Anyone remember blogs?

Years before Facebook, Instagram and Twitter took over as the prime spots for oversharing, people had to go to websites like Open Diary, Blogger and LiveJournal to publish their thoughts for the world to read.

But over time, social media became the way that people shared articles that reflected their politics, posted images of loved ones and sent out messages of frustration or exultation.

Medium, the online open platform and publisher, is one bloglike platform that has persisted and innovated in the social media era. With 90 million unique monthly visitors, it has maintained relevance as a destination for open letters, petitions and personal essays. But it scarcely sparks such frenetic reactions as it did Thursday night.

That was when Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s billionaire chief executive, took to the website to accuse American Media Inc., the parent company of The National Enquirer, of “extortion and blackmail.” The headline of the post was “No thank you, Mr. Pecker,” a reference to David J. Pecker, the chairman of American Media.