Medium is providing a service with the expectation of making money, if a user is a decent writer then there is the potential of further opportunities being presented to the user. Medium (and Wordpress, and other similar platforms) are providing the user with value, it's not entirely one-way.

I'm tech savvy (B.Sc. Artificial Intelligence and Applied Mathematics, Computer Programmer working full-time for 8 years since University) and I choose to use Medium because I don't want to manage my own personal server, or buy domain names, or have recurring expenses, or have to fiddle with configuration files, or hack templates. Simplicity means the world.

Saying that; I agree with you (in that people contributing their data to platforms for the profit of others is silly.) Facebook is something I don't use because I don't see what I can get back from it that I can't already get from text messages or face-to-face interaction. Medium at least offers me something in exchange for contribution.

Your last point is interesting because I feel the exact opposite. Facebook I don't have a problem with because I just post throwaway stuff on their anyway, and all my RL friends so they actually have a better chance of seeing it vs on my blog or twitter or whatever.

But Medium feels like it's taking the part of my online presence that I want to be most unique and commoditize it into this mass website that will only ever make the founders of the site famous. I know that sounds extreme because they do provide you with a great tool and some means of exposure you wouldn't otherwise have, but it just feels so dehumanizing somehow. Like it's taking the very best part of the internet and attempting to privatize for the benefit of some heavy-hitters in the silicon valley old boys network. And I think I put my finger on something with that last bit, because Medium is really kind of the same thing as Tumblr which never bothered me; maybe because it didn't have that patina of tech insider design perfection bestowed upon us in private beta as if from the gods themselves.

Wow. You perfectly worded the issue I've had in the back of my mind with Medium (but not Tumblr like you say).

I don't know what fiddling with configuration file and maintenance you are talking about. It took me less than 1 hour to setup my wordpress blog on a vps. Other than the occasional plugin and wordpress update, which literally is just a button press away and take 30 seconds, what other server/blog maintenance you have to do?

In the last 3 months, I didn't even log in to my server, it has automatic backup setup and basic security taken care of during initial setup. I spent less than 3 minutes in the last 3 months for occasional plugin updates.

If you are talking about customization, than it is not any different than spending time customization blog on someone else's platform.

If you don't have 3 minutes in 3 months and 1 hour of initial setup time than you have other problems.

Is it so hard to believe that some people just want to share their thoughts with the world and don't care about profit or building their personal brand?

I am not talking about building personal brand, not sure how you came up with that, nor am I talking about profit. Medium and other blogging platforms are content firm, basically you are working for them, under the guise of simplicity and they are (or will be) making money off of your writing.

This is stupid.

If it's not about personal brand or profit then why would the writers care that the platform is making money out of their content?