Medium-Sized Insights About Medium and a Few Story Links of Note

The other day I set out to write a blog post about some of the things I've been learning as an active participant on Medium, the blogging platform created by Ev Williams. I've noted before the elegance and ease of use of this platform. I've also noted that there a lot of interesting people participating in this growing community of readers and writers.

At this point I have been enjoying--since June 2018-- the interactivity provided without the artificial nudges Facebook and LinkedIn generate. I do not mind friend requests, but I do tire of "friend suggestions" being dished up every three hours by these rival teams.

Here are a few things I've come to appreciate at Medium.

You can highlight phrases, sentences and paragraphs you like in others' pieces.

You can comment and get into discussions about what you read.

You can show appreciation by clapping.... up to 50 times if you want.

Medium also has accessible staff who will help you and actually get back to you, along with a Bot for the basic questions.

Help Center: https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us

You can also ask Google for answers and you will get answers from other members on Medium.

What I like most is that you can import stories you have published elsewhere on the web. Medium not only imports your work, it also writes additional behind-the-scenes code that lets Google know the original source. This helps maintain SEO benefits as opposed to leaving you penalized for duplicate content.

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Because of this last feature (easy to import) many of my stories on Medium were recycled or updated from articles I published here first on Ennyman's Territory. Some, however, are new and here are few recent favorites.

A Lesson from 29 Golden Gate Suicide Attempts

9 Maxims That Carried Me Through Three Decades in Corporate America

Coyote with Broken Mouth (A Black Hills Story)

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One other feature I like about the Medium platform is that you privately share links of unfinished articles in order to get feedback on a piece before sending it public. I wrote an article about human exceptionalism, for example, which I had mixed feelings about because there were weak links between some of the ideas in the piece. I shared it with someone I trust and she affirmed what I sensed intuitively. It needs more work.

Here's another as yet unpublished piece, an interview with the author of Ennyman's Territory. The piece originally appeared five or nine years ago. Something caused me to hold back...  Maybe you can help me decide whether to let it fly:  The Leonardo Interview

In the meantime, it's time to move along and run through the rest of my "to do" list. Thanks for checking in.  Feedback always welcome.