by HeWhoLurksLate on 5/28/19, 8:31 PM
On an unrelated note, I really wish that Medium hadn't gone to a pay-after-three model like everyone else- not only can I not afford it, it feels counter-intuitive. To me, Medium is a place where budding bloggers, industry professionals, etc. can get a start or work on building up and out their careers and influence- and it doesn't make sense to say "you have to spend money to give these people attention", especially when I can that same blog post somewhere else. Medium, the company, doesn't seem to produce much content, and so it seems unfair for them to restrict the flow to the creators themselves.
by kmf on 5/28/19, 10:05 PM
One thing mentioned in Ben’s post that’s worth talking about explicitly: if you add a post to Medium using their import feature, Medium will set the canonical URL to your original URL. This meant that when if you imported a post from your personal blog and submitted it to FreeCodeCamp, you’d get a big SEO benefit: your post was shared on one of the biggest Medium publications, but any backlinks and ranking boosts would apply back to your original post, on your website.
As part of this migration, FreeCodeCamp has removed canonical URLs from submitted posts - your original post is now competing with freecodecamp.org, and Google (and other search engines) is going to do a duplicate content check. Considering that FCC is in the top 2000 sites in the world according to Alexa[1], there’s a _strong_ chance your site will be penalized. This is a big deal for authors.
[1]: https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/freecodecamp.org
by fmajid on 5/28/19, 9:47 PM
I understand his concerns, but frankly Medium is a purulent ulcer on the web that needs to be put out of its misery ASAP.
by floatingatoll on 5/28/19, 9:13 PM
Please post here if you file a DMCA claim against them for misuse of your content without your permission. Their contact information is in their terms of service (team@freecodecamp.org) and their public non-profit filing (1), and they declare themselves subject to US Law.
They are a nonprofit, so they have the option of offering each author a tax deduction as payment for content. If you have entered into any rights deal with them directly, you may not have standing to make a DMCA claim; take care not to knowingly do so under such circumstances, as that is likely a crime under US federal law.
Their hosting provider will likely also want to be notified of your DMCA claim, as they may be in violation of contractual agreements signed for their hosting.
(1) https://s3.amazonaws.com/freecodecamp/Free+Code+Camp+Inc+IRS...
by beenBoutIT on 5/28/19, 11:33 PM
What kind of example does it set for FreeCodeCamp to rely on a site like Medium as opposed to making its own site and sharing that code on GitHub? Budding engineers don't need to rely on sites like Medium when they can put together their own sites and learn about SEO.
by chrisco23 on 5/28/19, 8:49 PM
The intricacies and legal details here are a little beyond the scope of my understanding. Medium was never much, and when they turned into a popup-serving nagware, that was the end of them for me.
by duxup on 5/29/19, 3:31 AM
I thought we had a story a while back about FreeCodeCamp trying to contact the authors while trying to get off Medium.
In the end it seems very strange that Medium, FreeCodeCamp and the authors all were intertwined in very strange ways as far as ownership and why they were involved together.
by codesternews on 5/29/19, 1:48 PM
I am happy with the FreeCodeCamp move and I want all the engineering blog to move off from the medium.
It's really pain when you open the blog and you get they paywall to say "You read much ...". Really, It's annoying what Medium become.
by thatoneuser on 5/28/19, 9:46 PM
Does medium even provide any valuable content? Every time I've been there's it's been nothing but people who are total amateurs talking out of their ass as tho they're experts.
by dheera on 5/28/19, 8:14 PM
"Publications on Medium are bound by the Medium Terms of Service, and they have no right to your content that you do not explicitly grant them. That includes exporting, copying, or reposting your content to any website that is not Medium.com"
"You own the rights to the content you create and post on Medium"
Wait what? If it's my content and I own the rights, I can repost it wherever I wish.