Fits all sizes
Collaborative. Focused. Fun. those aren’t the words we normally think of when we’re talking about blogging and telling stories online. but a new social platform is aiming to change that, one word at a time.
Medium, from the founders of twitter, is nothing like twitter. the goal is to provide a place where users can share ideas with people they don’t necessary know — in more than 140 characters.
Medium, according to the about section of the website, is “designed for little stories that make your day better and manifestos that change the world ... it’s simple, beautiful, collaborative, and it helps you find the right audience for whatever you have to say.”
it’s true. Medium is beautiful designed in a minimalist sort of way. it lets you focus on the words and add powerful images to drive the story home. there are no widgets and flashy things along the rails. You’ll notice this the first time you sign in. i’m going to use this column to tell you how to get started. Medium has done such a good job with the platform, i don’t think you’ll have any trouble.
to get started, you must have a twitter account. Until recently, Medium was acces- sible by waitlist only. Now, anyone with a twitter account can sign up and in and share stories. Yes, you must have a twitter account but the people at Medium say they are exploring other possibilities.
Signing in with twitter is safe, and Medium promises it will never mess with your profile or tweet for you or do anything you don’t want it to do.
YoU can write about anything. there are no size limits, but Medium has found the most engaging pieces are 400 words or more in length. You can add what you write to collections for others to see, and other users can recommend collections. Medium also has this cool thing where it will tell you how long your piece should take to read (three-minute read, for example.) this way, you can decide what you read when based on your time constraints.
CollaboratioN is key. Medium says its mantra since day one has been “people create better things together.” So while it’s perfectly fine to write something and post it as is, you are encouraged to hit the “share draft” button. this allows you to send a feedback form to people via e-mail and have them help you proofread. they will even get credit on the story level.
ColleCtioNS add to the collaboration. if you write about social media, someone could add your social media-themed piece to their social media collection. this means more exposure with minimal effort. and there are collections for almost any topic you can think of and i only expect these to grow.
it’S not the most mobile-friendly platform. Yet.
You would think a new social/writing platform would embrace phones and tablets, but not yet.
However, Medium is clear that it is working on an app and a way to post from mobile devices.
So if you aren’t the kind of person who likes to work on a laptop or desktop, you might want to wait a while longer. — McClatchy-tribune information Services