[cupcakestand]

To the point criticism of Medium, very detailed and the OP is picking the right issues of Medium.

While Medium looks so beautiful and clean at first glance it really disappoints when you use it on a daily base both as a creator and as a user. Everytime I use Medium, I am surprised that Medium is successful. Its appearance feels definitely premium and significantly of higher value than any other blog system but the usability is a nightmare.

So we are back to square one. Which blog system should we use? SSG on Github Pages?

[addicted]

As a reader I avoid Medium based articles.

For one thing, the UI for wildly different blogs are the same. This means that I am unable to place anything I read in context. As a visual learner, one of the ways I remember stuff I read is by remembering the entire context (for blogs this is usually the look of the blog). Medium completely eliminates that crutch for me.

I feel the overuse of annoying funny GIFs in the middle of articles is far more prevalent on Medium pages. I suspect because it's one of the only ways for authors to personalize their content visually.

[magic_beans]

Medium blogs all have different colored nav-bars and logos.

[HappyTypist]

That's so minute. Different fonts, typography, page layout, structure, etc all improve uniqueness and memorability.

[magic_beans]

I guess I'm in the camp of people who prefer uniform blogs. The decorative accents on medium are more than enough for me to be able to distinguish them. I enjoy the fact that the layout is familiar and I can dive right into a piece without the distraction of a different or unique layout. To each her own!

[gboudrias]

> Which blog system should we use?

Hosting your own WordPress site? It's simple and easy. Why did anyone ever want to be on Medium in the first place? Most likely for the name association and the visibility that comes with it.

I think we have a responsibility to promote self-reliance as part of technological culture. If we want people to move away from centralization (which I do), we have to teach by example (which I do).

[chipotle_coyote]

It's the visibility, yes. I just moved my various blogging endeavors to one domain (coyotetracks.org) rather than the mishmash I've been using, which includes a few articles on Medium. But with only those few articles, I have over 400 followers on Medium, and my most popular article has 59K reads and 175 recommendations. (The next most popular has 39K and only 10 recommendations, because it's a criticism of "Mr. Money Mustache" and most people are hate-reading it from a link from his web site. Article #3 drops down to a mere 2.3K views, but 51 recommendations.)

I moved to hosting my own WordPress site; as much as I think WordPress's internals are a garbage file (actually, a series of garbage files passed around as globals, but never mind), it's so easy to make work--and the ecosystem is so big--that it almost makes up for its nastiness. But when I write an article that seems "Medium-esque," there's a very good chance I'm going to crosspost it to Medium to attempt to get those views. (With links back to my main web site, of course.)

[Someone]

"Hosting your own WordPress site? It's simple and easy."

I would think that, for at least 90% of those publishing on Medium, that's neither simple nor easy.

Even ignoring that, hosting your own Wordpress site means taking responsibility for keeping it up to date, security-wise. That hurdle alone probably makes most bloggers use some third-party blogging provider.

[gboudrias]

It's just an example, there are many choices, some of which are presumably even simpler.

But yes there will be some responsibility involved, I think that falls into healthy technical culture as well. It's the difference between taking care of something and getting someone else to take care of it. At the end of the day, someone has to do it, and we shouldn't always simply trust others with it just because it's easier.

[fredsted]

WP can update itself though.

[cupcakestand]

Wordpress is for sure powerful, has a huge ecosystem and is for teams a safe bet because of very good and battle-tested workflows.

But sorry, I don't want to setup a stack I did 20 years ago. However, I haven't looked into Wordpress for years.

For simple personal blogs I like DB-free SSG blog systems. But I am still wondering which one is the best. Just Hexo (Node) and Hugo (Go) come to my mind.

[gboudrias]

As I mention in my other reply, I meant it as an example. The issue to me is more "self-reliance" versus "paying others to do it". I'm certain that an increased trend of self-reliance such as hosting your own blog would go a long way towards demystifying the internet and therefore getting people more interested in the very real political issues behind the tech.

[rhizome]

I agree, there's an air of "my gardener moved away, how ever will my grass get cut now?"

[user5994461]

How easy do you think it is? Have you done it?

I found that self hosting wordpress is incredibly complex and expensive.

Wordpress.com does a great job though, nothing to manage.

[user5994461]

Use wordpress.com

Works wonder. 2 decades of great service.

[jacquesm]

> Which blog system should we use?

Hugo works extremely well for me. Very fast and reliable.