"They exist very well on subscriptions and donations. "
I would argue that all platforms like those start out that way. The content creators are the passionate ones. Once the big money comes in, the payment model shifts and we end up with what YouTube is doing now.
I purchased an item directly from a manufacturer's own website, so there's no middle-man and no fees lost to selling on another platform.
The price difference between that and Amazon was so staggering, I returned the original purchase and re-purchased, this time from Amazon. Same product, but it was significantly cheaper on Amazon.
You will almost never get good prices from the manufacturer itself. That would undermine their standing with sales partners. So you will always get the rather high list price.
Certified first responder here. It was drilled into our training that our safety comes first.
Imagine you rush to help someone and get hurt. Now, you can't help that person AND now there are 2 people that need aid instead of 1. So that 1 ambulance you called out is no longer sufficient.
The lack of an export feature is rather common among smaller services. What Google and Facebook are capable of doesn't scale down to other service providers.
> This is quite a visible moral panic as we can see people glued to their phones in public places, e.g. on the train or bus.
The part that disturbs me the most about these conversations is how everyone assumes (and I'm guilty of this too) that when people are "glued to their phones" it's for something superficial like social media. When I'm glued to my phone, I'm checking work email, photos of my kids that family is sending me, paying bills online, researching some side project, making plans for an upcoming vacation, etc.
I don't think people would equate the vacuousness of 'doing it for the gram' with managing your finances. But when we see people on their phones, we just sort of assume they're doing something wasteful. That shouldn't be the default assumption given that you can run your entire life, business, etc from a phone.
It is not hard to do a bit of shoulder surfing on a packed train. In fact it is hard to avoid even if you have your eyes fixed on your phone!
If I see a game on a screen or a movie playing then I am reasonably sure that that person is enjoying some down time rather than learning a part for a Shakespeare play, studying for their Mathematics degree or entering their tax returns.
I don't think anyone believes that there is no productive use of a smartphone, but I imagine the vast majority of people using smartphones in public are not using them productively.
On a related note, this is why when I search for a person, film, or other thing, I'll take the Wikipedia result every time over IMDB or some top ranking site. With Wikipedia, I know how the information will be formatted so I can find what I need quickly.
That sounds like a great outcome, but it's predicated on having been hand selected by Medium to share your specific story. 99% of posts won't get that same treatment. Would your outcomes have been similar without that boost? That is, just by posting on Medium, would you have achieved a reasonable level of reach otherwise?
We cannot know of course, there is no Twin Earth where Taylor Swift is president, nobody likes pizza, and I or Medium had done things differently. I can only ponder the odds of my personal blog becoming popular vs a story on Medium becoming popular. Both may be very small, but it should be clear that the odds are still greater in the Medium route.
Tags allow visibility to people perusing topics on Medium, or getting emails about those topics. The SEO boost is clearly greater, and Medium is unlikely to go down if a flood of traffic arrives. And the possibility of "editors pick/best of" etc is obviously greater, since it exists at all. And besides, since I am not famous, leveraging a famous domain lends enough credibility for more people at the margins to read what I wish to say.
So my particular outcome aside, I think it good advice for any internet rando, including myself, to leverage the power of such a platform while the benefits seem nonzero. Though I understand people's reservations (such as this article!), they seem overstated or else to ignore completely the clear advantages, even if they are only potential advantages.
I use a regional bank and their app is only usable for minor day to day things. For that it's fine. But I can't do anything "serious" in it: checking account transactions are limited to only the last 2 weeks; I can't search transactions for a specific amount or merchant or date; I can't view past payments I've made for bills, etc.
For any of the above, I have to use the desktop site. These are not technical limitations either and should all be in the app if we want full parity with mobile.
I would argue that all platforms like those start out that way. The content creators are the passionate ones. Once the big money comes in, the payment model shifts and we end up with what YouTube is doing now.