"Distributed" gets you more Medium readers. Viral gets you external readers, because of a mention in a popular blog or twitter feed. More importantly, if people are interested in these topics, write a long form! Then edit the short form to include a link to the long form. Short forms get you readers and an engaged audience. Long forms get you money from Medium. :-) And if the long form is good enough, some of your external readers may end up becoming Medium members, which is worth $2/month until they drop their membership.