I wonder what the reasoning was behind branding the author in the URL path as opposed to as a subdomain. It seems like a very strange approach to take from guys who have done the latter before.

If nothing else it sure makes posts from Medium very annoying on HN because I can't actually tell which blogger's post I'm going to read until I click the link (primarily read on iPad so no hovering).

SEO would be one theory. Pages under the same 'www' subdomain will provide a more positive SEO boost to medium.com than pages under various subdomains.

It's not annoying for Medium. It's free labor.

Why, simply because it's hosted on a different domain? It seems to help people reach an audience wider than they would otherwise, which is anything but bad for branding.

A wider reach isn't a given, especially for someone who writes well and has basic marketing skills.

Besides, on the rare occasion I have read an article on Medium (I don't anymore) I could never remember the author. It's all just the faceless Borg.

For anyone thinking of using Medium, don't do it. It's like giving your work away for free, and for no recognition.

Seriously. The first thing I do if I strongly like or dislike an article is click the name/avatar to get more information about the author to better understand their background. Medium pushes me onto a page with the rest of their articles instead of a profile and I then have to hope that I can use Google to find their Twitter or website based on the small amount of information in their user blurb (because it doesn't force them to include either).

Disagree, at least at this stage. Medium seems to be low enough volume and high enough quality that it probably beats a no name blog right now.

Not sure how they will handle open publishing.