Medium, the blogging platform from Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, will soon be getting an influx of riff-raff contributing articles to the service.
Medium is basically an online publishing platform with a set of tools built for people who have the desire (and a bit of talent) to write about something regardless of if they’re a casual reader, occasional contributor or serious creator. The key element that makes Medium stand apart from other blog platforms is its focus on the content rather than things you’d typically be able to customize or share. Posts are also grouped into “collections” and presented to the public for consumption, which somewhat shifts the spotlight off individuals and more towards their work. There are a variety of collection categories, and post topics include various experiences or thoughts on technology, entrepreneurship advice, and even posts about Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose peeing.
The platform has been closed for signups since launching last year, only allowing a set number of contributors that you could arguably call the most well-written hipsters within the tech community. However as of today, the startup quietly started letting anyone sign up. You’ll need to sign in with your Twitter account and be browsing from Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari from a desktop.
The move to let anyone sign up will be a big test for Medium. The platform’s purpose is to be the middle ground between occasional and veteran creators to converge, which is pretty easy to do when you’re slowly approving people that have likely been vetted or vouched for. Now that anyone can sign up, Medium risks diluting the original base of quality contributors and becoming just another blogging platform.
Right now you can somewhat associate a post from Medium to be pretty decent. You absolutely cannot say the same about the average original Tumblr or WordPress.com post, because the number of people who write barely coherent or maddeningly incorrect articles (e.g. “Why I ain’t never vaccinated my children”) vastly outnumber everything else.
That said, Medium has a much better chance of staying pure if only because it doesn’t want contributors sharing anything other than their written thoughts — meaning no easy reblogging tools or posts that involve a series of memes and embedded widgets.
Via TNW
via VentureBeat http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/25/tech-hipster-blog-platform-medium-opens-signups-to-everyone/
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