Writing — Relationships

Illumination Writers — Here is Medium’s Response

Thank You Medium, Now What About This?

I recently wrote an article about changes to writer profile pages on Medium.

There were two main concerns that I outlined in the following article.

The first concern had to do with the new profile pages.

They now display the full text of short articles such as poetry and micro fiction. This lead to the thought that we might not be paid for ‘read time’ on these articles, as the reader isn’t required to click through to read the article.

I sent a Helpdesk request to Medium.

Here is Medium’s reply:

“All views, reads, and Member reading time is being accurately captured and reflected in your earnings and statistics on profile views where the post is fully displayed (and there is no read more link).

So if a reader scrolls your profile and encounters posts that are fully displayed in your profile feed, the system will determine their dwell time on each post, just as if they clicked through to read it, and your statistics and earnings calculations will be correct.”

Well, that was great news to hear. Even though there is sometimes a lack of communication between writers and those making changes to the platform, I’m happy they are thinking about us.

Thank you Medium for responding quickly and addressing our concerns about payment for reading time on our profile pages.

The second concern had to do with unlimited access for non MPP members.

In the past, non paid MPP members were limited to reading three articles a month. If they wanted to read more, they were encouraged to become a paid member, at the inexpensive cost of $5 per month.

Now, anyone on the internet, even people who have nothing to do with Medium, are able to view all of the content on your profile page.

You won’t get ‘read time’ for those readers. You won’t get paid.

One suggestion is to put a banner on profile pages, restricting access after a certain number of reads.

Another idea is to give writers the option to choose if an article displays on their profile page. That would address our concerns about free reading by non-MPP members and would encourage readers to find us in publications.

I’ve sent another Helpdesk message, requesting further clarification.

When I receive a reply, I’ll let you know what their response is. I’m tagging a few writers who responded to recent articles discussing this issue.

E. Scott Alighieri, Hunter Eskew, jude folly, Terry Mansfield, Tony Young, Jr., Robert Trakofler, Charlotte Zobeir Ali, David Rudder, Zul Bal, Gurpreet Dhariwal, America Zed, Mehmet Yıldız, miss mojo, Mythili Iyer

Tag me @treelangdon or add a message to this post if you’d like to connect. Find me on Twitter and Facebook.

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