[invalidname]

Dev.to does allow downvotes and blocking bad content. You need to become a moderator to do that. I'm such an external moderator and flagged a lot of abuse in the system. I've noticed an improvement in the past couple of months where I have less content to flag. So they probably improved their spam account detection.

There's a lot of beginner content which is fine. Some marketing/SEO content which is to be expected. It's still a better experience overall when compared to medium. Right now only dev.to and hashnode are significant unmoderated alternatives to medium (there are smaller players like tealfeed etc.). Both are doing a better job than medium and I blog on all of them.

If they add "publications" which is the editorialized capability of medium they would solve the segmented content problem but that might make their monetization harder.

[AdrianB1]

Restricting downvotes to moderators only is not effective. Also creating an environment where blind are leading the blind is not a good thing and the article is pointing to that.

[invalidname]

Let me ask you this: How would someone become "sighted"?

What filter can you use to discover the next great writer?

How can someone practice enough to become good?

That's the idea of these sites. People might have limitations but they can build them up. The voting system works but has problems. The alternative is often worse, individual silos, social network noise, etc.

[jacooper]

> I blog on all of them.

Wouldn't that hurt your articles ? Since there are multiple sites with the same content? Or if you have a blog, that would also drive traffic away from it, no?

[invalidname]

All of them support canonical links. So no.

[jacooper]

Oh that's the first time I have heard about Canonical links, very neat thanks!.

[mellosouls]

There's a lot of beginner content which is fine.

Well, not really. That's the point.

[invalidname]

I disagree. That's a matter of opinion. I think this can be improved with the introduction of publications but they have their downside too.

The main reason I commented was the mistake related to downvoting and about spam.

[mellosouls]

It's not really a matter of opinion that beginner content will - by definition - not come with the experience to have the authority and originality that contribute to the quality of the writing.

[invalidname]

People need to start writing somewhere. The fact that they get visibility relates to upvotes and lack of publications. They also have advantages in communicating with other beginners.

[addicted]

Sure. However, if one specific platform becomes the location where everyone is writing their beginner content, then even if the writers may benefit, the platform will suffer. Or at the very least, appear low quality to someone who is beyond beginner level.

[invalidname]

There are several sites like this including Hashnode, medium, tealfeed, etc. They all suffer from the same problem.

Medium solved this with publications. Others solved it by tagging, moderation etc. although that's not ideal either.

[mellosouls]

I agree - but the point was about quality, not learning your trade.

[invalidname]

Sure. My point was about the fact that there are downvotes and spam blocking.