55

Why don't we make hiding Medium articles an option.

over 6 years ago from , http://meet-cristian.com

The debate about what to do with useless Medium articles will continue on DN but after today seeing someone post an 150 word article about the headphones he's using, which was really an amazon referral link, I think it's time we draw the line. DN is full of useless crap lately and a great chunk of it is coming from Medium.

I don't think it would be fair to automatically block all articles for all users, so why don't we make it optional instead? People will still be allowed to post Medium articles, but any reader who decides he/she can get no value out of them, can simply hide them from the feed. Another way of getting them out of the way would be to move them to a dedicated tab.

What do you think?

30 comments

  • Sam SolomonSam Solomon, over 6 years ago

    The problems stated have little to do with Medium and much more to do with someone posting low-quality content with affiliate links. This could have just as easily been written on WordPress or another blogging platform.

    31 points
    • Robert AniteiRobert Anitei, over 6 years ago

      That's true, it's not about Medium. We need some kind of moderation, because right now if you post a link an upvote-it with 2-3 fake accounts you end up on the front page, like the expensive headphones article that Cristian wrote about it.

      8 points
    • Account deleted over 6 years ago

      I agree. Medium is just a medium (sorry I couldn't resist). I think it's really on the community to decide on the type/quality of articles it really wants to see. Perhaps the DN folks could somehow tweak the ranking algo to reflect that (maybe add a downvote option?).

      A good example of a discerning community would be Hacker News, although it was a lot better before when the community was much smaller.

      5 points
  • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, over 6 years ago

    I also notice a lot of bad content lately tends to be written in English. Maybe give us an option to ban any English-language posts? I'm sure quality would go way up.

    27 points
    • Andrew MauneyAndrew Mauney, over 6 years ago

      I recently noticed the same thing in regards to comments. Comments, especially English ones, tend to be lower quality and are just referrals to other comments. Banning those and making our community more exclusive will increase our inclusiveness.

      4 points
  • Norm Sheeran, over 6 years ago

    You totally should have made this a medium post ;)

    27 points
  • Christian BehrensChristian Behrens, over 6 years ago

    Please add downvoting and a reporting link for spam.

    9 points
  • Daniel De LaneyDaniel De Laney, over 6 years ago

    There are great articles on Medium. The problem isn’t Medium, it’s bad content propped up by unopposed voting rings. Down-voting only creates an arms race between readers and advertisers, so we likely need moderators to be more involved.

    7 points
    • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, over 6 years ago

      This is why it would be optional. You who consider there are valuable articles from Medium that get posted here, can keep them on and look for those good ones. I who do not, could turn them off.

      1 point
    • John PJohn P, over 6 years ago

      There are great articles on Medium

      Yeah like 5 or so.

      2 points
  • Art VandelayArt Vandelay, over 6 years ago

    This could work, if it gets 15+ downvotes it gets removed!

    5 points
  • Kyle MitchellKyle Mitchell, over 6 years ago

    What if the badge dropdown was just a selector ––

    badge selector

    3 points
    • David ThornDavid Thorn, over 6 years ago

      This. I skip a few of these other categories anyways, but will rarely go past the home page when I check DN, as I just have to sort through more shit i don't care about.

      0 points
  • Eythan D'AmicoEythan D'Amico, over 6 years ago

    I think just assigning Medium posts with its own badge might do. That way you'll know before clicking?

    2 points
  • Andy LeverenzAndy Leverenz, over 6 years ago

    Not that facebook got it right but offering more than one "reaction" to a post could be a nice feature.

    facebook reactions

    2 points
  • Russ BrownRuss Brown, over 6 years ago

    As the guys who make DN are responsive and committed to making DN better and downvotes are consistently suggested. Can anyone enlighten me as to why downvotes are not considered a solution?

    2 points
    • Stefano Vitagliano, over 6 years ago

      I'm thinking to start flagging as spam all the low quality articles on here even if they're not exactly spam. Just to push some pressure to the DN owners.

      1 point
    • Axel ValdezAxel Valdez, over 6 years ago

      Because this would go Digg real quick.

      0 points
      • Russ BrownRuss Brown, over 6 years ago

        I'm aware of but not familiar with Digg, was there an issue with malicious downvoting or something?

        1 point
        • Axel ValdezAxel Valdez, over 6 years ago

          At the peak of the problem there was a group of "power users" that controlled what was published on the front page and buried everything else. Then everybody else ended up leaving en masse.

          0 points
  • Jay RJay R, over 6 years ago

    I think a low-quality button would be a perfect fit so users can decide if it's low quality or not. But then again, using this can give the users the freedom to click on it when they are in a bad mood.

    I personally love the fact that people backlink their articles on DN, most of them are amazing as I'd rather come to DN to find a design related article because finding something on Medium that is fresh and very design realted is hard.

    I guess moderation woud be a good recommendation. If I'm not wrong Reddit has a good moderation technique, if DN can impliment that then you guys can do wonders. Especially if backlinks needs to be reapproved.

    Conclusion: 1. Low-Quality button 2. Moderators 3. Approval for positing any backlinks.

    0 points
  • Diederik EenschootenDiederik Eenschooten, over 6 years ago

    Remember when DN was Invite only. I do.

    0 points
  • Ollie BarkerOllie Barker, over 6 years ago

    While I don't think simply hiding all Medium articles is a good solution, I do agree I don't want to go to DN and just see Medium. If I wanted that I'd just go to Medium!

    0 points