Here with the follow-up to their announcement last September is CTO and co-founder of Basecamp, David Heinemeier Hansson:
These days Medium is focused on their membership offering, though. Trying to aggregate writing from many sources and sell a broad subscription on top of that. And it’s a neat model, and it’s wonderful to see Medium try something different. But it’s not for us, and it’s not for Signal v Noise. […]
Beyond that, though, we’ve grown ever more aware of the problems with centralizing the internet. Traditional blogs might have swung out of favor, as we all discovered the benefits of social media and aggregating platforms, but we think they’re about to swing back in style, as we all discover the real costs and problems brought by such centralization. […]
That doesn’t mean we regret our time at Medium. Being on Medium helped propel some of our best writing to a whole new audience. But these days there’s less of a “what Medium is doing for us”, and a whole lot more of “what we’re doing for Medium”. It was a good time while it lasted, but good times are gone.
Their new site is powered by WordPress and it looks freaking great. The theme was designed by Basecamp’s in-house designer Adam Stoddard, and I’m really digging his choice to set everything in Tiempos. (I mean, go look at those big, bold, beautiful headlines.)
Unfortunately, Basecamp wasn’t able to export any of the comments on their old posts. This is disappointing because SvN comments are those rare type of comments you actually want to read. To have them locked forever in Medium is a not-insignificant loss.
As far as traditional blogs swinging “back into style”, I do hope that’s the case. Most of my favorite, non-news Internet content is the work of around 20 different writers, programmers, designers, and thinkers that I’ve stumbled across and subscribed to over the years. I list a few of my favorites over here.
As a side note: If you’re new to the blogging scene, welcome. There’s never been a better time to start writing your own site, nor have there been more platforms and frameworks that give you control over your content and its presentation. And if you need help? Shoot me an email—I’d love to help you out.