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Discussion on: Why I’m moving away from Medium

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mt3o profile image
mt3o

Medium has huge downside for the readers: the paywall! Forcing users to log in just to read contents - is wrong.

Good to see you here! :)

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tam1997love profile image
tam1997love

Hey, not to say you're right or wrong but can you explain why log in to read contents on it is wrong ? Cause for me it's worths with the content that Medium provide.

Thank you

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mt3o profile image
mt3o

In my opinion, a couple of things are wrong with Medium.
You know, I'm one of those people who think knowledge is free and information wants to be free. This means that information guarded by someone demanding payment, or at least logging in, will be found elsewhere.
As a user, I see no information that belongs exclusively to Medium. This means, that for each article there is, I can find at least one alternative in other sources, it's just my information bubble preventing me from (google, this is at you!)
Good authors deserve payment of some other form of gratification, and I see nothing wrong with paying the author, by seeing ads, or by funding on Patreon. What I don't like is being tracked by the platform. Despite that, nagging the user in a way Medium is - is wrong. You know, I gave it some thinking, and I think that I'll rather be paying Medium user as an author, than as a reader. This is hilarious ;)
For the moment - when there is a piece of content that I want to read - I switch to 'incognito' mode or just clear the cookies. Everyone loses.

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scotthannen profile image
Scott Hannen

It's not "wrong," but it's not the norm, either. Most users search for something and then expect to be able to just read it without taking more action. If the site needs money they pay for it with ads.

If I have to log in or pay to read something then it needs to be really important or valuable, but I can't know that before I read it. So I just close the tab and move onto something else.

Every once in a while I'll question whether I should pay to get past a paywall. I guess some people do. It's a business model, and they must be making money. That's not wrong at all. It's just not how I or many people want to read on the internet.

Maybe I'll pay if it becomes like broadcast television vs. a streaming service - you have to pay in order to get the really good stuff. But that distinction doesn't exist yet, and I don't want to encourage it by voting for it with my wallet.

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tam1997love profile image
tam1997love

Oh okay, thanks for your answer, for me though Medium really open my mind about pretty much everything from design and coding ( I'm a UI/UX Designer and just starting to learn how to code ) cause they have so many good, informative article from amazing talented people around the globe so it's kinda like where I update my knowledges :D cause I don't really find any site as good as Medium.

Thanks again :D