Medium Writers Need To Band Together To Prevent This Platform Becoming A Dumpster

Let’s say as one “no more writing articles about Medium.” And repeat.

I’ve held my tongue.

Really I have. Each morning I log onto my favorite platform in the world, ready to write, read and engage with my community. It’s a privilege to write for this platform. It literally has changed my life.

But.

It’s becoming harder and harder.

There has been an endless flow of anti—Medium articles of late, and they all lament the future of the platform that they loved.

This week I read Joe Duncan’s article about the change in the platform he loves. Then, I saw Matt Lillywhite’s article about leaving the platform for the foreseeable future.

I haven't read articles from some of my favorite writers for months — either because they have stopped writing for Medium or the algorithm hides them.

And I have seen messages in writers' slack groups wondering what has happened and preparing to exit this platform.

My partner — a Medium paying subscriber, has stopped reading because she is sick of all the Medium meta articles. She isn't a writer and will never be, yet that is what she is constantly served up. That’s what is so messed up — the readers who are the ones that make this site profitable and who pay the earnings distributed to writers are not getting the reading experience they deserve.

All of the above is a crying shame.

Medium writers are fixated on writing about Medium.

How To Get 100 Followers. My answer: write good quality articles.

How I Earned $1000 a month. My answer: by writing good quality articles.

How I Got 100 Followers (Easy and Fast): My answer: oh, please make it stop.

My Process To Get 100 Followers (Easier and Much Faster). My answer: we are all going to hell.

The solution is so simple.

Medium needs to ban articles about Medium. You don't log onto the New York Times to find 29 articles on how to write for the New York Times. I’ve never read Time Magazine and seen a featured story; This is how we gained 100 subscribers.

The algorithms need to search for that magic word and send it to the site's nether regions, never to be seen.

I subscribe to the Medium Digest email. Each Friday morning, I receive a selected group of stories curated to my interest. Allegedly curated to my interest.

Yesterday the lead story — and the email subject title were 9 Things Wrong With Medium.

I kid you not.

Now the author of the article is one of my favorites and a very clever writer, but really Medium? You are sending an email to a Medium subscriber with the subject title that is dissing you?

Can you imagine New York Times subscribers getting sent an email with the headline 8 Things I Hate About the New York Times? Or Five Reasons to Cancel Your Subscription?

The obsession by writers to focus on Medium needs to stop. Likewise, the ability of Medium to distribute these articles and regularly recommend them to readers needs to stop.

I have cleared my reading history. I have logged in anonymously on a new laptop. It doesn't stop the bombardment of Medium articles. I fear even if I purchased an air-gapped computer it would come pre-loaded with Medium meta articles.

The pledge

So if Medium won’t help itself, it is up to us as writers.

I’m making a pact not to write about Medium and really want others to join me in this pact. And part of this pact is to make the following pledge:

I hereby swear on my copy of Stephen King’s On Writing, never to write an article about Medium.

Ever. No matter how many claps it shall yield.

So help me, Hemingway.

And I want you to take this pledge with me.

If enough of us do that, the torrent of Medium articles will stop.

We can then continue to write about marketing or sex or politics or poetry or pets or any other damn topic in the world.

The readers will like it.

Ultimately more will subscribe, which will eventually benefit us all.

The future of Medium is in your hands.

Let’s do the most we can to ensure its long-term viability for both writers and readers.

I want the great writers to return. I want new and emerging writers to produce interesting content that is engaging, educational, and entertaining.

I want the readers to look forward to a wide range of diverse writers and topics.

I want the old Medium back.

So help me, Hemingway.

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