Why I chose Medium.com
Like most amateur bloggers struggling to maintain any level of consistency, I have attempted several starts. [Graveyard ahead] A WordPress.com blog in 2010, a custom WordPress blog installed on my domain [defunct] in 2011, a custom-rolled Rails engine with a blog [also defunct] in 2011, and most recently, a tumblr in 2012. Everyone has their reasons, but I found I abandoned each of these blogs for different reasons, that I fixed with the subsequent one. And I’ve abandoned every one of those other ones. There, I said it. No, I’m not going to continue to write in those domains.
Like every time, this time around I feel with some confidence I will have fixed what made me stop before. Some of the obvious reasons are that I’ve just grown older and more responsible, am less embarrassed about my writing limitations, etc. However, I feel selecting Medium as my platform will have a big role to play in this too.
Medium has been around for a decent while now. I had picked up on a few blogs by notable folks off of HN threads and a few social media shares, and wondered why no one had bothered to customize domains or anything. I wondered what was so special about Medium. I then heard Ev Williams was behind it. I still didn't get why it was special, but I trusted there’s probably some pretty good reason, I just didn't know what it was. Well, a year has passed and I feel better informed. So here’s why Medium.
Distractions while writing
Medium has none. In fact, the web editor on the site is probably the most distraction-free text editor I have used in it’s natural form. Throw my browser into full-screen mode and my entire computing revolves just around making this post happen.
I am not tempted to edit a typo in another draft I can see in the faded background, change the post static-link, adjust the html of the post, or anything like that. Unlike when using Sublime or vim, I don’t find myself trying to discover the next set of shortcut keys “for making it faster next time”. I can write, or I can sit and watch my cursor blink.
No excuse to do something more comfortable
Like what I imagine most somewhat amateur bloggers (like myself) wind up doing, I find myself in this situation pretty often:
First, a Reason to Blog
Okay Keerthik. Time to write something. It’s good to vocalize those thoughts you think are profound, or if nothing else just to make your communications with your peers more efficient by pointing them to your blog instead of carrying out the same conversation with each of them individually.
Alright, what am I going to write about? Blog posts are supposed to be profound right? Everyone in the world should want to read them. No, wait. I just need to write more so that I can eventually say the profound things right when I need to. Okay, got past that dead end.
Then, Prepping Notes
Alright, writing about this topic. I should find some references to back up this claim. Do I have a funny anecdote to illustrate this opinion of mine?
<staring at the screen while thinking>
Oh look, that Facebook Like button I integrated last week (instead of writing this post) is too close to the header. I should add some padding. And now that I think about it, the fonts for the header and the body are too mismatched. Wait, I’m not even a good designer. What do I know? But hey, this is probably how one becomes a good designer right? Paying attention to detail, and things that bug *me* visually?
And that spirals into me going back to what I’m often comfortable doing: configuring the blogging platform setup, trying out and learning the fanciest new CSS3 property, adding another HTML block around the text, or integrating (and customizing) another social media plugin, which there is no shortage of. I still don’t think I know why Pinterest and Path exist. What I was planning on writing is long forgotten, and I’m editing CSS.
I barely ever get to step 3, Writing the Piece
Maybe I’m just far more easily distracted than most people, but this is the trap I've fallen into every single damn time. If you aren’t a seasoned writer, I think it’s universally pretty hard to sit down through the completion of whatever it is you want to write if it’s anything longer than a tweet, Facebook comment, rant-y reddit comment or HN response. People like me are not comfortable writing. And as weak-willed humans, we want to substitute the things we want to get done but are uncomfortable doing with things we know how to do (like how a programmer entrepreneur wants to work on his product instead of pitching to people and trying to get customers, or a wannabe game designer finds himself playing games “for research”). What I want to get done is a blog post that other people will actually enjoy reading and get some value out of. But I know is how to futz with CSS and customize settings, not how to write. The custom themes are *never* good enough for me out of the box. And after two cumulative hours of CSS-ing, my blog looks way worse than it started, but hey, at least it’s my blog now. Not some cookie-cutter shit. But I only have two posts. And it will probably stay that way till my provider dumps my cached blog hundreds of years from now when their servers inevitably crash or catch fire.
The point here being, with Medium, those options of “comfortable escape” are nearly non-existent. Things it doesn't make me, and more importantly, won’t let me do:
- Hunt for/customize themes. In fact, it is plenty pretty without me having to do anything (although I’d never accept it if I could change this)
- Create an author profile (maybe if I give myself enough bullshit titles people will take my blog seriously?)
- Name my blog or domain(ooh should I have a different blog with a clever name for all the different things wise ol’ me has to talk about? Spoiler: No)
- Change the domain name to my custom domain
- Edit any CSS or styling, of the post or “my content” in general. I can add a cover photo here, but I’m not going to for now
- Integrate random social media plugins, buttons, comment boxes
I never realized how important these things are. As I’m writing this post, I often catch myself just randomly poking about the page with my mouse pointer, trying to find hidden “comfortable” things to do instead of writing. And there are none. Ugh/Yay! I have to write. This is the most uninterrupted progress I have made on a blog post ever.
I have to note these are based to a large extent on my observations so far, writing my very first post with my very first signup attempt. I’m 99% a lot of these points change as soon as I push out this post and poke around my profile or the home page more. But I don’t have to yet. This site seems to have the pacing of a web publishing platform down so well. I trust I will see all the features I could want when I actually need them, not when I’m trying to run away to them instead of write.
Checkbox-y things
There’s technical and design aspects to the platform that also make it worthwhile:
- It is fast. Going back and forth between a draft or another page on the site is speedy.
- The visual design is good (as mentioned elsewhere). Simple is the current style, and for good reasons, and I like it. I am actually enjoying watching my words appear on the screen, and that’s motivating me to write as much as anything.
- No ads. This never gets old.
- It does some subtle things under the hood, that I’m sure I’ll enjoy discovering. Example: It doesn't let you add more than one space, even if you hit space repeatedly.
- It’s still in the press spotlight.
- A promise of visibility. This one is yet to be proven for me personally, but I have faith in new systems to have me seen better, and make me more accountable for my writing.
- Bouncing around on the site, it’s hard to not land on other good content.
- I’m sure there’s a lot to get discovered.
Pet peeve so far
I do dislike that on Windows, Medium defaults the “delete word” modifier key to be Alt instead of Ctrl like across the rest of the operating system, but the “jump word” modifier is still Ctrl. I find myself navigating back and forward a lot or just deleting one character at a time when I want to delete a word (thank goodness for pt. 1 above). I do think I can get used to this, but I would have preferred to not have to. But you could argue this is my fault for using Windows at all in the first place, and I would be inclined to not respond and go hide in a corner with my Sticky Keys and BSODs.
In conclusion
If you are like me, you feel you are bubbling with things that need to be written, said to the denizens of the internet, looking to get more comfortable writing in the first place, want to be among good content, but easily distracted by things you are more comfortable doing, then just do it. Sign up on medium.com and write your first post.
