Sounds great... but given that medium is owned by one of the twitter guy, I would think twice before building anything serious on top of this API though this is a publish only api so it should be fine (twitter publish api is still pretty ok).
I'm really surprised that they are touting the ability to cross-post. Is this ever a good idea for authors? In the absence of some very specific markup [1] you're likely to incur search penalties.
I don't think SEO penalties are relevant to that vast majority of blog posts. Views come primarily from various aggregators and social media sites. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, HN, etc. At least that's how it's been for me.
I am posting my essays on both my personal website, medium and linkedin and I am even trying out Facebooks new "Medium competitor"[1]
And I am accessing different people on each of the platforms. I am not so sure it's that bad for a writer because people who read them aren't really searching for essays.
Instead it's about having access to the right distribution channels IMO.
I have never had as many readers of my things after i started cross-posting. So for mit its perfect.
