Are Other Featured Articles on Trendy Topics Needed on Medium?
In the Partner Program updates email of April 3, not surprisingly, I read the upcoming editorial calendar (yes, it seems we need that, on Medium) with the topics the editorial team will focus on — and feature — over the following weeks.
One of the four topics stood out:
“Blockchain for the uninitiated: Beyond the jargon and breathless ICO announcements, we’re looking for accessible, insightful stories about why blockchain technology is important and what it means for the future of everything (not just your digital wallet).”
Now, the Blockchain tag sports a whopping 115k stories. Not one or two but 115.000.
They’re telling me that none of those 115k stories explains the blockchain concept, and its impact, clearly enough?
My experiment reading two stories
I read just a couple of them, for curiosity. One of the two was a featured article. So, I suppose Medium already did the digging and filtering work.
The two stories were not so good, in my opinion. Considering the several thousand claps — and the fact of one of them being featured — I expected much more. They were not clear enough — too detailed or too generic — , and there were important errors, in them. I mean plain errors, not simplifications for explanatory purposes.
Anyway, those articles are enough to explain the concept for the initiated.
Is there room, for better articles on blockchain? Apparently, yes. I suppose that among the 115k stories there is something good but who can find it, if not Medium? Also, there is always room for improvement, and different voices and perspectives.
Anyway, after a couple of those articles, you are initiated to the concept, and you don’t need a further crypto article for dummies. If you want to go deeper, you have to study. You don’t need the “ultimate” article. You just need to read a couple of introductory articles. And if you are serious about the matter, maybe it’s even better to skip the introductory (and biasing) articles and go straight to extended documentation.
You can’t do or think anything about blockchain, after few introductory articles. It’s a complex matter.
Still Medium prompts for a further wave of blockchain articles for the uninitiated to feature.
Why that?
I’ve nothing against the blockchain articles. And I’ve nothing against more articles on blockchain. I don’t read them but Medium is for everybody, and it’s good that there is plenty of explanations and opinions on blockchain too.
What stuns me is why Medium asks for more of them and pushes them.
I know. It’s a trendy topic. An article on blockchain makes a good impression and attract clicks on any magazine. Maybe even on Vanity Fair. But is following trends the vision of Medium?
If I’m not mistaken, Medium was intended to stay away from the noise of the Internet. I found Medium because of thoughtful articles, and I stayed here because of the community and because I thought it was a home for the writers.
Unfortunately, the reason why they ask to raise the number of blockchain articles, so to feature fresh and trendy articles, is clearly that Medium aspires to become a magazine, not a blogging platform. And as any magazine, they need fresh and trendy content, despite the good and often evergreen content already in their archives that still have to see the light.
The recent hiring, the termination of custom domain names, the profile page still not customizable, the author description still limited to a 160 characters box, all the development efforts focused on the Medium homepage and featured stories. It’s not difficult to see that individual portfolios are not welcome. All must flow in the Medium feeds.
Medium is still one of the best alternatives out there, for writers. Even if you cannot even share a clean link to your work or your stats page seems designed for an infant. And it’s still a good alternative for readers. Even if you can’t have an organized reading list or decent filters.
If nothing, it will soon be the best place where to find a large number of articles on blockchain. And have them comfortably picked and served by cool editors.
