hi alison,

the friend tier was not built as a tool for writers to make themselves more money, but for people who want to support all writers on medium more than the current standard membership allows.

we're not in the business of pay to play, that's why you don't earn money off of reading your own story. writers can't pay us to distribute their content further which it sounds like you're suggesting. we only distribute content based on quality standards and our current business is built on subscriptions.

you're paying twice as much for the friend tier because you want to pay writers that you read 4x and you want to support readers, not to pay yourself 4x.