Ali R. Tariq
@alirtariq · Product Designer, Manulife RED Lab
I'm afraid I'm with Andy on this. Not quite sold on the new direction. I appreciate that the quick-post option lowers the intimidation factor, but I have to question whether it also dilutes the brand identity of Medium.
Medium was *meant* to be a place for me to find well-written, insightful, and typically long-form pieces of writing (I distinctly remember Medium stating that 6-7 min reads were the most popular ones). Turning it into a Tumblr-for-text (which I love, btw) and Twitter (also, love), seems iffy to me.
I'm also finding the recent changes to Medium regarding collections/publications have caused the Reads on new posts to drop considerably, even though I have ample followers. I feel like this new feature will fill the site with more noise.
On the fence here. Time will tell!
2sharetweet・
Ev Williams
@ev · CEO, Medium
@alirtariq You're right that Medium was meant to be insightful, but I can tell you with authority that "well-written" and "long-form" were never central to the idea. True story: The name Medium came from Biz and I discussing creating a publishing platform with a 500-word limit. That we didn't end up implementing a constraint and that long-form has thrived on the site is both good and bad IMO. I know it's hard to stretch expectations, but this is the original vision. I think it's going to work great. :)
19sharetweet・
H
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@ev - I've enjoyed watching Medium's evolution over the past few years (I've also seen several unreleased experiments, once with @meowr while I was a subject of your user testing 😃).
At first Medium appeared to be a platform for regular people and independent bloggers to share their stories and ideas. And it still is but there's been an increasing investment in editorial content with publications such as Backchannel, led by veteran @stevenlevy and the numerous open recs for editors/writers on your jobs page.
Was it always the plan to commission content and build an in-house editorial team?
3sharetweet・
Ali R. Tariq
@alirtariq · Product Designer, Manulife RED Lab
@ev Apologies for assuming Medium's goals and thanks for weighing in. Always great to hear from the founders themselves!
Seems like this change is really what you guys were wanting to go for from the beginning. What was the reason you've held back till now, if I may ask?
1sharetweet・