WHAT TURNS ME OFF THE MOST

25 Reasons Why I May Have Muted You On Medium

I’m probably not seeing your posts if you’ve done these

Are your posts getting fewer claps or comments than you’d hoped?

It may be happening because you haven’t hit your stride or found your voice on Medium — and you’ll start getting more when you do. But it could also be happening for a reason you haven’t considered: A lot of people have muted you and aren’t seeing your posts.

There’s no real way to tell who’s muted you on Medium, and everyone tends to have his or her own reasons. Some people may have little interest in the topics closest to your heart. Others may think you’re ignoring basic courtesies, such as responding to comments. Still, others may mute you for reasons regularly covered on Medium: You write trite or clickbait-y headlines or use clichéd Unsplash photos people have seen way too often.

As I journalist, I see red flags and mute people when they violate journalistic standards or ethics. They make serious factual errors, fail to credit photos properly or write dull first lines that don’t capture your attention. I write about books, so I’m also quick to mute people who make dubious claims about them, such as saying in a headline that a book will “change your life”: Every reader is unique, and what changed your life may not change mine.

But that doesn’t begin to cover the waterfront. Here are 25 reasons why I’ve muted others and may have muted you.

1 You’ve made potentially libelous comments about your drunken father-in-law, your abusive current boss, or another living person who’s recognizable and not a public figure.

2 You’ve violated copyright laws by posting material such as all the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” and an AP photo of the singer.

3 If you have your own publication, you haven’t taken the time to learn the U.S. libel or copyright laws readily available in plain English, which puts you at risk of being sued.

4 Your posts are racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise indifferent to the vast suffering that such views have caused around the world for millennia.

5 You write anonymously, possibly with fake academic degrees after your name.

6 You seldom or never comment on, clap for, or otherwise engage with posts.

7 Your favorite subject is yourself and how you achieved your awe-inspiring earnings or follower count by means you’d be glad to teach anyone for a fee.

8 You believe only your headline matters and the rest of your story can be drivel.

9 You lowercase the word is in titles because it’s a small word and you haven’t learned the rules of capitalization (which don’t involve whether a word is large or small but what part of speech it is).

10 You’ve posted three listicles this week because — for you — they’re the easiest posts to write and involve the least thought.

11 You brag about your achievements but pretend you aren’t with phrases like: “I’m not bragging — I just want to show you what’s possible” (subtext: “if you had my genius”).

12 You think nobody will figure out that ChatGPT wrote your robotic story that’s entirely lacking in a human voice and a coherent point of view.

13 You continually promote your boot camp, YouTube courses, or coaching services in your header, first line, or other prime real estate instead of in a box or well-chosen lines at the end.

14 You keep reminding people that “the secret to phenomenal success” on Medium is something like writing every day because — even though countless readers do that without the desired results — nobody can hear that advice too often.

15 You have obvious conflicts of interest, such as promoting the businesses of your spouse or other relatives or filling your posts with affiliate links.

16 Your headline swears that a book, diet, or productivity hack will change my life when you’re not me, I tried it seven years ago when I first heard about it, and it changed nothing.

17 You bully people with phrases like “You’ll fail if …,” and predict the worst for people who disregard your advice.

18 Your posts lack any of the qualities that I most value in writing, such as wit, a distinctive style, a clear point of view, and continually delivering surprising information.

19 You haven’t mastered the first principle of writing a good first line: Tell people something they don’t know or something they do know in a new and engaging way.

20 You rant about trivial annoyances such as a one-star review of your book on Goodreads or corporate hold music that plays Olivia Newton-John’s “Let’s Get Physical” over and over — and never mind that the U.S. may be on the brink of war with China or that students have just died in another horrific school shooting.

21 You treat your posts as a personal diary and just let your thoughts rip without editing them for clarity, accuracy, or maximum value to readers.

22 Your headlines boast of the number of books you’ve read in a week, year, or lifetime, as though the number of books you’ve read matters more than the quality or having something interesting to say about them.

23 Your political views differ too much from mine: My heart breaks for Ukraine while your pro-Putin rants sound as though they came from one of the Russian bots that have infiltrated every corner of social media.

24 You think everyone who lives in the Deep South, as I do, has a Confederate flag on the antenna of his or her pick-up truck.

25 If you’re lucky enough to write for kind and responsive editors — like Eric Pierce, Kevin Alexander, Katie Michaelson, Adrienne Beaumont, Sadie Seroxcat, Scott Tarlo, and Nancy Peckenham — you never thank them.

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