My Medium Notification List of Authors I Subscribed to Disappeared Overnight

Why you may want to backup your list

Last week, Kristy C inspired me to take the plunge and become a Friends of Medium member, or FOM for short. I’m a sucker for hearts, and that little yellow circle icon with the white heart in the middle was too much marketing for me to resist.

If I’m being truthful, that probably pushed me more to enroll than the up-to-4x time payout. It was pure marketing genius, and I am not one to be easily swayed — Bravo Medium.

The jury is still out for me as to whether that will be a long-term situation or one that starts with a bang only to end with a bunch of us whimpering about our earnings.

I’m having flashbacks to the rise and fall of the famous October earnings debacle 2023.

Admittedly, it’s less of a debacle and more of a course correction that left many of us confused for a bit. But like a bad breakup, we have moved on and are open to new beginnings, so enter FOM. Many have embraced it with interest and excitement.

The situation

Since I have a yearly subscription paid until May of 2024 and wanted to upgrade to the monthly FOM plan, I needed to contact the help desk, which I did. Later that night, I noticed my inbox was remarkably quiet.

I figured it was Friday night, and my favorite authors must be busy brainstorming hilarious plot twists or inventing new ways to avoid getting work done. I admit it seemed strange that so many of you were taking some vaca simultaneously, especially since I subscribe to a pretty hardcore and dedicated bunch.

I discovered that all the authors I subscribed to had been wiped out. Abracadabra Alacazam and they were gone, deleted, and vanished like some magic trick gone HORRIBLY wrong. Luckily, my followers and following remained intact, but none of the peeps I dedicated to reading were sending me email notifications.

The only thing I could attribute it to was the email I sent to the help desk regarding my FOM request. I re-added as many as I could remember. If you recently received a notification that I subscribed to you again; that would be why.

No, please say it isn’t so

The next day, I received an email from the Medium HQ (that’s headquarters for short in case you didn’t know) explaining they would need to cancel my membership and prorate my remaining fee, and then I could re-enroll with the new plan. I immediately wondered how that might impact my earnings, stripe account, tax information, and subscriber list.

I responded to the email with those questions and await their answers.

I have no proof my request triggered this incident, and I am not trying to place any blame here. I’m speculating someone somewhere clicked the wrong button, and poof. But, sh&% happens, and that is part of life. I am leary of upgrading my membership, though, in all honesty.

Hey, no point in crying about it but…

Just be aware that your list, like mine, could be deleted at any time. Imagine waking up tomorrow to an empty email box with no stories to read. For some of you, that might send you into a full-blown panic attack, and no amount of refreshing will fix it. I tried that, and it most definitely DID NOT work.

After spending an hour resubscribing to all my favorites, I took screenshots of the names so I have them for future reference. I don’t know any other way to compile or download the list. I am all ears if someone has a better idea other than me typing something up myself.

I also exported my subscribers’ contact info in case it disappears one day without notice.

We take for granted that our accounts or portions of them won’t get deleted or blocked, but those things happen. Let this be a cautionary tale that backups are essential for digital operations. Don’t get complacent and caught off guard like I did!

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