Chapter 1: The Allure of Early Medium Glitches

In the initial days of Medium, the writing platform was riddled with delightful bugs that caught the attention of many.

Take a look at the screenshot above. It's a fascinating and eerie glitch from Medium's nascent period! In early 2014, I participated in a pioneering publishing initiative called “The Message.” Medium assembled a team of writers dedicated to exploring the effects of technology on society, tasking us with producing numerous essays each month.

At that time, Medium was still refining its writing and editing tools. The developers had integrated some stunning design features: you could place an expansive splash image at the top or use a full-background picture with text overlay. The layouts were truly beautiful, and I often find myself lamenting the loss of many of those options.

However, those tools were frequently unreliable. While drafting an essay, my browser would occasionally freeze, leaving my keyboard unresponsive. Then, in an instant, my carefully crafted essay would morph into something entirely unrecognizable.

I began taking screenshots to share with the Medium development team. Unfortunately, this was one of the instances where I lost all my progress. The chaotic screenshot above, filled with dark and vibrant colors, was captured during the same editing session—only thirty minutes later, I was left with another bizarre display of glitches.

Weeks later, while working on another piece, I encountered another strange occurrence...

If you examine closely, you can spot tiny thumbnails of fellow writers from The Message cascading down the page. And yes, I lost my text again.

I had forgotten about these amusing screenshots, which I had saved in a Dropbox folder labeled “Weird Medium Errors.” Just recently, while searching for old tax documents, I stumbled upon them.

As time passed, Medium's developers resolved these bugs, leading to a more stable experience. I haven’t encountered a glitch like that in years, which is great for my efficiency but oddly takes away some of the excitement. I miss those bizarre and captivating visual failures.

After all, they were quite mesmerizing. Observing these glitches allowed one to discover patterns in their erratic behavior—the way Javascript, HTML, and CSS could go so beautifully awry.

In the top green image? Take another look...

You can notice how the line spacing went haywire, compressing the entire essay into a dark mass. It also appears that elements of the editing interface were duplicated at the bottom of the page, as if some process had gone wildly off course. The origin of those repeated green lines remains a mystery.

This phenomenon is the charm of all “glitch art.” When digital systems malfunction, their errors can sometimes reflect the software's intended purpose in a hauntingly beautiful way.

You can see this in Medium's glitches, right? They don’t produce entirely random outcomes. What appears on the screen is chaotic but still carries a semblance of logic. The software attempts to fulfill its original function, even if it has veered into an alternate reality, a Twilight Zone version of itself.

Glitches, therefore, are an inherently artistic experience. They compel us to view our digital environment through a fresh lens.

They also reveal the mechanical nature of our digital lives. Typically, software designers aim to mask this machinery beneath a glossy, user-friendly interface. Under normal circumstances, the Medium editor strives to resemble a pristine sheet of paper, where our words magically materialize. This illusion aims to obscure its software essence.

However, an epic glitch shatters that illusion, reminding us that this isn't just a piece of enchanted paper; it's a complex structure of Javascript and web components, mostly stable but capable of collapsing, sending logic flying off the table.

Today, there's a vibrant community of creators who intentionally craft glitch art, experimenting with hardware vulnerabilities or writing code to transform images, sounds, and text into unexpected visual experiences. One of my favorites is Sarah Zucker, who utilizes VHS tapes and cameras to create gifs featuring wild video feedback. You can explore her work on platforms like Super Rare or Foundation; one notable piece is titled “It’s The Witch Not The Wand”...

While I appreciate the artistry of glitches created on purpose, I have a particular fondness for those that occur by chance—like my experience with the Medium editor, where one moment we’re simply drafting a report in Microsoft Word, and suddenly, reality peels away.

One of my early favorites is the infamous “kill screen” from the original Pac-Man arcade game. Upon reaching the 256th screen, a level-counter overflow would turn the display into an unplayable jumble of characters, resembling something like this...

What glitches have captured your attention?

If you found this exploration of digital quirks enjoyable, consider giving the “clap” button a few taps! It can be activated up to 50 times per reader, assuming it doesn’t crash.