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Comment by ohthehugemanate | Hacker News Reader

I like the irony that this well researched and thought out article is published on medium.

There is no irony here.

Today, with net neutrality, the author can choose to publish on Medium, where some publishers and readers congregate for particular types of content, and anyone on the Internet who wants to read Medium can, without having to buy into a price-discriminated tier to escape beyond the home-turf vertical.

In the future, will you be able to say the same?

There absolutely is. Medium is in that "one of X top sites" while blogs would be in the long tail.

"Without having to buy X" just means you've yet learned nothing of the past. "Without having to buy" is just internet.org and (potentially, ultimately) a good tagline for trial subscriptions of zero rated content.

It's not the money (or "free" gratis) that matters, it's the control (or "free" libre).

People continuing to fundamentally not understand the rationale of controlling your own tech will be the single biggest contributor to "efforts to save the internet" failing, if you ask me.

Due to network effects and the 'discovery' problem, content on the Web will likely continue to need content silos and content aggregators to expand reach. This alone isn't a problem -- or maybe it is, depending on your point-of-view, but isn't equivalent to the issues raised in the parent post.

Equal access to pipes regardless of the nature of transmitted content -- net neutrality, or as you phrase, the libre aspect is a necessary prerequisite for mass-market and indie content to both have a chance to thrive -- and not just your home ISP's preferred partners.

I get what you're saying, but both of them matter: the point is to get the same playing field, and not sidestep it with either a lower or higher price -- either zero-rating, or by charging more for a broader range of access.

Where is the irony? Just like any other platform, Medium will have bad content and good content.

The point of Medium is that people won't read your blog but if you write the exact same thing on Medium they will read it.

If only there was someplace a little lighter weight and more streamlined. Say someplace where you need only put a link to an existing blog post to increase its visibility.

One can dream...

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