I’m About To Dispel Some Problematic Notions About Illumination

Why you shouldn’t believe the hype and make up your own mind

There is a certain top writer who recently wrote about his thoughts on the publication. It was definitely an interesting story. I’m using the word “story” in a different context than I normally would.

At first, I thought that he was going to apologize for having the wrong idea about the large, supportive, and diverse publication. His title seemed to indicate as much and I’m sure that some readers had ultimately misinterpreted it as that.

Instead, it still seems that he harbors some ill feelings toward the publication. He highlights this many times by making up insulting nicknames for the publication such as “Illumibomination”, “The T-Series of Medium” and “the weird Black Sheep of the family that went on to make a million dollars trading Dogecoin”, and essentially saying that its success is more of a consequence of Medium’s lack of support and boosting of new writers instead of that being its very mission.

His words don’t bother me, though.

I recently came on to the editorial team this past week because I really believe in the core principles of Illumination. I have been a writer with them since January 2022, just a few months after I started writing on Medium. Their message was straightforward yet impactful.

The publication strives to be an inclusive and diverse publication offering a voice to all writers on a variety of topics. Their message of inclusion and diversity spoke to me early on. As an Asian-American writer who is also disabled, financially disadvantaged, and LGBTQ, I felt that many of the other large publications were more elitist and exclusionary.

Even if I had something of quality to submit to the other big publications, as a new writer my voice would’ve likely been turned away. As I mentioned at the beginning about the top writer and his story, the notion that Illumination will “publish anything and everything with no quality standards, no editing guidelines, and no overarching theme” is ridiculous.

As an editor, I’ve seen the guidelines and standards and it is not “nothing”. There is a whole set of guidelines that we must follow and a checklist to reference for every story. Illumination has high standards when it comes to ensuring to teach writers how to properly credit photos. Editors give guidance on things like formatting, grammar, and structure all the time.

Our editors guide new writers with checklists like this to follow Medium’s distribution rules and gain better visibility on this platform.

When a topic is something that is considered offensive by Medium’s standards such as hate speech or discrimination, for example, we tell the writer why we cannot accept their story and reject it based on that and not just for “no reason”.

There have been recent reports about unfair rejections. I want to assure you right now that those were most likely glitches or accidental as Illumination editors never reject a story without feedback. Even for stories against Medium rules, they make constructive suggestions to writers to improve their content and resubmit acceptable stories meeting Medium policies. You will never find me or any editor that I know to reject a story for no reason and not send valuable feedback.

More recently, I’ve been personally rejecting AI stories and explaining to writers that we want content that is more true to their own writing voice. AI isn’t plagiarism but I feel like it should technically be considered that since it’s being copied from somewhere. I even speak to the writer about how it could negatively affect their own image and how the story could look to their audience. I even convinced a good writer, robert porter, to just be himself and that he didn’t need AI to write. He really appreciated my feedback and wrote this story.

When I joined the editorial team comprising 119 consulting editors discussed the growing AI issues in the Slack workspace in the last three months and they created a policy for Illumination Integrated publications that will be published shortly. Readers respond a lot more strongly to stories written in one’s genuine voice. That is a lot more than “low standards” and “publishing anything and everything”.

Responding to the comment that the writers on Medium are just outcasts, he would definitely be incorrect. Some of the most successful and top writers such as Tim Denning, David Gerken, Ayodeji Awosika, Sinem Günel, Anastasia Frugaard, Dr. Deborah M. Vereen, and Sean Kernan, among a number of many others, are writing on Illumination because they also see and buy into the mission and message of the publication.

And, what’s wrong with accepting the outcasts anyway? An outcast is just someone who isn’t in the in-crowd, to begin with. The publication supports “new writers.” They are by definition essentially not with the in-crowd when they start out. With exposure and a bigger audience, they eventually work their way to the in-crowd. Many writers have made a successful career through the publication. The more experienced and successful writers can write for the curated portion of Illumination called Illumination-Curated.

The family of publications is about the community. The strong support system that exists in such a large space. It is this very fabric that is one of the reasons that Medium still works, not a byproduct of why it’s “failed” the average writer. After saying all this, who’s to say that the premise of Illumination shouldn’t have worked?

If you believe all of the faulty logical steps this person used to get there, it would be easy to buy into the conclusion. To argue that just because a publication is much larger and more diverse that it also accepts everything is a lazy and misguided argument inherently rooted in faulty logic.

The model works because it is solid with a clear goal and a supportive foundation, not because of a faulty business model by the larger platform it is operating within. It is because of the hard work of all of the wonderful contributors, and editors, and the commitment of Dr Mehmet Yildiz and the rest of the team.

The publication has over 67,000 followers and supports over 19,000 writers because they all see the quality contained within and know that the information that they will be reading within the site has been examined, edited, and validated by some of the nicest, most supportive, and most experienced editors on the platform.

Many writers, after reading this top writer’s story, possibly because of their own negative biases towards the popular publication, chimed in on the message in support of his words based on isolated experiences or misinterpreted past interactions. Would this entire community support an “abomination”?

There were also many writers, who supported the publication, after reading this story. It was fairly clear from the start that he was using the popularity of the publication to boost his own ego and relevance. Sure, he has a large following, but many people who’ve followed him, including me since I started on Medium, have started to see through this self-promotion.

The biggest takeaway you should get from understanding that Illumination is not the “place that accepts all the rejects and doesn’t do quality checks on the information provided.” It is a place that welcomes everyone who wants to be a part of a knowledgeable, experienced, and well-informed community of people who welcome voices from all over the globe and from all walks of life.

It almost sounds like his irritation toward the publication’s attitude against hate speech and discrimination is hate speech in itself. Hey, but I’m not saying that personally, I’m just putting the idea out there. Much like how he put the idea that Illumination is for “losers” and he can tolerate us now…