Medium Comments, Maximum Utility
The comment section on this website is half the point. Don’t miss out!
The Medium comment system treats comments as tiny articles. You can label your comments with hashtags, title them, and even illustrate them as you would a blog post. I found this strange, but after due consideration, I realized that the lack of distinction between comments and articles is one of Medium’s nicest amenities.
At first, I shied away from the Medium comment section. I thought comment sections were only for precocious Uzbek teenagers making pocket money after school by trolling on behalf of Russian intelligence services. That prejudice may be entirely accurate for YouTube and RT but logging is a different “medium”. In prose, comment and subject stand “both alike in dignity”. Sadly, this is not possible when the subject is a cat video.
The incentives are different in blogging. Essays allow for the expression of fully formed ideas, but the author must accept that few if any eyes will ever scan the final product from start to finish. The reward for writing is the luxury having your ideas grow and organize themselves as you put them onto the page. That’s “what you get”, not widespread recognition. Traditionally, if you do a really good job, a small group of people might preserve what you write after your death and enjoy it among themselves until a hostile group of people finally destroys it. That’s not really a reward though, just a funny coincidence.
When we turn a funny thought into an essay and publish it online, we do so at peace with the fact that only one or two people will ever read it. Experienced writers also accept that of these two, one or both may be an intelligence analyst, or an entrepreneur hoping to prey upon our vanity and sell us “the secret of increasing blog traffic.” If the increased clarity of thought writing provides isn’t enough, we have to commit to expressing ideas we are content to pass along to even one person. ie. “If you freeze two thin-mints and melt a third one, you can make a really delicious ice-cream sandwich! Always buy three boxes at a time so you don’t run out!.”
When seen from this broader perspective, Medium comments bear the same relation to articles that demigods bear to mortals like myself. Comments have limitless potential for quality, and are predestined from birth to have an impact. I applaud the foresight of Medium’s designers for creating this type of ecosystem.
When you leave a comment, it is practically certain to be read by the author. That’s a built in audience of at least 1 person! Better still, it’s a person who is practically guaranteed to be interested in the subject of your comment and to give it due consideration. Furthermore, a comment is typically read by other commenters looking to see if anyone else has said what they intend to say, an even larger audience of interested people. If your comment comes at the end of a thread the effect is magnified. Large controversial articles provide an answer to a writer’s dearest hope, an opportunity to contribute to a debate and have a positive impact on the minds of our beloved fellow human beings.
Through commenting, our clearly formed and beautiful thoughts can float into other fertile minds, like spores, and grow into resplendent structures of as yet unimaginable configuration. Take the time to leave a few comments on this platform now and then, you’ll be shocked how rewarding it is.
