Medium has assiduously courted the political class | Hacker News Reader

Medium has assiduously courted the political class

politico.com

33 pointsjeo123412 comments

"People that thrive on bombast and vitriol, well, Medium might not be for them," says Higginson. "But for members of Congress who bemoan that their position has to be boiled down to 15-second soundbites — those are the people we're trying to cultivate."

That's some salesmanship. Bombast and vitriol rally the voter base. Have you seen how politicians are on Twitter?

twitter and 15-second soundbites don't offer space for nuance but medium, in longform, would

Voters don't care about nuance or facts for that matter.

I can tell you're a voter.

Maybe most voters don't, but the volunteer supporters who'll bring the vote out for you on election day do, very much.

Twitter is a product that magnifies and spreads outrage better than any other platform, so it's not surprising that the most effective politicians use it to do just that.

If Medium can become effective for spreading more nuanced or positive content, that would be a great win.

It is possible to hate the game even as you become a very successful player.

> "People that thrive on bombast and vitriol, well, Medium might not be for them"

This sounds more like someone who's not read Medium before rather than someone that works for the company.

CQ Roll Call and The Hill have a lot to lose if Medium gets traction in this way. It's a smart strategy on Medium's part.

One thing I noticed recently when using Medium, though, is they really kneecapped formatting options. It makes no sense that they offer such a small subset of basic formatting options. Text on photos, H3s, and centering? Those were advantages for Medium. Now they've thrown them out. You might as well use Facebook now.

The goal is essentially for all Medium articles to look completely homogeneous.

With some personal experience developing a platform with users creating customised content, I really wish I had that luxury. My life would be much easier if the customisation was as limited.

But I agree, they have cut the options perhaps too much.

> The goal is essentially for all Medium articles to look completely homogeneous.

The interesting side-effect of that is everyone shifts their branding/self-promotion in a very intrusive manner at the end of the post.

It annoys me enough that I don't read Medium articles casually.

Limited formatting capabilities are pretty great.

Remember myspace?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com