MEDIUM
A Warning for Writers
If you are violating this rule, you may find yourself shunned
Last night, co-editor for The POM and I were up really late trying to solve a problem. It appears that one of our writers was either unaware of the Medium strict policy against duplicate content, or they were operating in intentional defiance of this rule.
Either way, the account was in very clear violation of Medium’s policy. As a pub owner, I want to get as far away from account violations as I can. Not only can this tarnish the good reputation of our publication, but it can also cast a bad light on the editors who allowed this type of behavior to continue.
Violations of this policy can
- Get your account reported
- Get your account(s) suspended or banned from Medium
- Cause publications to lose faith in your credibility.
- You may lose your writer or editorial status with publications
- Your work may get the boot from publications
- Make people hesitant to work with you
- Tarnish your reputation as a writer
The No Duplicate Content Policy
So what exactly is meant by duplicate content?
Medium has always been against duplicate content:
- Posting the same content more than once, in multiple pubs etc.
- Posting the same story more than once and changing out the picture or title to make it look like a different post.
- Deleting an old story and reposting it with a new title to make it look like a new post. (This used to be somewhat ok and people did it, but the policies became more strict on this in 2019.
- Posting the same content on Medium via multiple Medium accounts
You get the point.
The Medium Help Center describes duplicate content as:
Taking a published story to unlisted, then re-publishing the same content into a new post
Republishing a duplicate version of an existing Medium story on Medium
Cross-posting stories in publications. If your story is already included in a publication, you may not publish another instance of the same story for inclusion in another publication — MHC
In November of 2019, Medium tightened their policies regarding duplicate content, now ruling out the deletion and then reposting of the same content without a huge overhaul on the content, transforming it into something new altogether. Shaunta Grimes discussed it in her article shortly after the changes took place:
Here are the very clear standards Medium has regarding duplicate content:
A reminder on duplicate stories
As a reminder, the Medium Rules have always included a policy against duplicate content. This rule has recently been clarified to specifically indicate this applies to your own content, in both public and unlisted forms. Please review your account, pick a single instance of each post, and delete the other versions, including the unlisted ones.
Note that if you make substantial improvements to a story, then this does not apply. Efforts to improve the quality of your stories are supported. However, if you republish an old story without making substantial improvements and unlist or delete the old version, this policy does apply. Reposting the same story is not allowed.
See the Help Center article here for more information. — Medium email dated 2/5/2019
Duplicate Content We do not allow posting duplicate content, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts, either publicly or as an unlisted story. — Medium Rules
As an editor, like I said, I will distance both myself and my publications from violations of Medium policies. It is simply not worth the risk to tarnish my reputation as a writer and editor here on Medium. The rules are fairly straightforward here; so follow them. I have seen many writers disappear from Medium after their account was suspended or banned — because they thought they were above the rules.
As editors of The POM, we had to make some tough decisions. It is clearly not ideal for us to have to withdraw support from any of our writers, but in this case, that is what we felt we had to do. We have removed the writer and their work from our publication with a notice they are in violation of Medium rules and let them know they are not allowed to return to our publication as a writer until their account is in good standing — but I am not entirely confident in leaving this door open. Again, for the record, Medium rule violations will NOT be tolerated by The POM.
We don’t make the rules — but we are players here. We play fair, or we don’t get to play at all.
For more information on Medium rules and policies you can check out these helpful links:
Thank you for reading. If you are not a subscriber to The POM newsletter, you can read and subscribe right here.
(FYI Samantha Lazar)
