
Ask HN: Should I blog on Medium for my open-source project, or self-host? - cocktailpeanuts
I see a lot of open source projects keep a blog to make announcements about their milestones and updates.<p>Some have their self-hosted blogs, but I also see a lot of open source projects (including very popular ones) using Medium.com.<p>I thought it was a nice timing to ask this question considering today&#x27;s news about medium. Is it worth it to use medium as your project&#x27;s main blog? Appreciate any ideas.
======
Zren
If you don't mind all "" in your code blocks getting turned into unicode
open/close quotes, and the lack of a markdown editor, then sure. Tab also
doesn't indent. You can't use `code tags` for variables. Pre tags (code
blocks) create a new paragraph instead of a line break (<br>). So basically
not a programming blog. You can create a gist and paste the link, but that's a
terrible workaround.

~~~
misframer
I think you can copy and paste code and it keeps the double quotes intact.

~~~
Zren
Huh, that's new. You can now type ` and ``` first to start code/pre tags.
[https://i.imgur.com/brsG4BO.png](https://i.imgur.com/brsG4BO.png)

Shit, they added that back in November. I probably should have checked first
before writing my review.

[https://blog.medium.com/introducing-three-new-features-to-
te...](https://blog.medium.com/introducing-three-new-features-to-tell-
beautiful-stories-on-medium-7d1af3bb26d8#.rz8ga9kub)

You still have to start the code block (```) first before pasting I think.

------
metachris
I recommend a static generator such as Jekyll [1]. If you want a boilerplate
to get up and running quickly, i've put the source of my blog [2] on Github:
[https://github.com/metachris/jekyll-
boilerplate](https://github.com/metachris/jekyll-boilerplate)

[1] [https://jekyllrb.com](https://jekyllrb.com)

[2] [https://www.metachris.com](https://www.metachris.com)

~~~
dalore
Does it automatically create an rss feed link also?

~~~
metachris
yes, see here: [https://github.com/metachris/jekyll-
boilerplate/blob/master/...](https://github.com/metachris/jekyll-
boilerplate/blob/master/source/atom.xml)

------
thenomad
One point that people seem not to be mentioning here: Medium offers some
discoverability. Self-hosting doesn't.

That's only a concern if you care about how many people read your blog, but if
you do, it's a concern.

Medium's also very readable. If you choose your own theme for your blog, the
chances are you'll hit a theme that's "less readable". Often, programming
blogs are a LOT less readable. So that's worth considering too.

(All other points made elsewhere about control of your content, compatibility
with FOSS philosophy, etc, are good ones too and I won't repeat them here.)

Cross-posting to both a self-hosted blog and Medium isn't a bad solution. Or
use a custom domain, as suggested.

~~~
bksenior
This is the only important point. The question is 1% technology and 99%
audience.

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
I agree with this, BUT.

I think when we say "audience", it can mean different things.

For example, Medium has potential to bring a huge "instant" audience, but
there's a difference between instant audience and long term audience.

I just went and took a look at all the large open source projects, and they
all have their own blog on their own domain. AND, what comes next is
important. They have:

1\. RSS feed button

2\. Link to subscribe to the blog via email

I think these are important in the long term if you are thinking about looking
at your open source project from a long term point of view. Medium may give
you instant traffic, but most of them don't really care about what you have to
say.

Whereas having your own custom domain with a way for people to subscribe via
RSS or email will give you a long term audience who are actually genuinely
interested in your project. And with those formats it is very likely that your
message will reach them, compared to medium where it may just flow away from
their timeline without them ever noticing.

~~~
thenomad
Going back to the original point, we're actually talking about slightly
different things: you're talking about audience retention (making sure that
someone comes back), not discoverability (making sure they find you in the
first place).

Neither an RSS feed nor a subscribe link enable people to find you in the
first place. They do, however, make it more likely that they'll come back
after finding you.

You should absolutely also build retention techniques into your Medium posts.
And your custom blog. And anywhere else where you care about people reading
your content, and keeping on reading it.

------
pknight
Use WordPress.com's hosted WordPress with a custom domain if maintenance is a
concern. If you ever decide to go selfhosted, migration is seemless.

All the other hosted platforms frankly could stop working a year or two from
now. Medium doesn't have a viable business model and probably won't get one,
it's only a matter of time when it closes shop, like many other platforms
before it.

~~~
ergot
It will eventually end up on Archive.org. Self hosting is not an antidote to
this I think, and sometimes the free services like Wordpress/Blogger last
longer.

In the end, there is no escape from bit rot, yet things like IPFS[1] are
trying to solve this.

[1]: [https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs](https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs)

------
Insanity
I would self host. Maybe crosspost to Medium as others have suggested here.
Alternatively I do think github pages like has been mentioned is good if you
do not want to set up your own blog (even though it really is not that hard).

The reason I would not just post on Medium is simply because you are depend on
them. What if Medium at some point shuts down, you lose all your content.

------
nishs
It would be helpful to read Medium's Terms of Service before you make your
decision.

Most websites have these conditions, but I've copied the most jarring ones
below for what it's worth [0]:

> We can remove any content you post for any reason.

> We may change, terminate, or restrict access to any aspect of the service,
> at any time, without notice.

[0] [https://medium.com/policy/medium-terms-of-
service-9db0094a1e...](https://medium.com/policy/medium-terms-of-
service-9db0094a1e0f#.l9gdnx5i7)

------
aorth
I believe that self hosting is more inline with open source software
principles. Even if it weren't, self hosting gives you control over your
content—remember, nothing is really "free." Self hosting takes a bit more time
and effort but if you use a static site generator like Hugo or Pelican then
the process is more simple.

~~~
confounded
Another advantage is that you can allow interested readers a full RSS feed.
Medium's is just the title and a link, which puts me off subscribing to blogs
there.

~~~
Vinnl
I think I usually get full articles, but also _all_ comment replies by that
author. That gets old quickly as well.

------
gagginaspinnata
I'd use github pages with jekyll. Easy, superfast and free.

~~~
candidtim
Agree. Specifically as the original question concerns an open source project I
think GitHub pages makes perfect sense. Otherwise you can likewise deploy
Jekyll-generated site on own host (or move from GitHub pages later).

------
djmashko2
I've found Medium incredibly useful for my open source blogging. First and
foremost, it saves me from a ton of hassle picking a platform and theme for
something like Wordpress, since it looks great on pretty much every device out
of the box. It also has some great features that let people from the community
submit posts to our publication.

Also, Medium is a great way for people to follow a variety of blogs - so not
only do we still get all of the reads we get from normal sources like Twitter,
sharing, etc, but you get a lot of people reading your posts from their Medium
feed. In fact, for a lot of posts most of the views come from our Medium
subscribers.

I agree with other commenters that setting up a custom domain is a good idea
if you think you might want to move to some other platform in the future,
especially if Medium is not around forever.

------
jumasheff
If you like hacking things yourself (with React), I'd recommend to host your
blog on Github Pages. Take a look at my (in progress) blog [1] and its
code[2]. It uses 'Single Page Apps for GitHub Pages' [3] and renders markdown
(needs some tweaking).

1\. [https://jumasheff.github.io/](https://jumasheff.github.io/) 2\.
[https://github.com/jumasheff/jumasheff.github.io](https://github.com/jumasheff/jumasheff.github.io)
3\. [https://github.com/rafrex/spa-github-
pages/](https://github.com/rafrex/spa-github-pages/)

------
kaushalmodi
Hugo static site generator (free) + Gitlab CI (free) + custom domain (not too
expensive) works great! Just commit posts in Markdown and your site gets
updated. Example: [http://scripter.co](http://scripter.co)

~~~
renaissancec
bump on the github recommendation - Wordpress etc likely too much work for
what you need. Also Medium's announcement on staffing doesn't inspire
confidence in the mid-term and difficult to export posts from there.

------
w1ntermute
Write the posts on a self-hosted site, then syndicate them to Medium and share
those links on social media.

Another option is to use a custom domain with Medium[0]. That way, if Medium
goes out of business, you could just set up a self-hosted replacement blog
with redirects for the URLs for the posts you made on Medium.

0: [https://help.medium.com/hc/en-
us/articles/213474588](https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/213474588)

~~~
djsumdog
Highly recommend buying a domain. You can always point it to a new hosting
provider.

You can also buy managed Ghost, WordPress, etc for not that much. I think both
pro accounts allow custom domains and exporting.

If you're a developer, or comfortable with code, static web site generation
(Hugo, Jekyll, middleman, etc) might be an option too.

------
ChrisRR
Use both. While medium.com gets a lot more traffic than your personal blog
will, it also has a reputation for low quality posts from self-professed
"experts"

------
pedrorijo91
I would prefer to keep a blog, probably using github project pages. It is more
customisable (it's true medium offers a clean UI without any effort), and
GitHub has given more proofs to stay alive for a long time. On GitHub pages,
you own the content, and it's fairly easy to adapt to new platforms if you
wish to change. If you wish to change from medium, is it easy?

------
alex_hitchins
You might want to consider GitLab pages with your own domain/subdomain. This
is the route I'd take if I was in your shoes.

------
manuw
I prefer generator like Jekyll and host it on github. When you want a little
discovery, Medium can help

------
lmm
Medium looks great, is easy to work with, and blog posts are easy to migrate
when you need to. I would start there at least until you get your project off
the ground. If you reach the point that it's worth putting more time into your
blogging you can look at alternatives.

I certainly wouldn't use Github pages - it's just as centralized/non-
FOSS/etc., but more work and tends to look less good. Wordpress gives you
self-hostability but means you're running on PHP. In the long term I'd hope
for a sandstorm-based self-hostable blog that's as easy to use (and looks as
good) as Medium, but I'm not aware of such a thing existing yet.

------
ioloop
ReStructuredText with Sphinx is wonderful. The syntax isn't the most
intuitive, however once you have overcome this small hurdle, it can boost your
productivity enormously.

In terms of deployment, using Sphinx enables you to easily deploy to
readthedocs.io, or github pages.

Since it is a static site generate, it also enables you to use bootstrap, any
javascript front-end library you wish to use, so nothing stops you from having
web-application type behaviour and interactions in your posts. It also
integrates nicely with extensions, such as mermaid, to make graphs inline with
your posts. It can include code snippets from code, offers syntax highlighting
and a lot more.

------
RUG3Y
One thing to consider is if you're a good fit for Medium. The strength of
Medium is that it's a platform with an audience, and your articles will get
seen by people right away. I find Medium to be a bit of an echo chamber. You
can see this in which articles get "liked" the most - lots of "edgy" articles
and top ten lists. There are exceptions and there is some good content on
Medium, but I found that I didn't really fit in with the average Medium user -
and rightly so, I'm barely a Millennial, I'm becoming a cranky old guy and I'm
probably not within their target market.

------
taherchhabra
Medium.com is blocked in Malaysia. So you won't have any audience from
Malaysia.

------
SallySwanSmith
I think it vastly depends on your users. Generally, I would recommend self-
hosting on the same domain as the project landing page or similar. It's
unlikely in my opinion that users would bother to read your posts on medium.

------
leonj360
If its truly for just announcements, then evaluate several options and pick
the simplest for you. Always remember that chances are very high that over
time your goals for the blog will change and will outgrow your choice anyway.

If you are considering blogging for more than announcements and are new to
authoring blogs, then I recommend "256 Bloghacks" by Yegor256 as a good
starting point to know what to expect, and good ideas to consider.
[http://amzn.to/2i07fs2](http://amzn.to/2i07fs2)

------
iyogeshjoshi
As many said before I think going for a custom domain and using Github Pages
with it would be great idea and to get proper audience for the same you can
post the link on different relative forums.

------
bemmu
I was blogging on Posterous and had some articles ranking nicely on Google,
until one day Posterous just shut down. From then on I decided I want to be in
control of the domain where my posts live.

I realize Medium gives you discoverability, but so do some other places
(posting to LinkedIn, text posts to relevant subreddits etc.) so I would
suggest cross-posting to those after posting the link to your own site and
adding it to webmaster tools so it will get indexed first.

------
chuhnk
I maintain both [https://medium.com/microhq](https://medium.com/microhq) and
[https://blog.micro.mu](https://blog.micro.mu) for my OSS project Micro.
Hosting on medium is a great way to increase readership, discovery and
sharing. My recommendation is to definitely host on medium.

------
Thomas_9
Talking about self-hosting blog, I am surprise nobody mentioned Bludit. I left
Wordpress for Bludit a while ago and I am really happy.

I even wrote an article about it : [http://softwarebythomas.com/blog/post/Why-
I-left-wordpress-f...](http://softwarebythomas.com/blog/post/Why-I-left-
wordpress-for-BLUDIT)!

~~~
cholantesh
That link seems to lead to a 404.

~~~
Thomas_9
It is because it didn't included the !

Link :

[http://softwarebythomas.com/blog/post/Why-I-left-
wordpress-f...](http://softwarebythomas.com/blog/post/Why-I-left-wordpress-
for-BLUDIT)!

~~~
Thomas_9
Argh!

~~~
cholantesh
Hehe; no worries. You do make a compelling case in the post.

------
cocktailpeanuts
I see a lot of answers saying "use both". Do you guys mean "Write the posts on
a self-hosted site, then syndicate them to Medium and share those links on
social media", as w1ntermute said?

I'm curious how you can use both. if you have two sites and share both links,
what links would people share? Doesn't this make it more confusing for
sharers?

~~~
straws
[https://github.com/aarongustafson/jekyll-crosspost-to-
medium](https://github.com/aarongustafson/jekyll-crosspost-to-medium) is a
fair option if you have a Jekyll blog. Many static site generators include an
idea of "publishing targets", and often include an easy way of making plugins.

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
Thank you, but I was more asking about how you would manage cross posting in
terms of sharing, not in terms of technicality.

------
thinkMOAR
[https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/04/medium-lays-
off-50-employe...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/04/medium-lays-
off-50-employees-shuts-down-new-york-and-d-c-offices/)

Maybe this article of today, will help you decide

------
nnn1234
Use medium for discoverability and readability Use GitHub pages /Jekyll to
keep inline with FOSS Ideal solution Host on GitHub pages with cross linking
to custom domain medium post

------
obasa
GitHub pages is a good choice. It's free, you can bind your own domain.

------
kumarski
Crosspost with custom excerpts for each platform:

1\. Quora

2\. Medium

3\. PostHaven

4\. LinkedIn

5\. Tumblr

6\. BlogSpot

------
k__
how about blogging such things in dev.to? They seem a bit Mord focused in
development :)

------
musiic703
both.

------
nrjdhsbsid
Use both medium absorbs a lot of SEO that Google would otherwise send straight
to you

------
ry4n413
When I first started I installed SharePoint 2016 and had that running on a
local server as my blog. Was all good until I noticed someone was pinging my
local machines somehow. luckily I had Kaspersky Business Solutions installed
as trial. I Shut everything down and went with blogger.

~~~
wieiocoooc
What's a sharepoint and how does kaspersky av relate to the question asked?

~~~
ry4n413
Typed it up on my phone, so yea.

I have SharePoint Online through Office 365. I like SharePoint's blogging
layout, but the only problem that I found eventually was that you can't share
your blog publicly without have users create login.

My solution, install it on my home server running Windows 2016 and Kasperky
Endpoint Security. So, I created a VM with Windows 2016 installed ShapePoint.
Had everything setup and went a couple days, all good. I checked the Kasperky
log and notice a high alert item that said (forgot name of attack, but they
were scanning folders on parallel systems). I looked at IP location, was
somewhere in South America, and I said to myself, "Screw this, I don't know
enough about Internet Security" and I shut down the studio... and went with
blogger.

Moral of story, if you self-host, make sure you know what you are doing.

