Subject Matters
I was reading the article The World of Medium Tags by Russell Lim and his analysis and suggestions on developing the platform made me reflect on my own perceptions. This was about to be a brief comment but ooops… Came out post-length. I agree with the points Russell made, and could add a few more.
I have noticed that the platform looks somewhat simple on PC, I mean people in my age are used to the idea that mobile apps are minimalistic and the desktop site provides a richer experience, more tools and the engine room. What Medium gives surprised me with its scarcity. It is not organized like a library would be. It is more like a feed where you get what you get as it flows by.
I get the idea of minimalism and that the benefit of simple is that it is not messy. Yet, it feels like empty… minimal content. I would love to experience abundance, quality, and coverage as the first reaction.
I think this encourages writers to write stuff that is not meant to last, and this influences the quality — not favorably. To get paid authors push a lot of superficial and repetitive content instead of writing like journalists.
I think the platform is not delivering what it sold — this idea that anyone can write and earn from it, and that the focus is on quality and content, ad-free. Yet, authors are promoting themselves in the posts and their articles in the headlines. This results in titles and topics that scream five things you MUST do to be successful/liked/productive in life. I joined Medium because of its Coronavirus blog, Elemental, and Illumination, not to read mundane self-help stuff.
Medium should develop the user interface so that good texts are not forgotten. Topics are way too big and you get disappointed when having a look at a topic. If the texts would be published in a separate website, authors would be free to organize content the way they like.
Medium’s topics have big gaps. Technology, race and gender, self-help and business are well covered. But nothing on gardening.
Because gardening does not exist, Medium does not attract garden bloggers. I would like to write about gardening, but there are no readers either, because the lack of this topic prevent an audience base forming.
How about crafts? Nope. Is there a reason why hobbies are not represented by Medium? Are these like “womens’ topics” and authors interested in such are not as good as those writing on business topics? I believe Ravelry is a lot bigger than Medium so that gives some idea of how serious the business around knitting is!
Finally, if you look at the magazine stand in any supermarket, consider the proportion of gardening, crafts, country life, cooking, and such publications. It is the biggest section.
I believe hobbies and such fit well in Medium and would be helpful in developing the platform. The broader variety of topics and their arrangement into categories would help readers in findings content they actually want to read.
In particular as many headlines do not reveal the topic of the article. Incentives to avoid click-baity headlines could be added to the platform. For instance, the first 50 readers landing on a article could given a button to click to weed out click-baits and the results could affect the revenues.
Medium is proposing to deliberate authors who have had to cover their work with marketing and ads to earn a living, but it is limiting what is a worthy subject to write about. I am curious to know whether this is intended or just an accidental blind spot. If the latter, it might be resolved, and should, but if not, Medium should be more open about not covering all sorts of life.
