Thanks, Zulie - I hadn't realised you were the author of this staff post when I made the comment, as I'd seen that you'd already come across my piece.

I do feel it's a great example of the strength of Medium, and specifically its format.

There are ideas that as writers we want to express, that need a degree of development, but we will never have the time/patience to research and edit into a longer-form work. Those short stories that could be novels - but almost certainly won't.

And there are ideas that as readers we want to engage with beyond the superficial soundbite format of social media, but again can't spend all that long on.

The +/-1000-word format that Medium specialises in is perfect for this, on both sides.

I wish I'd come across it sooner, but now I'm here, plan to make the most of the opportunity to get condensed versions of ideas out there. And who knows? If any particular strands seem to attract enough interest, maybe it's worth dedicating the resources to pursuing them in some form.

So again, it works as a test bed for ideas.

Though I do feel that the somewhat hit-and-miss distribution algorithm denies some pieces their chance to shine and gain traction. On-platform engagement seems - though I may be imagining this - to be feeding through better now in defining who new articles are shown to, which ideally would play a big part in building a readership.

Still early days for me anyway - this weekend is my 1st anniversary on the platform.