
I have no reason to click on a Medium link - a3n
I just saw an interesting headline on hacker news. When I hovered over the link (to decide whether to click) I saw this:<p><pre><code>  https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;1e695c46077e.
</code></pre>
There is nothing in that link to attract me to the page, and I did not click. Medium itself, a mere blogging platform (I don&#x27;t care what they call themselves), is not enough to get me to click. There&#x27;s nothing about &quot;1e695c46077e&quot; to remind me that I may have liked something from them before.<p>I pass over Medium links a lot, probably more than once a day, in that very scenario.<p>Medium and its users should probably consider that.<p>&quot;We don’t know all the answers. But we know that words matter (still), so we built a better system for sharing them.&quot;<p>OK, maybe it is better. But I haven&#x27;t seen any reason to visit lots and lots of Medium links (I do visit some). The web is large.<p>And to 1e695c46077e, good luck with your writing endeavors.
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xauronx
What do you expect to see in the URL to let you know it's good to read?

[https://medium.com/p/JohnSmith?Rating=★★★★&Degree=PHD&TLDR=C...](https://medium.com/p/JohnSmith?Rating=★★★★&Degree=PHD&TLDR=Coffee+is+good+this+is+why)

Damn, I was building that sarcastically, but it's actually pretty awesome.

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ozh
Where is "Favorite that comment" button when you need it?

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seiji
Remember when websites were 100% focused on "content without scrolling?" Now
medium has gone batshit crazy with their "NO CONTENT WITHOUT SCROLLING!"

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coldtea
> _There is nothing in that link to attract me to the page, and I did not
> click._

There's this thing called the anchor text of the link. You can try reading
this instead of the URL which is meant mainly for machines.

There's a very thick line behind nice-to-have friendly URLS and judging what
to read from the url itself.

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a3n
There's the title link on the HN page, and when you (I) hover over that, all I
see is the link, no human-relevant text. Firefox 26 and Chromium whatever on
Wheezy 7.now.

The title of the article looks interesting, but there's nothing to tell me
that the writer has any credibility, in the subject or in general. Also
nothing to tell me whether the writer does _not_ have credibility.

What I'm looking for is reputational clues. (medium.com) after the link is not
enough for me, because there's nothing about medium that tells me anyone
associated with them will be worth reading; membership is random with almost
no gatekeeping (which is fine). (wired.com) or (schneier.com) is enough, the
one because I know from history that they have content that I like, and
schneier because it's schneier.

There's no such clue in an association with medium, and a randomly generated
user name. Note that I'm also looking for _future_ reputation: if I see a new
source, will I remember it in the future?

There's just not enough to go on, for me. Whoever the writer is should at
least think about making themselves more identifiable; the same for medium
users in general.

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coldtea
> _There 's the title link on the HN page, and when you (I) hover over that,
> all I see is the link, no human-relevant text_

The _title_ is the human readable text. You're not supposed to go reading the
link itself for human-relevant text.

> _What I 'm looking for is reputational clues. (medium.com) after the link is
> not enough for me, because there's nothing about medium that tells me anyone
> associated with them will be worth reading; membership is random with almost
> no gatekeeping_

You saw a link for an article on HN and you didn't click to see it because of
a lack of "reputational clues" in the URL link?

I like reputational clues too. If only there was some kind of social
bookmarking site, where a community of people with some common interests could
vote for articles, and you can read their _titles_ and see their vote count
and go click on them.

A man can dream right?

> _There 's just not enough to go on, for me. Whoever the writer is should at
> least think about making themselves more identifiable; the same for medium
> users in general._

A nice-to-have as a URL requirement that you have blown out of proportion.
You're using the web wrongly.

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fuj
Seriously? No one is asking you to memorize a link. You see the anchor text
and you click on it if you like it. How hard is it? You just took nitpicking
to a different level.

