Exploring a new medium
A bleeding-edger’s first time experience with a new publishing platform.
Less than thirty seconds ago, I was sent an email inviting me to write on Medium, the website you’re looking at right now (if you happen to be reading these words. And, I’m posting here about my unfettered gut opinions about it.
Why?
Why not. I figure it can’t hurt the world to have a Jack Kerouac-esque stream-of-consciousness review of someone’s first thoughts on this — and if you happen to trust me for some strange reason, you actually may find it useful. I won’t go so far as to guarantee that.
Everyone is probably wondering how you can include pictures. Rest assured, you can. I just dragged this handsome man from my desktop onto the web browser, and he placed himself in the page, quite properly. I get the sense there’s a bit of grid based design in play here. It may seem strict to some, but I’d venture to say there’s a reason for it. The reason? Grid based design, simply, looks clean. My first gripe, however, comes with this as well — I love the implementation of the side caption, but it seems like text is running itself off the side of the browser. Still, not bad for bleeding-edge beta. Bugs are part of the game. I’m okay with it. You should be too.
What stands out, so far, is the readability, from the standpoint of the writer and the reader. And, perhaps that’s the key. I like the idea that this is meant to be a place for long-form content, and for it to be that, it must not only look good, but, in addition,feel good.
Writing feels natural here, and what comes out on the page looks like a nice representation of a page out of a printed paperback. That might not seem like much to say, but I think it actually is: when you compare the multitude of personal publishing options a writer has, why not go for the relative gold? If you’re going to do something in this arena, make it easy for words to transfer from your fingers on keys to the page you see in front of you.
“After someone actually does it correctly, the other options seem left in the relative dust.” - Jeremy Peters
Yes, I just quoted myself. But, only to see how the quotes looked.
You’re able to break sections, like I just did above, with a double tap of return and if you need to make another break, but perhaps not one as severe, there are headings you can add.
In closing…
I thought I’d include a H2 to go with the H1 I used earlier.
In all actuality, I find myself fairly happy with this, and excited to use it more. I see use cases for it in education, news, and posting just plain interesting long form stories. I wonder if it might make a nice place for me to speak at length about my trip to the United Kingdom coming up next month.
Hopefully, I remember that it still exists. My guess is that I will, based on this initial run in with Medium.
