Inside Medium: an attempt to bring civility to the internet

Medium has been great for us

More readers, wider distribution, new audiences. An enjoyable place to write. Win, win, win. Win. Just about a year ago we switched this blog, Signal vs. Noise, to Medium. Here’s the post announcin…

Medium: Read and write stories.

On Medium, anyone can share insightful perspectives, useful knowledge, and life wisdom with the world.

How to write Medium stories people will actually read

More than 30 million people use Medium each month. They come here in search of something worth reading. Something substantial. And you can give it to them. Medium’s algorithms put you on a level playing field. Your stories can dominate news feeds. Yo...

We shouldn't wait for Medium

Medium has to create a miracle in the economics of publishing. But the users of Medium just want an easy and elegant blogging system. It doesn't seem like a match, long-term.

Medium acquires Superfeedr

Publishing on the web is changing drastically. Medium is one of these few companies which are building the future of publishing and reading. We're excited to join forces with them and continue building the open web in this new era!

Death by a thousand likes: How Facebook and Twitter are killing the open web

Here’s one way to understand the symbiotic relationship between publications and platforms in the digital age. Publications depend on advertising dollars to keep producing content, so they need to hold readers’ attention. Big platforms like Facebook and Twitter already have plenty of attention, but they need vast quantities of content to fill up their newsfeeds. It seems natural, then, that publications have started relying on platforms to drive readership.

Show your work: The new terms for trust in journalism - PressThink

The transparency movement has finally come of age. Power has shifted to the users. Their trust has to be earned in different ways now.

Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media

When practitioners used the term “social media” to describe the internet tools that emerged in the mid-aughts, they were giving a name to the kinds of platforms and protocols that allowed people to socialize with friends and communities of interest by using digital technologies. Twenty years later, users of social media are far more likely to scroll than post – and the content that they consume is often strategically produced and algorithmically curated. In this essay, I argue that the very essence of social media has changed. To more effectively interrogate what we are witnessing, we need to stop presuming that these tools are “social media” and begin recognizing that they are now “parasocial media.” Doing so raises new questions about digitally mediated sociality, not to mention the politics and governance of these platforms.

Building trust in the open

How Protocols for Publishers points to the future of journalism – and the web

What Was the Internet?

As AI overtakes the web, five writers reflect on how far it’s fallen and what comes next.

What Was the Internet?

As AI overtakes the web, five writers reflect on how far it’s fallen and what comes next.

The dawn of the post-literate society

And the end of civilisation

Medium vs. Own Blog: What Actually Drives SaaS Traffic

Where to publish something has becoming a difficult decision for a lot of businesses. You read so many stories about using various channels to distribute content and grow traffic, it’s hard to know what does and doesn’t work. Medium, in particular, has become a major player in the world of startup content, but is it really that great?

The Shrinking RSS Pie

This piece was initially published on Medium. I’m resharing here, for when Medium will go away… We all know that RSS and openness are key to the web’s resilience and independence, yet the RSS ecosystem is still shrinking. It’s because of us…