
Make Medium Readable Again - thangngoc89
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/make-medium-readable-agai/kljjfejkagofbgklifblndjelgabcmig
======
outsidetheparty
I've been using a bookmarklet that simply removes all fixed-position elements
from the page; it makes Medium and plenty of other sites tolerable.

This is it:

    
    
      javascript:(function()%7B(function%20()%20%7Bvar%20i%2C%20elements%20%3D%20document.querySelectorAll('body%20*')%3Bfor%20(i%20%3D%200%3B%20i%20%3C%20elements.length%3B%20i%2B%2B)%20%7Bif%20(getComputedStyle(elements%5Bi%5D).position%20%3D%3D%3D%20'fixed')%20%7Belements%5Bi%5D.parentNode.removeChild(elements%5Bi%5D)%3B%7D%7D%7D)()%7D)()

~~~
ronjouch
Yup. Source/author: [https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-
headers/](https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/)

~~~
hartator
Hum, any ways to make it work with Safari IOS?

~~~
JimDabell
You don't need it in Mobile Safari. Tap the paragraph icon to the left of the
address bar and it'll go into Reader View, which eliminates all that rubbish.

~~~
Flow
Or long-press on it and select Automatically use reader mode on this site.

~~~
hartator
Hum the main issues are e-commerce websites that are recognized by the reader
feature.

~~~
Flow
You can long-press to have it always off for a site too.

If you have a Mac, you can configure Safari there to default to a setting, say
using reader mode automatically or autoplay videos.

It seems these settings are shared with mobile Safari.

And then you can override these settings per site in Mac Safari, and only the
reader mode setting in mobile Safari.

A bit weird that you can't do it all in mobile Safari, it doesn't feel
finished.

------
mayneack
As a serial selecter, I wish it would get rid of the popup when you select
text. [https://imgur.com/G5x0U9P](https://imgur.com/G5x0U9P)

~~~
have_faith
Fellow serial selector here. Is there a formal name for what we do?

~~~
threepipeproblm
OMG I have found my people.

~~~
futurix
Me too! I thought it was just me...

------
thebaer
Hey, creator here. This is also available for Firefox:
[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/make-
medium-r...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/make-medium-
readable-again/)

And feel free to suggest any improvements, or submit a pull request on GitHub!
[https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA](https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA)

~~~
mastazi
Thank you for making this, in particular thank you for the "disable lazy
loading" option, which I have always found annoying when I'm on a slow
connection (which is very often since I'm in Australia).

~~~
chrismorgan
I _hate_ scroll-based lazy loading of images. It’s bad enough when latency is
merely high, as is commonly the case for such things for us in Australia, but
it’s actively hostile to unreliable internet connections. When I know I’m not
going to have an internet connection, I used to be able to just load pages,
and know that they’d be there when I got to them. But with lazily loaded
images? Nope.

(Non-scroll-based deferred loading of images is not necessarily bad, though I
don’t see much purpose in it.)

~~~
kuschku
As a developer that recently implemented lazy loading of inages, the goal is
simple: getting the site interactive and usable as fast as possible.

Most users stop reading without ever scrolling down, having already made a
decision yes or no.

So loading the content after scrolling down uses more of that users data plan,
and makes the site load slower.

That said, I simply replace the thumbnail with the actual image as soon as it
scrolls into the view, and let the browser do its own thing.

~~~
mastazi
Have you tried lazy loading as it is implemented specifically in Medium, while
on a slow connection? (Just head out to Medium, find a post that has several
pictures, and then you can simulate being a slow connection using developer
tools). Basically the previews are completely useless (just an unintelligible,
extremely blurry splash of colour without shape or form) and they are not
progressive (not many intermediate steps between the initial splash of colour
and the final picture, so you have to wait a long time anyway to even figure
out if you are interested into that particular picture or not), in addition it
seems to be computationally expensive (whild guess: perhaps because of the
overdone gaussian blur effect), which you notice when you try to scroll and
the scroll motion becomes choppy (even though I'm on a gaming PC with decent
specs). I much prefer the "blocky" look that many other lazy loading solutions
have, rather than the blurry look in Medium, because with the blocky look you
are more likely to guess what's depicted in the photo.

~~~
kuschku
Using non-progressive images with a blur is standard practice though, with
little alternative.

Because you often want to use png or webp for the final image, instead of jpg
(and these formats are non-progressive), and loading of progressive content
can’t be controlled by scrolling.

As for that blur, medium definitely overdoes it with that, doing it on the
canvas and all.

This is what my site looks like before lazy loading:
[https://i.imgur.com/O9YjU7o.png](https://i.imgur.com/O9YjU7o.png) and I’m
usually testing it on 3G and 2G to test performance – every image is available
with srcset in countless versions so your browser can additionally choose
which version it wants to show.

I’m always interested in improving this.

~~~
mastazi
Thanks for the insights (I have never implemented lazy loading myself so it's
interesting to read about it).

> As for that blur, medium definitely overdoes it with that, doing it on the
> canvas and all.

Yeah I find it really hostile from a UX point of view.

P.S. I just looked at your imgur and the ones that are more intelligible to me
are the smaller pictures in the bottom raw, while I wouldn't be able to say
what's in the first two larger pictures (interestingly, it seems that with
blurry pictures the larger the picture, the harder it is to guess the
contents).

~~~
kuschku
You can try yourself on quasseldroid.info if it loads better for you than
medium — usually it should.

That said, none of it is easy to optimize.

The ideal goal is to only load images if they're actually needed, only in the
size that is needed, to always show at least a placeholder, and to ensure the
loading never causes the page to reflow.

That's why all this complicated loading is used, to give the illusion of a
faster site.

------
hardwaresofton
Hope someone from Medium is reading this thread -- there's a problem with your
product if people who want to go to your site to take time and read consider
your site unreadable.

~~~
paulie_a
I appreciate the creators efforts here, but honestly medium just needs to get
their shit together. I use Reddit enhancement suite because it adds features.
This just makes a basic blogging platform useable for reading. Personally I've
just opted to not use medium any more.

~~~
therealmarv
Medium is dead. This is not a problem since yesterday... Medium has fallen in
the same trap it wanted to solve at the beginning. I advice everybody to stop
using Medium for their practices...

~~~
Lorkki
What would you say is the best alternative?

------
saagarjha
On Safari and Firefox we have a built-in way to remove distractions like
these, such as Reader mode. A cynical viewpoint on why Chrome doesn’t offer
this is that doing this would prevent you from seeing Google’s ads.

~~~
rwc
Don't think any cynicism at all is required to arrive at this conclusion.

~~~
nothrabannosir
I marvel at the creative genius that can come up with a, with any plausible
alternative explanation, to be honest.

~~~
GuiA
“At Google, we love the internet and creators who dedicate their life to
crafting webpages that are beautiful to look at and delightful to read. In
order to honor the hard work of these creatives, we have decided to not
implement the “reader mode” many other browsers have. You can rest assured
that Google will always do everything it can to support the visions of all who
make the internet as we love it possible.”

(Could also insert a sentence or two about how Google has AMP instead, leaving
“creators” in control unlike “reader modes”)

~~~
Nition
It's sad how plausible this is. Particularly in light of how Google explained
removing the "view image" button from Google images the other day:

"Today we're launching some changes on Google Images to help connect users and
useful websites."[1]

[1]
[https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/964226180776845312](https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/964226180776845312)

~~~
Buge
Two tweets down they mention they did it because of a lawsuit settlement.

~~~
Nition
They added that more truthful explanation a few hours later, due to the
barrage of hate and confusion their original tweet was getting.

~~~
michaelmrose
Ya lying to people smart enough to see through bullshit does that

------
gnicholas
The pictured hackernoon banners are especially visually intrusive. Hackernoon
also inserts text and image ads (inline) to some of the posts that
contributors make. The contributor is not notified of these edits, and chrome
extensions like this won’t catch them (and they are also neon green).

It might be good for their branding if my primary takeaway were positive, not
annoyed.

~~~
detaro
I always find it weird if a link shows up on twitter or HN and then a few days
later it appears again, now suddenly under this generic "hackernoon" branding.
Medium is bad enough at hiding author identity, mixing the good with the crap,
but hackernoon adds another layer and I just don't get it.

~~~
minimaxir
The value-proposition for the author by submitting to an Medium publisher like
HackerNoon is increased exposure, although I wonder if it's worth the cost of
having the personal brand obfuscated. (page views for a personal blog are a
vanity metric, after all)

Incidentally, whenever I see a HackerNoon or FreeCodeCamp domain on Hacker
News, it serves as an _anti-signal_ of quality, which is an interesting side
effect.

~~~
detaro
Same with the anti-signaling for me. Having the same issue with Medium too,
but at least there the author is in the URL.

------
kmfrk
I don’t for the life of me understand the people who write about programming
on Medium when the CMS doesn’t even have native syntax highlighting.

I wish I could tell people it’s straightforward to migrate from Medium, but it
involved a lot of annoying copy-pasting when I did it.

Sooner is better than later, though. Call it markup debt if you well.

~~~
drunkkcunt
[https://dev.to](https://dev.to) is such a great alternative to Medium for
programming posts. I really wish it catches up and becomes more popular

~~~
pmlnr
So is any blog engine with syntax highlighting, or even a simple HTML document
with something like prism-js[^1].

[^1]: [http://prismjs.com/](http://prismjs.com/)

------
arnaudsm
Medium was specifically created because of bloated blogs. It has become the
very thing it ought to destroy.

~~~
scrollaway
It's the cycle of people who want to "do things better".

Step 1: Find a type of website experience that sucks for users. Example:
Blogging, image sharing.

Step 2: It's so simple! Just do the same, improve on the UX, don't plaster
ads, have a clean site and give it a cool name. Example: Medium, Imgur.

Step 3: As people flock to your site because it's cleaner than the
alternatives, have the lightbulb moment: "Oh wow, I could monetize all these
users!". So you plaster the site with ads, marketing gimmicks and what not and
you don't suffer for it. It's not that it works. It's just that you have a
userbase that trusts you and is already used to you. They don't know anyone
else.

What are your users gonna do, build their own site that doesn't suck?

It really is a depressing, wasteful cycle.

~~~
wepple
> It really is a depressing, wasteful cycle.

I do agree with this, but I believe we can make it at least not-as-bad.

I recently started a new blog & evaluated a load of options, Medium was one. I
quickly decided it had become a cesspool of attention engineering and social
widgets, and ultimately settled on self-hosting, with no banner adds or social
rubbish.

Can the average public do this? I’d argue it’s not trivial nor inexpensive
currently, but maybe that’s worth fixing? Encourage people to move off
centralized platforms for sharing content, and maintain control.

~~~
scrollaway
Since we're talking about blogging platforms I might as well plug Ghost:
[https://ghost.org/](https://ghost.org/)

I recently moved my company's blog to it. This is an open source, self-
hostable markdown blog engine with an excellent featureset and some great
default themes, and a paid hosted plan.

Official Ghost blog: [https://blog.ghost.org](https://blog.ghost.org)

My company's blog:
[https://articles.hsreplay.net](https://articles.hsreplay.net)

------
amelius
Note: this plugin can read and change all the data on the websites you visit.

~~~
erichurkman
Extensions that do this terrify me. Imagine a popular Chrome extension, say,
Fireshot, with 2 million active installs, selling out. The next update of the
app gets shipped with a screen scraper that looks at coinbase.com. Some time
after you've last visited your dashboard, it opens a connection on some
entirely unrelated site and posts to the 'send' page to send all of your BTC
to a third party address.

Or if you have 2FA enabled for sends, just intercept the send POST with an
address of your choice, but display the user's originally input address on the
confirmation screen. To make it even more confusing, keep a list of
transactions:intended accounts so any time the user looks on _any_ bitcoin
site it shows the transaction was going to the right account.

~~~
pjc50
The bitcoin people will tell you that if you're using the same computer to
browse the web as to hold a bitcoin wallet, you're doing it wrong.

(there are other conclusions one could reach from this, such as the
disadvantages of being your own uninsured bank)

~~~
dominotw
Isn't that how silk road guy got caught by the feds.

~~~
sincerely
i thought he signed up for a forum with an email tied to his real life
identity but used his previously anon handle

~~~
r3bl
It was a StackOverflow question he posted while creating Silk Road, in which
he used his real name (before switching to the "frosty" alias in under a
minute).

And his SSH key had both the username and hostname set to that alias
("frosty@frosty"), which is how they connected him to Silk Road.

Specifically, it was this question:
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15445285/how-can-i-
conne...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15445285/how-can-i-connect-to-a-
tor-hidden-service-using-curl-in-php)

------
hprotagonist
[https://medium.com/@tgaul/introducing-
unobstruct-230e4e95cf5...](https://medium.com/@tgaul/introducing-
unobstruct-230e4e95cf5e)

Unobstruct is a good anti-dickbar tool for iOS.

------
amelius
Better idea: make the internet readable again.

Perhaps using a combination of AI/ML and collaborative raw-text extraction.

~~~
madeofpalk
You mean Safari's (and presumably any other browser) Reader Mode?

[https://imgur.com/a/qsYrf](https://imgur.com/a/qsYrf)

~~~
interatx
That's what I use on firefox. Works great most of the time.

~~~
amelius
Thanks, just tried it, but it seems to remove all images, also the relevant
ones :(

~~~
jamesgeck0
It depends how they’re added to the site. In-line images on Ars Technica
appear fine.

~~~
amelius
Yes, and that's exactly why it probably needs some AI/ML or some collaborative
user input ;)

~~~
jamesgeck0
Medium inserts the images as you scroll; they don't show up if you extract the
text before scrolling down.

------
fancyfacebook
I've gotten so used to right clicking and removing the offensive parts of
websites in ublock origin that I always find it shocking just how bad the web
is on a new machine. So many banners, so many subscription lists, so many
useless social bars.

It's also kind of silly that I have four different extensions just to shield
myself from how bad the web has gotten. I feel like I'm going under red alert
every time I want to check my email.

~~~
pmlnr
> every time I want to check my email.

Ever considered using a non-web email client? K9, Tunderbird, Evolution,
Kmail, Geary, mutt, alpine, etc?

------
noahster11
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15123638](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15123638)

------
B1FF_PSUVM
Sheesh, why do we need tools for user-hostile layouts?

I hate reading between slats on Medium, don't they realize that?

What's their incentive for it?

~~~
madeofpalk
Increases usage?

~~~
tragic
Does it? Does anyone just go to medium.com and see what's going on rather than
being linked to some specific article? Is there anything about the medium
reading experience that means someone would rather go to them specifically
rather than where the content they want happens to be? Are they trying to lure
writers that way? I don't get it.

I mean, I'm sure they know their business and everything. Again: I don't get
it.

~~~
madeofpalk
Well, that's the _incentive_ for Medium to do it. Only they would know whether
it works or not. It sticking around suggests it does. However, success hides
all problems.

------
codedokode
Every time I visit medium, it shows a popup reminding me how much times I
visited it before. Do they want to make me feel guilty for visiting too often?

------
rayalez
I have made a stylish stylesheet with a similar purpose:

[https://userstyles.org/styles/150108/medium-
custom](https://userstyles.org/styles/150108/medium-custom)

But it is more focused on the writing experience.

I really love medium's editor, but I wanted a dark theme (more comfortable for
the eyes), and to remove all the clutter so I could focus on no-distractions
writing.

I hope you'll find it useful =)

------
lykahb
Recently I've released an extension that hides the sticky elements. It works
on all sites including Medium.
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sticky-
ducky/gklhn...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sticky-
ducky/gklhneccajklhledmencldobkjjpnhkd)

------
Rskeats
I have found a Chrome extension over a month ago called "Sticky Header Hider
aka Fixed Header Fixer" by Emojistuff which works very well. Yesterday I found
the other one "Make Medium Readable again" by A Bunch Tell when I changed my
search term from "Sticky Headers etc" to dickbars and found I am not the only
one being tormented by those things. I also see another extension for Apple
called Unobstruct.

I like the option "Disable lazy image loading". I have noticed that. I thought
it was for constantly loading of adverts.

Pleased to see something done about this annoying practice.

They think I am so stupid that I can't locate the navigation bar so they have
to ram in my face/fixed line of site constantly.

So nice to have the freedom back without any work in hiding things with
Adblock or clicking that bookmark for most sites.

------
sagichmal
Why does this extension need permission to "read and change all your data on
websites you visit"?

~~~
thebaer
So it works on custom domains like hackernoon.com [0]

[0]:
[https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA/blob/master/content.js#L66](https://github.com/thebaer/MMRA/blob/master/content.js#L66)

------
cabalamat
The Kill Sticky bookmarklet does a lot of this, and works on most sites, not
just Medium: [https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-
headers/](https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/)

------
wooque
Or if you are using uBlock Origin add this to custom filters

    
    
      ##.u-fixed

------
t0mislav
Technology is progressing fast, but I think UX is going down more and more.

To be able to read basic text, we need to fix things by ourselves, make
scripts, addons, etc.

Soon we will need fix for this, fix for that, fix for everything.

------
cztomsik
Now we need something which will silently remove React hype articles :-D

------
ziikutv
I like this plugin. Thanks. I do not like the recent “pivot” if oh will of
medium allowing branding etc. It’s not executed perfectly; though I do not
have a better solution in mind.

------
kristianp
This looks great, now how to get rid of these annoyances on Android Chrome?
Especially the uncloseable "get app" button.

~~~
edjroot
Not to sound edgy, but you don't (and probably never will). Use Firefox
instead and be happy with your extensions :)

------
ZachSaucier
Why not make all the web readable again?
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/just-
read/dgmanlpm...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/just-
read/dgmanlpmmkibanfdgjocnabmcaclkmod/)

------
rch
Does this mainly fix things that are annoying to non-members?

I've considered making an extension to retool the "clap" nonsense myself, but
for readability Medium is second only to mobile-friendly view on Android most
of the time.

------
sandeep5630
Hii its a great topic to discuss <a
href="[https://www.fortechinfo.com">free](https://www.fortechinfo.com">free)
paytm cash</a>

------
sandeep5630
Hii its a great topic to discuss
[https://www.fortechinfo.com](https://www.fortechinfo.com)

------
klintcho
Not sure if my comment here is relevant, but the past 5 - 8 days or something
Medium (logged in) changed for me significantly. I can now only see the main
header stories and some top lists to the right:

[https://imgur.com/a/bfdHb](https://imgur.com/a/bfdHb)

The mobile just says "You've made it through your stories for now". Has anyone
else experienced this the past days ? Have they expanded their subscription
model to include even articles that are not "paywalled" ?

------
orliesaurus
You could just use ublock and get rid of those parts manually on articles
pages

------
joelrunyon
Outline.com is a great tool to quickly do this with any webpage.

~~~
dredmorbius
Strongly seconded.

[https://outline.com](https://outline.com)

Works where Reader Mode isn't an option.

------
feelin_googley
Medium looks fine in a text-only browser such as links. Better than most
websites in fact.

------
debt
I thought this was going to make Medium more readable; but it literally makes
Medium more readable.

~~~
colejohnson66
What?

~~~
ygaf
He means the articles themselves didn't change.

------
andrethegiant
Enough of the "Make X Y Again" please, it does nothing but refer to negative
connotations.

~~~
isseu
But this is actually a solution...

~~~
andrethegiant
I don't doubt that it is. Why someone would want to associate their
app/tool/product with a controversial political slogan is beyond me.

~~~
Retra
Why would would someone want to censor themselves just because people they
don't like want a monopoly on language? Is acting in a milquetoast manner
attempting the broadest appeal more important than having common sense and
integrity?

~~~
geofft
> _Why would would someone want to censor themselves just because people they
> don 't like want a monopoly on language?_

All effective communication is "censoring yourself". When I say that I'm a
software engineer, I'm refusing to say that I'm a kazoo player, because I
intend to convey the idea that people get when they hear "I'm a software
engineer" and not the idea that people get when they hear "I'm a kazoo
player." No matter how much I dislike (or like) kazoo players, I'm not going
to attempt to reclaim the term from them.

And the English language is descriptive, not prescriptive. When a phrase has a
well-established meaning - whether that meaning was first by commoners 400
years ago, or commoners today, or (for some languages) a bunch of academics in
an ivory tower today - people are going to think I mean that meaning when I
use the phrase. If I want my communication to be effective, it's on me to pick
words that I expect people will understand, not on my audience to figure out
what I really meant.

When I communicate, I intend to communicate the most accurate thing I can to,
yes, the broadest audience I can.

~~~
Retra
I'm not saying self-censorship is bad, I'm saying that if you do it because
someone else misappropriated some language, then you're on a clear path to
only saying what other people permit. And this is especially wrong when those
'other people' are actively trying to undermine your ability to communicate.

------
jayzalowitz
Hey, one of the founders of Hackernoon here.

Love what this does, could you make it removing fixed positioning instead?
Basically this kills all of our branding. we try to maintain a quality
threshold for our community, and as such hope that yall notice our colors and
at least consider that it might be worth it to read.

Personally, Id love something that minimized the nav to the bottom while
moving but thats just me.

This is amazing work! Thanks for helping the community!

~~~
thangngoc89
> could you make it removing fixed positioning instead?

This is actually what it does. Hackernoon is a resourceful site but I hate
reading it. I usually open Chrome Developer Tool and kill the header + bottom
engagement bar manually. If I'm too lazy, I just close the tab. I'm so glad I
found this extension.

~~~
jayzalowitz
Yeah, we don't have control of our layout like that :( I derped really hard
and didn't notice it was just making it fixed from the photos (I was mobile
when commenting)

