MEDIUM

Expand Access to the MPP, Please!

An invitation to open conversation for the new Medium CEO, Tony Stubblebine

Hey, Mr. Stubblebine! Tony? You came! I mean I did invite you, but I didn’t think you’d… you know. People always say “I’m listening” and really it’s just something that they say. But I heard people say that you are reading and liking posts so I thought I’d…

I’m rambling, sorry. Come in, do you want a cup of tea or a drop of water or anything?

No, no of course not. You’re on a tight schedule, I get that. We all get that. There is a lot to be done. You’re in the big Medium job now how long? Two and a half weeks? It must have been be a crazy two weeks! Enjoying the job?

Sorry, I’m nervous. I never felt like this with the other fella, it seemed he was all about announcements of new things, and never about responding to complaints about old things, and a good few of us think things will be different with you, so I don’t want to screw my shot up.

(stop screwing this up, stop screwing this up, stop screwing this up)

Pardon me, just trying to get everything straight in my head. Will I start?

You know and I both know that Medium is a wonderful place, a place that has given an outlet and supported so many of us in becoming regular writers, in sharing our stories, in expressing ourselves. It is so much better than any blog, more human, more engaging. It simply is a great platform.

But, you and I both know that it isn’t without some problems. Which is fine — anything this big is going to have problems somewhere along the line. So many people with so many different needs, and then there is the tech side which is always far more tricky than non-tech people realize. And all of us realize you are inheiriting these problems, and haven’t created them.

But I am going to focus on just one thing. It’s a thing close to my heart, and it should be close to yours too. Accessibility of the Partner Program to all. Making Medium truly global. Treating all writers equally.

I am sure you did your research before coming to talk to me, and you probably knew what was coming. I have written about it a few times here before. And no, it doesn’t affect me personally, per se. But the reality is it affects all of us here. Medium, at it’s very best, is a place where writers and readers have a chance at communicating together, developing and exploring ideas, and supporting each other. And for the most part, that is my experience. And better still, it is a co-operative experience in so many ways, both in the interpersonal sense of the word and the business concept. We pay a little money in monthly or annually, and for the work we submit we get a return that is an ingenious representation of how important this work is to others.

Yes, I know there are flaws in that system too, but my focus is on a bigger matter.

This doesn’t work for all the people here. Many really good writers are ineligible for this by accident of birth. I can think of excellent writers on here in Brazil, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, and far beyond, who are producing excellent work, and getting no reward. Meanwhile, it is suggested that there are bots recycling the work of others who happen to have an address in the right country who are getting rewarded.

Let’s not dwell on the bots — that is a different discussion. Let’s take a careful look at the 33 countries where you must have a bank account in order to be eligible to earn here. This is taken today from the support site:

Australia Austria Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Romania Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States

These countries have not changed since the end of last year, and possibly further back that that again.

That a lot of Euro-centric countries. Indeed, you could argue that there are only 4 (Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, and Singapore) aren’t predominantly Euro-centric countries, which in turn can be seen as shorthand for white. I say this as someone who is European (from the continent), and very happy to be European: this is not a great look. There is no African nation listed. No South American nation. No Arab states. No Central Asian nations. Not even South Korea makes an appearance.

And yet, some great writers are on here from those countries trying their skill as writers and producing work as good as any and better than much of those of us here already. But not compensating these folks, not admitting them into the club, is limiting their chances to be successful at a field they excel in. It creates a two tier system.

And it by it’s nature limits the voices we can hear, the ideas we can engage with, the stories that we can learn from. The democracy of Twitter and youtube not only helped the world hear about the Arab Spring in 2010–12, but it also helped it happen. We don’t expect Medium to go free, and we certainly don’t expect to have the same reach. But we want it to stretch out to reach, and to help, those writers across the world to find a marketplace for their ideas, their experiences, their thoughts, their stories and their self expression, and to be as justly compensated for it as you or I or any of the rest of us are.

I know in the past, some have excused this restriction with the excuse that it is just a matter of Stripe — being the preferred payment system of Medium — not having the coverage. We could argue about whether it might be a good idea or not to incorporate other finance partners, but I will accept that for now Medium sees its future tied to Stripe: if you aren’t in a Stripe country, then you can’t be in the Medium Partner Program.

Well, a quick look at the global reach of Stripe suggest a different matter. Stripe is now fully live in 44 countries, and in beta mode in another 3. That’s potentially another 14 countries that could be admitted. It also doesn’t include Nigeria or any other African nations, and is still disappointingly limited in range. But it does include Brazil and India, two massive nations. It includes Malaysia. It includes the United Arab Emirates, and it provisionally includes the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. This would be an excellent step forward.

I appreciate that there are potentially several other elements stymieing the expansion of the MPP that I know nothing about. Perhaps there are tax issues, maybe there is difficulty in adjusting for the different currencies, there could be US State Department Rules, or national internet finance rules in the different individual nations. Right now, I can utterly understand not being present in Russia as a part of a soft boycott. Or not allowing China in, because of the country’s poor human rights issue, and also given their demand to control all media entering and exiting the country.

And this is the thing: the more information we have here on medium, the more we can process it. If I were to be presented with good reasons why it isn’t happening, I can then choose to fight alongside you to change this.

And I think that this is a thing for a number of us. We want to support our fellow writers, and we want to support a platform that is listening to us, making decisions connected to what we need and what we have asked for. The previous regime wasn’t exacly despotic, but it did feel like Ev would go off for the weekend, made a new friend, and suddenly we all get free fries at In’n’Out for every ten articles we read. And I do think that Ev wants great things for Medium, but got bogged down in what felt to a few of us like gimmicks.

I certainly believe you want the best for Medium and its writers and readers too. And you have a massive advantage — you can see what went before. You will have another advantage in that you will bring new ideas and approaches to the problems that are here. It’s going to be good for all of us.

But again, I want to make the case for expanding Medium beyond the lucky 33 nations. And if there are reasons that we don’t expand to the 44 / 47 of Stripe, then please, don’t keep us in suspense, which could quickly become suspicion.

Anyway, I have hogged the conversation so far. I really want to hear what you have to say. So, if you will, tell us your thoughts.

Some other stories in this vein include

You can find these and more of my stories about Medium here: