36
Floydian
14d

Medium rant/story:

Long ago (around a year and half), I discovered Medium and even created an account.

Found it too complex and delete the account in an instant.

I used to often read Medium post after being redirected from various websites I use.

These days, I am on a learning spree and decided to create the account again. Well, they are minimal now (not just decluttered, but minimal).

I read an article, followed by another and then the third.

Then after a short break, I was back to my reading. I open the fourth article and bam! Medium asks me to upgrade to premium version for $5/Month. Just three fucking articles per month on free account.

As stupid as it can get.

Out of curiosity, I deleted the cookies and refreshed the page. Voilà!!!

It works. Now I have three more free articles for the same month.

Well, is this a known issue by them or just a poor way of handling how they track the article count?

I don't know but I am about to delete my account there again because the content is extremely mainstream and American mindset is pushed there a lot (no offense to my American friends but this is what I feel about most of the internet these days).

Comments
  • 19
    Blocking a user after 3 articles in a month is a huge dick move. But keeping this data in a cookie is beyond stupidity.
  • 11
    I like dev.to more for tech blogging than medium. They're not as minimalist, but I prefer the layout and community.
  • 2
    Medium is cancer ~ Big American Guy
  • 3
    They dont block users from reading more. On that popup there is a cross or text link somewhere to close it.
  • 2
    @Codex404 nope. There isn't. I looked for and did not find any.

    Also, they have a star count which does track articles you read which is on the left side of pop-up.

    They might be doing this because I am using an ad- blocker.

    @Drillan767 hahaha yes.

    @bittersweet Have heard about it but never tried it. Let me check it out.

    @Stuxnet how can you hate your own country and stuff?
  • 1
    I am curious. What you mean by American mindset? Do they view things differently than others? I mean I know they do that for country related aspects but for tech? How?
  • 3
    @CatMDV They do it in every aspect.

    The content I encounter on English and other world media/people is drastically different than that by the american counterpart.
  • 4
    @bittersweet

    Out of the millions of blogs and articles and news sites I regularly visit a day, how do I not know about dev.to?

    any other secrets you would like to share oh masterful one? :)
  • 4
    @Codex404 No cross anywhere.

    Warning: This might hurt your eyes.
  • 2
    Coding articles/solutions on Medium are usually also very bad
  • 2
    @Floydian I don't

    That's what I meant by "big American Guy"

    But medium just fucking sucks lol
  • 2
    @Stuxnet what does 'big American Guy' mean?

    I don't get the metaphor.
  • 1
    @Floydian look in local storage
  • 2
    @Floydian Like I'm basically the stereotypical patriotic dude that comes to mind lmao

    And like I'd never wanna live anywhere else, etc.
  • 2
    @Stuxnet Oh okay. So that was sarcastic, huh?
  • 1
    @Floydian Sorry I'll break it down better.

    I love America and fuck medium.

    Nothing sarcastic.

    You mentioned it's "American mindset" was just pointing out some of us hate this site too lol
  • 4
    @Stuxnet I get it this time. Thanks.

    I don't hate every american out there. But the majority of the culture, politics, corporates, content just sucks.

    It is only designed to brainwash people to consume more and more and even more.

    People think that USA is the best and everything is compared to an average american as if rest of the world does not exists at all.

    I hate that.

    People in my country worship america as heaven and are dying to live the great american dream.
  • 11
    @hash-table Yes, here are some free tips:

    * Plan your life in such a way that you never have to hurry. Running to catch a train might seem insignificant, but I doubled my happiness when I started padding all my appointments with some extra buffer time.

    * Eat bananas. Bananas are amazing. They cure headaches and muscle pains, they taste good and they make great jokes when you talk to them.

    * Don't worry about unfinished hobby projects. Things don't need to be finished for the learning process to be valuable.

    * Automate things. Use snippets and scripts, bind hotkeys & keep tweaking your efficiency.

    * When you build a house, foundations are super important. The roof of my house was easier to replace than the foundation.

    * Don't share a car from Portugal to Belgium with a semi-trained playful Serval, a grandma, an illegal refugee and a backpack full of drugs (the backpack was mine).

    I would tell you more, but you've read 6 tips this month. If you subscribe for $10/m you get unlimited tips!
  • 3
    @bittersweet hahahahahah this is brilliant.

    Made my day.

    The third point is actually true. The learning was important and that's the reason I quit most of my projects midway because I learned from them what I wanted to. Thanks for this, I now know why I never completed any of my projects.

    The fourth point about automation is true again. I don't know how to code or else I would have automated half of my life tasks.

    And with respect to foundation and roof thing, dude you are wise. That was some profound shit. Thank you so much for that.
  • 2
    @Floydian I went to a college graduation for a medical school and one of the programs was a master's in like biochem and literally everyone in it was from India. Not exaggerating at all.

    But a lot of people here shit on it, especially Alex when he was here, but like nationalism and I think everyone should love their country, history, etc.
  • 4
    @Floydian I was literally in the process of using a hydraulic pile driver to insert concrete segments under my floor, when I realized that I really needed to upgrade from php 5.4 to 7.0.

    The longer you wait with refactoring/updating fundamental core components, the more crooked shit is built on top of it.
  • 1
    @Stuxnet I told you. I work for an American brand and people will kill to go America.

    Even I dislike USA a lot. Ofc there are good things about that place and good people exist there but major part of that nation is crap. No offense at all bro.

    America has a direct impact on my day to day and I don't really like that.
  • 1
    @Floydian off topic: thz for the upvotes
  • 2
    @bittersweet

    Awesome tips! Would def subscribe! Like those targeted ads on Facebook, i chose you to learn the secret to life! Sign up and join my club and take my lessons!
  • 1
    @Floydian hmm strange, yesterday I got the exact same popup but I could close it...
  • 2
    @bittersweet where can I get a subscription? 😂😂😂
  • 1
    @Codex404 browser-dependent CSS?
  • 1
    Tips for you to read as much as you want for free: open Medium in igconito mode and browser’s developer tools (F12 on Chrome) to remove any popup annoys you.
    2 things I think you’re not right about Medium:
    1. Medium had offered free contents for a long time before, and now they require user’s subscription. That’s inevitable, just like other digital publishers. Stay or leave, it’s up to you.
    2. They can (and I’m sure they will) count articles you read for real. Deleting cookies for extra articles is only the temporary way. They can, at any point in future, make an account completely unable to access to more content when it reaches the free limit, no matter what you do but paying subscription. Using igconito mode is corny trick that everyone knows.
  • 2
    @CoffeeNcode probably A/B testing? Or region related
  • 1
    I believe there is no limit when using the Android app.
  • 3
    Medium limits users to 3 “premium articles” that are articles with huge relevance/ written by their editors and you can identify them by the star. Normal articles have no limitation
  • 1
    @smb26 I don't think so because every article I clicked gave me this pop-up. I read nearly 30 posts yesterday.
  • 2
    @Floydian you’re just lucky to picky the one with stars. For examples the articles that are recommended on the emails are all with stars. I use medium for a long period and never had your problem, you have the ‘stary’ finger :)
  • 1
    @smb26 Hahaha yes, I am bit picky or maybe just lucky :)
  • 1
    I think you are all forgeting something. Medium took money from investors. Ofc they have to charge, when you take money you have to do something to generate income.

    I don't have a problem with them charging. It's only 5 a month, much less than other subscriptions. I used to have a subscription for like a year but cancelled it because i didn't use it much any more.
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