Medium Responses

Summary

Medium Responses are a feature on the Medium platform that allows users to engage with content by writing a response to a story, which can range from a short comment to a full-length post, and can be discovered by followers and through tags.

Abstract

Responses on Medium serve as a tool for readers to interact with articles that resonate with them, whether by expressing agreement, disagreement, or posing questions. A response can be crafted directly in the space provided at the bottom of a post or expanded into a more comprehensive Medium piece using the full-screen editor. Each response is treated as an individual Medium post, appearing in followers' feeds and potentially in daily digest emails, with a link back to the original story. Authors are encouraged to use tags to increase the visibility of their responses, which can gain recommendations and even surpass the original post in popularity. Additionally, authors have the option to disable responses on their posts by contacting Medium support. The visibility of responses is influenced by social connections and actions of the original author, with responses from followed authors or those engaged with by the original author being more prominently displayed.

Opinions

Responses are valued as a means of conversation and community building on Medium.
The platform encourages users to fully utilize the response feature, suggesting that even a brief engagement can be impactful.
Medium's design choice to treat responses as standalone posts underscores the importance of every user's contribution to the platform's content ecosystem.
The ability to tag responses and have them appear in tag homepages reflects a democratic approach to content discovery and distribution.
The option to request the disabling of responses on one's own posts indicates an understanding of the need for author control over their content and engagement.
The potential for responses to gain more attention than the original post highlights the platform's openness to diverse perspectives and the power of community curation.

What are responses?

Responses are the way you connect and converse with other people on Medium.

When you find a story that inspires, enrages, or otherwise engages you, use the space at the bottom of the original post to write your response. Or maybe you have a question you want answered, or stories you want to hear. Jump in and make your voice heard.

This box is where the action happens:

How do I write a response?

Click into the box at the bottom of the post, and fire away. Responses can be short and simply formatted. But if you want to turn it into a “full Medium post,” click “Go full screen” in the bottom right corner to expand to the full editor.

Your response is its own stand-alone post on Medium. It will go into your followers feeds and their daily digest emails, and appear on your profile page. The response will have a link to the original story at the top of the page.

Be sure to tag your post! You can use the same tags as the original post, or use your own. Your story will then appear in the “latest” column of that tag’s homepage.

People can recommend your response like any other Medium post. Sometimes, responses get more popular than the original post! It will also be listed in your stats.

You can request to have responses turned off your post by writing to [email protected].

How are responses shown?

If someone you follow writes or recommends a response, you will see it at the bottom of the post.

If the original author writes or recommends a response, you will see it at the bottom of the post.

All other responses are behind the “Show more” button.

If the original author blocks the author of a response, it will only be shown behind the “Show more” button, regardless of whether you follow that author or not.