Medium — Where It’s Nice To Be Nice

Producing online content can provoke the backlash of faceless trolls. The positivity on Medium is a very welcome alternative.

Many people find the idea of performing stand up comedy a terrifying thought. The image they have is of a sea of hecklers, nightly abuse flung at fledgling comics.

I know, because I did stand up for 15 years. I lost the count of the amount of people who said to me “I couldn’t do what you do — you’re so brave!”

The reality, of course, was very different. Actual heckles were rare. Certainly abusive ones, anyway.

The main battles you face from the stage is against dwindling attention spans. It’s not people shouting out that was the issue — it was people having whispered (and not so whispered) conversations in the crowd, people checking their phone messages, getting up for the toilet/bar even though there breaks specifically to cater for that.

I would almost like to say it was because I was rubbish, but I wasn’t (mostly). I saw some of the best comedians of their generations having to deal with the same nonsense.

It wasn’t abusive, but having those distractions makes it hard to do an act. Unlike other art forms, comedy requires that everyone is quiet and listens. When audiences are distracted by chatter, and other things, they stop paying attention or following what you are saying.

What would be infuriating was that the trouble makers had no idea they were being disruptive. This had always been an issue, but in recent years it definitely got worse.

As an act who had developed some chops, I could put down punters when needed. If I poked fun at a 19 year old who was busy texting, they would respond by looking confused, even mildly hurt. It just did not occur to them that being on your phone was anything other than an absolute right and the norm.

Also, don’t think for a moment it was just younger ones. ALL ages are slaves to their devices now.

But as annoying as this could be, as I say, it was very rare that someone would try to be abusive to you. That’s not the case when trying to promote content online.

Trolls

One thing that you can say about a live audience, any live audience, is that they are actually, physically there. You can see them.

If someone wants to be an ass, they do so knowing that an entire room can look round at them. That strangers could shout back at them. That a comic can rip them to shreds and have the whole room thinking they are the joke of the night.

Online is different. It is anonymous. Bored people locked away in their homes, who abuse as a hobby.

Even with your average Joe, it can be hard on Twitter or Facebook. You type out some random thought, and half the people you think you know mis-interpret it. But in return, you have to consider whether to weigh in on Aunty Joyce and her blind re-posting of some far right meme, or just ignore it.

But if you are producing content that you need to promote, this gets much harder. Because now you have to go beyond your ‘friends’ (as fractious a group as that is), and try to get the attention of strangers.

People will think nothing of piling on to kick out at folk on Twitter. On Facebook, you try to target the right audience through the paid ad service, and it still gets to the eyes of those you want to avoid.

And can they just ignore the post, regarding something they don’t agree with? Nope.

Not just that. Even if it’s not as strong a feeling as not agreeing with you, even if it’s simply not something they have an interest in. Then you get comments telling you how they won’t be reading/watching/listening/tasting your content because they don’t care about it.

If you don’t care, why don’t you keep it to yourself!

The nice place

That’s why producing work on Medium is so refreshing. People are nice.

A good deal of subscribers on Medium seem to be writers, who themselves publish work on the platform. This can mean people may be being nice to others in order to gain clicks and readers for their own work. Perhaps so, but it’s still a lot better than the alternative.

You create a piece, decide on a title, subtitle, picture, and the tags. It is then out there, and people can decide whether it looks like something that would interest them or not.

Sure, the mysterious algorithms at play on the site play a significant role. But the main thing is, if people are not interested, they move on. They either don’t click, or if they do, will have a quick scan, then the back button, and try something else instead.

I’m cool with that. You can not please all of the people, all of the time. And neither should you even try!

You instead go ahead and write whatever interests you, and if there is an audience for it, they will find you.

Comments

It’s not just with Medium seeming to lack trolls and nastiness that I find attractive, it is also the nice feedback you get that makes a difference as well.

Medium is a great platform to practice your writing, to simply type something up, and then publish. Sometimes pieces are well researched and lengthy, sometimes short and pithy. Both are great.

I’m always happy when I get nice comments on my articles on Medium, and when I get claps. To know people are enjoying and engaging in my work gives you a nice dose of shine.

And yes, I pass it on. If I enjoy an article I read on Medium, I let the author know. I tell them my key takeaways. It might be they are a viral super-writer with a billion comments, or a new scribe who is only just starting to gain traction. There’s never any harm in being nice.

The future

After performing for over 15 years, I decided to quit stand up comedy. As I said above, it wasn’t because of hecklers.

I made the decision after lockdown took all my live work away. For the first time in a long time, I had a proper break from stand up. That gave me the time to genuinely reflect on the life.

And so I quit, and for a number of reasons. I was enjoying spending time at home with my wife, and all the things being at home entails; I enjoyed not travelling for hours in heavy motorway traffic to gigs; and I was enjoying sitting at my desk, and writing. Like I am now.

The most forward thinking comics were rushing to produce stuff online. Videos, live gigs from their living rooms, all sorts of things. Because of the amount of abuse online, this idea scared me. I didn’t want to do it.

I knew that would become the norm for some time. Putting stuff out there to the anonymous, silent void of the internet. Earning little to no money. Then when things returned to normal, that ‘normal’ would include a massive recession, people without jobs and disposable income, and a smaller stand up circuit to get work from.

It wasn’t an attractive option. All praise to those comics who relish producing online stuff, you go for it. But it was never for me.

I had enough experience before the pandemic of promoting my own shows online, of the random crap you would get from trolls. It was one thing when it was just a small segment of the art form to manage, but I was not prepared to push myself wholly or mostly in to that arena.

Instead now, I write. I write and publish on different platforms, including here on Medium.

And you lot read my stuff. And you’re nice.

Thank you for that.