's a human curating it is what makes it valuable I think. I'd pay an annual fee of $30 for that. I may be an outlier though.
ronaldx 13y ago
I lost the flow of the article and closed the tab at this point.

by junto 13y ago

huhtenberg 13y ago

Came here to say the same. This is obnoxious. If it happens again, it'll be the last medium.com visit for me.

aptwebapps 13y ago

Whoops, thought that article was a little short ...

jitl 13y ago

I think that this "feature" is an arXiv exclusive -- the links point only to their articles. I left an angry comment on the link block: Is this “This Week’s Top 5 Posts” Medium’s new deal, or is it yours? This is like HuffPost mid-article attention-bait. I can’t stand it. I’ve previously equivocated Medium with an intense focus on single article content — no distractions. It was very confusing to find this totally unrelated link block here. I thought the article had suddenly ended. What sort of click-through statistics are they trying to drive here? They don't have pageviews to pump on Medium (do they?), so what's the play?

cousin_it 13y ago

Good point. It seems that if you wish to create value for end users, you should avoid middlemen, because middlemen will bundle your product with something obnoxious that adds value only for themselves. The more valuable your product is for end users, the more obnoxious stuff will be added by middlemen.

dredmorbius 13y ago

In my increasingly reflexive editing of website CSS: - I disable ALL nags. If there's a modal, slider, fixed bar, or fixed social element, I nuke it. - If it moves, I nuke it. - If anything is labled "viral", "tease", "nag", or "social" there's really good odds it's getting nuked. Really, stuff like that just makes it too easy, and I may add some wildcards to my default CSS. - Unless it's a premier site (e.g., NY Times, the Guardian), I'll nuke the "Recommended", "Trending", "Most Viral", etc., columns. - I'll strip any 3-column (or otherwise multi-column) format into a single column of body text, generally about 40-50 ems (about 850-1000px) wide. The LH column generally becomes a full-width header, the RH column a full-width footer. If they survive at all. - Bump all fonts to 15pt (body text), 14pt (usually for overview pages), 10-12pt for most navigation elements. - Backgrounds to to white or very close to it, text to black or very close. #fffff4 background, #222 foreground, is about as much as I'll push either. I've noticed that the result is much more soothing reading experiences, with far fewer distractions. It literally affects my ability to focus and peace of mind. Had my stylesheet manager (Stylebot) blow up on me a week or so back, having to deal with The Web As Published ... just drove me nuts. Most site's design simply sucks. I've got over 500 sites styled to my preferences (many are just very quick and light changes, a few more involved). The results are ... mostly pretty nice. Among my favorites: Buzzfeed: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/posts/5890225669560306434?pid=5890225669560306434&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... Unbuzzed: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/posts/5890225669560306434?pid=5890225669560306434&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... A 3-column to 1-column design: 3 cols: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/5896495055961929169/5896495071944854994?pid=5896495071944854994&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... 1 col: https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/5896495055961929169/5896495062245958898?pid=5896495062245958898&oid=104092656004159577193 https://plus.google.com/photos/104092656004159577193/albums/... And this seems to kill the "Top 5 posts" bits: blockquote.pullquote, blockquote.pullquote + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p + p + p, blockquote.pullquote + p + p + p + p + p + hr { display: none; }

d4nt 13y ago
Have you considered maintaining a [paid] chrome add-in with all this stuff in?
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  Hrm. Some of my edits are pretty rough. Most aim to please one key customer: me. And I do virtually no compatibility testing for devices, browsers, or even display settings. Still ... could be useful. If only because exporting and uploading the stylesheets would give me a backup. What would you pay for this?
  - d4nt 13y ago
    It would have to be an ongoing service, a sort of "Clean Web Subscription" that got updates. Believing that there's a human curating it is what makes it valuable I think. I'd pay an annual fee of $30 for that. I may be an outlier though.

ronaldx 13y ago

I lost the flow of the article and closed the tab at this point.