Medium high

So it's been three years since I sang the praises of Tumblr, and about two years since I last logged in. Much like the iPad was a "in between" device whose appeal plateaued as smartphones get bigger and laptops get more nimble, for me Tumblr was always stuck between short Tweets and real sit-down-and-think writing. And both Twitter and real writing are taking up more of my mindshare.

I've been writing and blogging a bunch (not here, of course) over at EPMonthly. Specifically I'm enjoying the weekly Crash Cart, commenting on new EM stories with Bill Sullivan and Mark Plaster. The fodder is chosen by the EPMonthly staff (lately Matt McGahen has been on fire), we try to keep the writing incisive but informative, and the whole thing is fun and rewarding.

Elsewhere on the web, my circle of Twitter contacts and sources has been great lately. And whenever I feel Twitter is grating, I just tweak my lists, add some fresh voices, and it all gets better again.

So for me Tumblr never took off, despite its strengths. The aggregator was spiffy, and I really liked how Tumblr allowed me to elegantly collect posts on certain topics, But I never was able to engage with the various Tumblr communities - posting and sharing things to Tumblr was like decorating a snazzy room that no one visited.

Still, I'm still drawn to the idea of reinvigorating my web presence. Which brings me to Medium, the popular writing platform that's trying hard to not be a blogging platform. Each article is beautiful; a pleasant experience to read and write. But they've deliberately made it hard to aggregate content or set up a 'presence' for yourself (in the mobile app, for instance, you can't view your own writing, or even search for it).

For a while I waited to make the leap to Medium; I just figured more features were on the way. Only now do I kind of understand what Ev & co have been up to: Medium can't be gamed - it will only show you quality writing. Yeah, it's recommendations are based on your interests and the kind of people you follow. But you can't leverage your page design or tags or posting frequency or social connections to increase the visibility of your writing. You just have to write well. It's as if they decided everything else - the blogrolls and hashtags and carnivals and follower counts - has all been a distraction.

So I'm going to give Medium a shot, sharing some pieces from EPMonthly and here that could use a little fresh air.

To be continued...