Is it just me or is Squarespace terrible using iOS or iPadOS?

I’m constantly having trouble using my iPad Pro (now with the Magic Keyboard) to post on Squarespace. I finally gave up this morning and grabbed my MBP to post an article. Is this just me or is this a problem with Squarespace? Is there a workaround or app that does a better job of posting on SP using an iPad?

It’s getting better but it’s not great. Their official app might be worth looking at, especially if it’s mainly for posting to the blog.

This is one of the key reasons I switched to Blot. (The 80-90% cheaper costs are another!)

You can just write in whatever Markdown app you want, then move them to the appropriate Dropbox folder (or use Working Copy to push them to a git repo).

Just saying… I spend way less time futzing with Blot than I ever did with Squarespace. :wink:

@marius thanks but that is what I’ve tried using. It does not support the Magic Keyboard and in general it creates a lot of friction trying to post a simple blog article. I’m using iA Writer and I’d love to just be able to post my articles with a lot less friction. One would think this would be easy in 2020. :slight_smile:

I have a follow-up question. I’m considering Medium as a platform. But, as I examine the site it would seem like my readers could reach their maximum free articles before getting to my articles. If so, this would limit my reach. Am I understanding this correctly?

Yes. I hit my free articles early, then I ignore/delete my Medium newsletters with recommended articles to read, because I know I won’t be able to access them. (Also Medium newsletters have a bad habit of recommending year-old articles, resulting in my ‘burning off’ free articles too early.) To me (and most people) Medium isn’t worth $50/year.

I’m also just not a fan of Medium in general. It’s a floundering service which has gone through at least three different revenue models which have failed. They convinced many local newspapers and popular virtual magazines like The Ringer) to leave their websites and publish on Medium but most either have since fled or when the revenue model changed Medium dropped them. Medium is eight years old and still isn’t profitable. If you’re looking for a blogging platform with social aspects there are other options.

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As usual, you are a great source of good information and perspective. Thanks.

They have a long tradition of being terrible on mobile.

They’ve sacrificed flexibility for their drag and drop building functionality.

It’s a shame. I don’t think it’s been worth the trade off they made when they made the switch to v5 back in the day.

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The main advantages of Medium are no muss, no fuss posting (or article management), getting paid, and network effects of an audience that wants to read things. And the hosting is free. So for some it can be compelling. But the paywall has reduced overall viewability. (I don’t know what income is like or how it’s been affected.)

I don’t want to manage the security of my own blog, having to manage updates of plugins so that my site doesn’t get compromised by old software when vulnerabilities are found. And I don’t need specialized Wordpress plugins that one can add to one’s own hosted site. For that reason I prefer to have my blogs hosted by Wordpress itself on the wordpress.com domain. Prices for a blog start at free with dozens of themes to choose from, however they add ads to the blogs, and you don’t have access to sophisticated plugins. But Wordpress maintains the blog, does all necessary upkeep and backup, there’s a good iOS app (or you can post from IA Writer or Ulysses and other apps). Pay tiers offer additional features.

If you like those Medium network effects nothing stops you from having a blog under your control, with all your posts duplicated on Medium.

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If you have a body of work on Medium how easy is it to move to another platform such as a Wordpress?

It depends. If you opt-in to the medium partner program then yes. If you choose to keep your posts free, it won’t count under the 5 free post/month rule.

That said, I would highly recommend running your own blog then using a platform that has full control over your data.

It is as easy as it can be. Meaning you can export your data from Medium and import into Wordpress. You will encounter all the usual problems (images not being imported being the primary one), that you will have to troubleshoot.

It’s no harder than any other platform switch.