Summary

Medium's profile URL changes have rendered previous links broken, necessitating a manual update by writers to maintain online presence and visibility.

Abstract

Medium has confirmed that direct links to previous usernames are no longer functional following the introduction of new subdomain profiles. This change has significant repercussions for writers who must now update their profile links across various platforms, including social media and applications like ManyStories. The author, Dr. Mehmet Yildiz, outlines a workaround involving manually changing the old profile links to the new subdomain URLs on each platform. Despite the inconvenience, he remains optimistic and suggests prioritizing frequently used applications for updates. However, he acknowledges the challenge of rectifying indexed links on search engines and third-party sites, which may require reaching out to individuals who have shared the old links.

Opinions

The author is optimistic about resolving the issue despite the inconvenience caused by the profile URL changes.
He appreciates Medium's acknowledgment of the problem and their commitment to fixing the display of top writer and editorial statuses on profiles.
The author believes that Medium could implement a domain mapping solution to mitigate the link breaking issue, similar to techniques used in domain migrations during mergers and acquisitions.
He emphasizes the substantial work required by writers to update their profiles across various platforms and the potential impact on their visibility and reach.
The author suggests that fixing applications is feasible, but fixing indexed links, especially those captured by search engines and other sources, is not practical and could require reaching out to individuals for updates.
He provides a real-world example involving a link shared by Marty de Jonge to illustrate the challenges faced when old links lead to dead ends

Bad News for Previous Profile Links

Medium confirmed that any direct links to our previous Medium username have broken. I offer a partial workaround.

Introduction and Context

I shared a post raising my concerns about my profile on 18 October 2020.

I Don’t Like My New Profile; Do You?

My Medium profile changes reflect serious issues, impact and implications.

medium.com

There were six major items that concerned me about my new profile.

In the meantime, I requested input from Medium Helpdesk, and the agent responded today. It took three days but I am grateful to receive a response.

As an optimist, let me start with the good news.

The friendly help desk confirmed that they are working to fix the top writer and editorial status updates to be shown on my profile.

They kindly asked me to be patient. Fair enough. I understand the workload of Medium and appreciate the acknowledgement. It is not a big deal to wait for a while.

However, I have a piece of bad news.

As pointed out in my previous article, the biggest concern to me was losing the earlier links of my profile in search engines, applications, and a myriad of other media platforms.

The friendly helpdesk agent sent a confirmation note. If our existing Medium profile username and URL changed when creating our subdomain, that old username URL would not redirect. As such, any direct links to our previous Medium username have broken. We will need to reshare our new subdomain profile or replace it anywhere we have shared or displayed it.

This news is disappointing and implicates substantial work for writers.

It was my exact fear, as mentioned in my previous post.

As you can see, my previous account name was “https://medium.com/@myildizmel” and my new account name is “https://dr-mehmet-yildiz.medium.com/”. In technical terms, these are two different subdomains.

Medium is saying that these two domains are different and cannot be linked. In my view, this can be fixed using a domain mapping technique. I have done it while migrating many domains during mergers and acquisitions in my projects. However, I’d not argue on whether Medium is willing to invest on such a solution.

To reduce impact of the damage, I focus my energy on resolving issues on a timely manner rather than the problem itself. My optimism makes me believe that things can find resolutions when we approach them from right angles.

First, let me demonstrate the issue so that you can understand why I emphasize the implications and impact of this problem.

I use a simple application as many Medium writers use this specific service.

Here is a sample for my ManyStories profile. As you may know ManyStories is a giveback service by top writer Lincoln W Daniel promoting our stories free of charge. Many Medium writers love this collaborative service by Lincoln.

In this screen capture, I circled my old profile link on ManyStories.

When a reader click on this profile link, the following error occurs.

My suggestion to fellow writers is to visit all the applications and change the profile address. You may give priority order to the frequently used applications such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora etc.

Let me demonstrate by using the ManyStories application.

Workaround Steps

Step 1

Open the application https://www.manystories.com in your browser.

Click on the “Edit profile” section as circled in the attached screen capture.

Step 2

Find the Website section. Delete the old profile address.

Step 3

Add your new profile address.

Step 4

Remember to save it. The save button is at the end of the editing page.

Step 5

Go back to your profile and check the changes occurred.

I noticed that my profile was old so got an opportunity to update it.

Step 6

Test the link from the application.

For example, when I click on the updated link, the application now divert the link to my profile.

The problem is resolved for one application.

The big problem is there are many more applications keeping the old links of my profile. I need to spend a lot of time to find them out and fix them one by one using this procedure.

Fixing applications is feasible and easy but fixing the indexed links are not easy and practical.

Let me illustrate with an example.

When I type my old account name in Google, the search shows 3,040 results.

To exemplify for demonstration purpose here, I click on a link referred by Marty de Jonge as a response to one of my articles on Medium.

When I click on this link, here is what happens.

As Medium acknowledges, the reader feels lost.

Nobody enjoys being lost.

Yes, even though my account exists on Medium, this old link ironically shows that my account does not exist.

My point is we can change the applications, but we cannot change links captured by other sources. Yes, it is possible to hack it. For example, I can approach to Marty and request him to update this comment using my new profile. I am not sure whether Marty would be willing to do it for me, considering his busy schedule with leadership and personal development matters in beautiful Netherlands.

I believe you understand my concern from this example. The little change on our profile names crate big implications and impact our profile links.

Thank you for reading my perspective.

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