Let’s Build a Fairer World

Starting right here on Medium

It was conny manero whose recent article about Medium started the ball rolling, or rather brought a few dormant niggles to the surface of my mind.

In the industry where I spend most of my time there are rules which prevent “double-dipping”. Financial services employees are discouraged, if they manage client accounts, from trading ahead of their clientele or using inside knowledge gained from their daily work for their personal enrichment.

Discouraged is probably too mild a word. Jail sentences, fines or banning from similar employment have been known to happen.

So I always naively assumed that there would be some sort of separation of duties within Medium too. Surely editors of large publications could not also be Medium curators and writers for those publications? Wouldn’t that give them an unfair advantage over the writing population at large, with their latest scribbles guaranteed a prominent slot and instant readership (with the attendant financial rewards)?

Well, it seems that some people really do have the golden ticket and, while the exact mechanisms are shrouded in secrecy, the mutual backscratching of the well-connected ensures that the gravy train rolls on.

As that sage of our times Starkey puts it:

Medium has already picked all the winners it’s going to pick. They might throw the rest of us a bone now and then but making a living wage here is something reserved for writers the brass has recruited.

Most people, including me, have reached the conclusion, liberating or disappointing according to personal outlook, that we should write if we want to write, but without expecting much in return.

There are some simple things that Medium could do to level the playing field, such as assessing articles for curation on an anonymous basis, to avoid the name recognition bias which Conny calls out. They could tweak the payout algorithms to adjust the reward distribution, cap earnings or pay compulsive commenters for their community contribution.

Medium publications and the larger private ones could audit themselves for favouritism and bias in their selection and promotion activities.

But, let’s face it, none of those things is going to happen.

The most encouraging sign I have seen in the past half-year is the inexorable rise of the Illumination publication. I am informed, by those of longer service to the cause, that Illumination is not unlike how Medium was before the partner program started. A publication supporting and promoting even the latest and least-known arrivals, prompt acceptance or critique of submissions, and a feeling of community (in many ways more valuable than financial reward).

It’s akin to a populist revolution. And it is undeniably siphoning writing talent away from the longer-established publications. Whether they (or Medium itself) have noticed yet is harder to judge.

Life in the Golden Bubble must be great.

But the view of what’s happening outside is a little hazy.

Many thanks for reading!

Whining rant over. Normal service resuming imminently.

Meanwhile, here are some more Medium observations.