An Open Letter to Medium About the Red Headed Stepchildren Here
You give so much and yet — you cripple us
Dear Medium,
I don’t like writing about you. Not just because it’s against the curation guide, although that, too. Mostly, it just feels so — meta.
If people read my writing and clap like a crazy rhino, I want it to be because I brought something other than a carrot on a stick.
I mean, do people submit posts to Forbes or Business Insider about how to succeed on Forbes or Business insider? No.
But there’s something I’ve been disgruntled about for a long time. So maybe you won’t mind if I write “to” you, instead of about you.
After all, your name isn’t your vocation. You don’t have a crystal ball or a divining dish, so how will you know if I don’t tell you, right?
Screaming in pixels…
Ever noticed how many people here are trying to get readers off Medium? We’ve got links in our profile and sig files at the end of stories. Some people even add links right in their stories.
Remember how bad sig files used to be?
Flashing banners and blinking text. Remember that obnoxious blinking pointing hand? Screaming in pixels. Click here. Join my list.
And incentives. Omg, incentives. Medium secrets and life tips and heaven knows what else. To entice readers OFF Medium.
It got so bad some publications put their foot down and said no more! A discreet link or nothing at all. No blinking nonsense. No 30 line sigs. No embedded signups.
You’re smart. You know why people do that, right? To get people OFF medium. And onto their site.
And you know why they do that, right? Cause you give them no other option.
The red-headed stepchildren…
Writers are trying to get people OFF Medium because we’re the red-headed stepchildren haunting the halls here.
Which is kinda weird for a site built around writers, don’t you think?
Have you ever looked at a writer’s page vs. a publication page?
— Publications can sort content by topics — They can build a navigation bar — They can choose the layout of their page — They can add a logo to their pages — They can add a header to their pages — They can link to external pages (like, a signup page)
And writers? We get a list of posts that scrolls into eternity with no ability to sort them. And one sticky post.
That’s why we’re all trying to get people off Medium. To get them to someplace we have more control.
Most of the internet is a cesspool.
I stole that from Lady Gaga, but you know it’s true.
Medium is one of the few good places.
There’s no ads. And if someone is harassing someone or making a mockery of the terms, you’ll put on your investigating shoes and look into it. You’re lacing up those shoes before most of us know anything even happened.
And you don’t just SAY you do it. (cough, Zuck, cough) You do it. For reals.
Do you know how rare that is? On the internet?
At Facebook, people can’t tell the difference between real posts and foreign bots. As a business owner, you’d be an idiot to set up camp there. Work your butt off to grow a following and Zuck lets 3–5% of them see your posts.
Unless you pay for enhanced distribution, of course. Cha-Chang. Yeah. Zuck kinda sucks.
And Twitter? Great fun most days, but let’s not pretend it’s a professional presence. That, it ain’t. If I’m trying to close a client, I won’t be sending them to my Twitter. That’s a firm promise. God knows what they’d see.
Instagram is at least pretty. But come on — one link. You know? Hard nope.
Most social media mostly sucks. Medium mostly rocks.
I mean, come on. You brought Colin Kaepernick on board. You get it.
The Medium superpower
Did you know you have a super power? Most of the people reading this don’t.
Last week, a client contacted me. He has another site. One I didn’t build. It was built on Squarespace. He had an issue with them and wanted to know how to move his site off there.
Hahahah. Sorry, pal.
He’s going to have to copy and paste every page. Rebuild it. From scratch. Squarespace doesn’t allow people to move their sites to a different platform.
Oops. Forgot to read the fine print. In a perfect world, fine print would protect people. Not snooker them. It’s not a perfect world.
Wordpress at least allows people to export content and move sites — but only to another WP. You can convert it to html, of course. If you know how. Hahah. Which is not for the faint-hearted. That’s a promise.
There’s only one platform that allows people to download their content in a workable and platform-independent way. So you can take your writing and submit it to other sites. Or keep it, if you want.
You. Most readers probably don’t even know they can go into their profile and download everything they’ve written. But they can. Because you rock. And you don’t hold our content hostage like other sites.
Heck, I could write a book on Medium and export it. People do.
You give so much, and yet — you cripple us.
A note for the devil’s advocates…
As Seth Godin said, the devil doesn’t need any advocates.
But still. If I don’t say this, some one is going to come along and tell me to quit whining and build a publication if I want those features.
Why? So I can compete with The Ascent and The Startup and Medium’s in-house publications and the amazing publications I write for?
Also? Big publications have the ability to curate posts. Little ones don’t. Why would I compete with that when I can be a part of it, instead?
That’s before we talk about the work required to grow a publication.
Every lick of content on this site is created by the writers here. But the perks go to the publications.
Not Asking For Anything New…
It’s not like the stepchild is asking Daddy for a Ferrari Pininfarina as a graduation gift. Not asking for the moon and the stars.
Not even asking for anything new.
Just, can I please have a slice of the cake the big kids are eating?
Writers create all the content here. Every lick of it.
But only publications can make it look professional? Only publications can sort content and get the good features?
If writers could make their profiles look the way publications do, if we could build something really cool, we wouldn’t work so darn hard to get people OFF Medium. Instead, we’d be happy to send people TO Medium.
Isn’t that kind of the point in the first place? Don’t you want us sending people here?
I’m sure you do. So give us the tools to build a profile we’re proud of. Please? It’s already built into the system. Charge for it, if you want. I’d pay. Make it an optional upgrade. It’d be a win-win. People who want it pay for it. People who don’t — don’t.
Thanks for the ear. I’ll still love you if you say no. But I hope you’ll think about it.
/rant
xo Linda
