
Ask HN: Do you read Medium.com - bdehaaff
I am attracted to the visual nature of the site and the ease at posting content -- which I do often for Aha.io But the reality is that posts that drive 15K views elsewhere drive 50 there. Do you read Medium.com? If not, why?
======
pradn
If a link leads to Medium, I tend to avoid the article. Just like Buzzfeed,
Upworthy, Forbes, etc.

~~~
bdehaaff
Can you tell me more about why you avoid it? What is it about Medium that
turns you off?

~~~
chmullig
For me, it's because Medium is frequently poorly researched and/or written
blogspam. The URL provides no context about who or what wrote it.

~~~
bdehaaff
Ok, so you perceive it to be more spammy with lower quality content than HN or
other sites. What other sites are at the top of your pyramid? Also, are you a
dev?

------
benologist
Every time I see a medium url on HN I shudder and skip past content that just
feels manufactured and forced on us.

~~~
bdehaaff
It's interesting that you think they are manufactured. I find the non
technical content on par with what is posted to HN. Can you share more about
why you have this opinion?

~~~
benologist
Part of it is volume. HNSearch suggests medium got 425 submissions in the last
4 weeks. That's a higher submission volume than TechCrunch (327), ArsTechnica
(193) or the BBC (195) or even The Guardian who broke most Snowden/NSA news
(181).

Belying this volume is an almost complete lack of quality. The most popular 10
articles in the last 4 weeks from medium and the above sites:

medium:

    
    
        150  136  107   47   32   28   17   16   14   13
    

TC:

    
    
        462  183  175  146  141  120  113   99   80   74
    

Ars:

    
    
        524  316  271  212  183  170  149  122  121  109
    

BBC:

    
    
        915  167  166  123  110   93   81   75   59   58
    

Guardian:

    
    
        388  328  293  185  184  183  182  156  162  149
    

The best of medium is just not very good anymore and it's a sharp and sudden
fall into very forgettable content which makes you wonder why it's even
submitted let alone so much.

------
Disruptive_Dave
Almost daily. It's like shopping at Marshall's (might just be an East Coast
store) - there are some really killer finds amongst the muck, you just need to
be aware enough to recognize them. (Particularly since it opened to everyone
recently.)

~~~
bdehaaff
Ok, so you actually are a reader. I think your point is true for all news
sites. And just fyi, Marshalls is also on the West Coast.

~~~
Disruptive_Dave
Big time reader (and contributor). Fell in love with it from the first day,
couldn't wait to be invited. It's certainly gone downhill a bit since it
opened up to everyone (spotted spam a few times), but still some great writers
that choose it as a distribution platform. And thanks on Marshalls, lol.

------
lsiunsuex
If a link points to medium.com (such as from HN or twitter or somewhere else)
and I intend to read the article, yes, I read it. But I don't goto medium to
browse news.

~~~
bdehaaff
I wonder if that is a common theme. I am curious to hear what others say. It
might also just be the nature of "news" sites.

~~~
lsiunsuex
Personally, the reason I don't go directly to medium for news is I think their
content is all over the place. Some articles are about life lessons, some are
about programming, some about startups, etc... If I'm reading the news, I tend
to look for a given theme at any given time. If I'm working, I'm looking to
read about programming stuff. If I'm watching TV and I have a laptop in front
of me, I may want to read about current events Going to HN or gizmodo or ...
usually presents me with a specific topic. Medium (IMO) does not.

~~~
bdehaaff
Interesting. I just noticed today, while posting an article, that they now
have additional categories which further splinter the news. It allows for more
specific tagging of content but makes it harder for posters and readers to
hone in on what they are interested in.

------
OafTobark
No. It seems they allow anyone to write on medium and most of the authors seem
to be pretty bad at providing quality content.

