Thought Leadership
“De-Curation” Is a Thing Now
Time to understand the impact and implications of this undesirable situation on great writers of Medium
Challenges in content platforms for creators never end. One issue closes, and another one pops up. In this article, I touch on an unusual topic. We had to coin a name for it.
Curation has been a mystery on Medium, and now it gets even more mysterious. Many of us heard about “curation-jail”, which has been a thing on Medium. Like several writers, I have been experiencing this phenomenon. My concerted efforts cannot take me out of this virtual jail. However, this is not the point of my story.
This story is about a new incident, as some writers call it “de-curation” or “reverting distribution”. So we coined new terms related to the curation process. Looks like these terms can hit the online dictionaries soon.
Let me give you context so that my points in this story make sense to you.
Several writers contributing to my publications sent me an unusual request asking me why their curation labels disappeared from their articles in the last few weeks. Some of these writers think our editors removed the label “chosen for distribution” from their stories.
I told them my publications have nothing to do with Medium curation. It is beyond our control and responsibility.
Some writers are incredibly concerned and very upset, as pointed out in their requests. They feel like children whose favorite toys were taken from them. I empathize with these writers and have compassion for their feelings.
In my responses, I pointed out that I did not know about the reasons for removing the distribution tag from those stories.
I have some ideas but wouldn’t speculate on this sensitive point as we have very little data. However, the situation is real, but the rationale behind it is unknown to writers and editors.
I am a messenger here showing my thought leadership to add clarity to the situation as I care about our contributing writers and this platform.
Medium is a private company and has the right to introduce new policies, processes, and procedures.
However, as key stakeholders of the platform, affected writers need clarity on what “de-curation” means to writers and what they can do to prevent this situation. Basically, those affected writers want to know why Medium withdrew their chosen stories from the distribution list.
This situation created a deep curiosity in me. Since I care about the concerns of our contributing writers, I wanted to understand the situation. Therefore, I reviewed their articles by using Medium curation guidelines. I also requested help from our senior editors to analyze the affected stories. My hypothesis was these stories might have breached the Medium rules. However, we did not come across a single rules breach in the affected stories.
From our preliminary review, these affected stories have a common pattern. On these uncurated stories, I noticed some negative comments. A few users left bad reviews sounding like “this story sucks,” “here we go, another clickbait”, “why would Medium curate this stupid story”, “you cannot even write in English”, “who do you think you are to write about XYZ”, “people like you shouldn’t be writing on this platform”, “you are misleading your readers”, “throwing up now”, “cannot stomach this sh*t”, “I am not paying Medium to read this sort of crap.” You get the idea.
These are just some examples showing subjective comments discarding the value of the content, attacking the writers personally, and discouraging them from sharing their opinion on the subject matters of the stories. Ironically, a majority of the comments are positive, and they received excellent reactions like thousands of claps from readers. So they cannot be that bad, contrary to the views of a few unsatisfied readers.
From my understanding, Medium curators use a set of criteria to distribute stories to topics. Personally, I like the set of criteria Medium uses for distributing stories to topics, and I use it as the baseline in a quality review for the submissions to my publications.
The documented criteria look objective. However, in reality, curation in Medium is subjective, as also pointed out in the rules document. Like many writers, I also don’t like the subjective nature of curation on Medium.
But it is not my point in this article. My point is if an article met the curation guidelines and if it was selected, why would Medium remove the distribution credit from the articles?
Does that mean that curators made a mistake in judging the article meeting the policy, or does that mean disgruntled readers created a perception to discredit the efforts of writers? These are essential points that require clarity and transparency from Medium. From my understanding, none of these affected writers have received any correspondence from Medium so far. They identified them by chance.
These writers feel rejected. And rejections hurt awfully.
Curated writers are usually dedicated to quality. They write clearly on interesting topics, adding value to their readers. We need to support these writers. We need more of them producing on this platform. Without these writers, this platform does not mean much.
Removing curation can pose negative implications for the platform. The most significant implication is the demotivation of writers. Demotivating writers means losing their valuable contributions.
Without dedicated and committed writers, discerning readers will be deprived of high-quality, meaningful, and interesting stories.
This new situation also implicates negative consequences for the performance of Medium in the market. We all love this platform and don’t want it to lose its effectiveness.
We don’t want these implications to happen because of misunderstandings. Therefore, clear guidance on this issue is necessary from the leadership team.
Curation is an excellent opportunity for writers and readers. However, we know that many marvelous stories do not get curated for unknown reasons. As an editor of several publications, I come across very high-quality articles, but they don’t get curated. A broader audience does not get a chance to read them. This issue has not been resolved yet.
Many writers aim for curation for several reasons. The primary reason is gaining more visibility of stories, bringing more reading times, and consequently earning more income. Based on my reviews and discussions, many writers have not realized these benefits whose stories get distributed to topics. We see some curated stories receiving only a handful of views and a few minutes of reading time.
Criticism is inevitable in content platforms. Readers have different expectations and tastes for various topics and different styles. While many writers embrace feedback, sometimes criticism hurts, especially when delivered harshly or in a toxic tone.
My suggestion to writers is to embrace feedback but report toxic behavior such as insults and defaming comments. As you know, Medium has established rules such as not allowing hate speech and defamation. You can report comments.
Readers have the option of choosing a story and reading it. If a story does not resonate with them, they have the choice not to continue reading. Instead of abusing writers, they can mute the writer and stop reading their content. Mutual respect is essential to enjoy the facilities of this platform.
Distributing high-quality and interesting stories is an excellent opportunity for writers and readers. Medium does an outstanding job by taking this activity.
However, de-curation (removing distribution settings) from selected stories seems to create unnecessary stress for writers. We hope Medium addresses this issue promptly with clear guidance to prevent this stressful situation.
My hope here is to de-stress the situation caused by de-curation.
Here are three of my favorite stories close to my heart, de-curated to my surprise as they are valuable for society, reflecting my years of experience.
I have no idea why these stories were de-curated, but my gut feeling is some readers disagreed with my unusual experimentation and got uncomfortable with my realistic findings. Despite all, I have no hard feelings. I respect everyone's thoughts and choices.
These stories are close to my mind and heart.
Here’s How I Defeated Brain Fog with Six Lifestyle Habits Decades Ago.
Eating 200g Fats Daily for Decades Helps Me Thrive
Julia Lost 30 Pounds After Quitting Five Habits
Here Are the Benefits I Gained from Performing Long-Term Fasting.
Here’s How I Tamed Overactive Immune System and Lowered Arthritis Symptoms in 5 Steps.
Update
Here are my recent stories removed from distribution. These stories are created to inspire writers and readers. I have no idea why they were removed from topics except that they relate to Medium and publications. However, I came across numerous distributed stories on topics. I respect Medium’s decision, but I remain curious about the decision of curators.
This one is a newsletter. I saw several newsletters on the topics.
Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers
Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
Why 442 Million People Live Diabetic and What We Can Do About it
Six Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Lower the Risks of Mental Disorders
What Can We Do About NCDs Killing 41 Million People Yearly?.
Reduce the Risks of Neonatal Disorders to Prevent Infant Mortality.
Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits
I also write about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
About the Author
I am a technologist, postdoctoral researcher in cognitive science, author of several books, editor of publications, and digital marketing strategist with four decades of industry experience.
I write articles for Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal Media. On Medium, I established ILLUMINATION, ILLUMINATION-Curated, ILLUMINATION’ S MIRROR, ILLUMINATION Book Chapters, Technology Hits, SYNERGY, and Readers Hope publications supporting 15,500+ writers on Medium.
You may subscribe to my account to be notified when I post on Medium and join my publications requesting access here. I share my health stories in my publication, Euphoria. My health, mental health, and fitness collection.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. I wrote several articles on major diseases and valuable nutrients for health. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.
You might join my seven publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link. You might find more information about my professional background.
