Life Lessons

Open Apology to Ella Heart

Clearing a misunderstood point with regret and humility

Dear Ella,

Thank you for mentioning me in your story. I was just informed of your article by some writers today. Sorry for the late reply. My account notification is turned off, as I receive thousands of them daily. As a writer, I understand the pain points of writers and do my best to alleviate them.

Let me quickly share my thoughts to relieve your pain in this short post. Your pain bleeds my heart.

As I briefly discussed with you in Audrey’s story, I have no issue with you not following us or leaving our publication. Your criticism sounds like defaming at first glance, but it is not legal defamation to me. I only wanted to understand your point of view. I support your goals for your growth.

My publications open doors to all ethical writers on this platform. They can leave us anytime with no reason or justification. They can remove their stories with no obligation. We support them in creating their own publication and diversifying their content in other publications.

Our primary goal is to support writers to grow with pleasure and collaboration, not to stress them. We are not a commercial organization. However, we approach publishing as a business following processes and procedures.

All resources (editors, administrators, including myself) are volunteers. Illumination does not earn a cent. Our publication, media platforms, and Slack services give back to the writing and reading community with gratitude. I see publications just as tools. What matter to me is the success of writers and the enjoyment of readers.

As the Illumination team, we love Medium and see it as a big virtual family for writers and readers. Therefore, our volunteer editors, who are also great writers like yourself, allocate their precious time to support writers without expecting anything in return.

As an owner and chief editor of Illumination, I have no lawsuit request. It is a surprise to me. This is an assumption from your end. We have over 100 volunteer editors supporting our publication from multiple time zones donating their precious time.

I am grateful for their altruistic contributions. But they are sometimes overwhelmed by the workload. They sometimes make mistakes due to the pressure of their duties, but I can assure you that they all have good intentions to support our writers. I don’t allow unsupportive people to harm our contributors.

With a full-time job, it is impossible for me to manage these publications and notice all details. Therefore, I depend on volunteers. I orchestrate publishing and administrative activities in my free time.

This comment on your story looks like one of our volunteers responded to you publicly using our administrative account, thinking or feeling that your story was defamation. But I don’t see it as legal defamation. In fact, I see it as valuable feedback. I learned a lot from your story. So I am grateful for your article.

As the owner of Illumination, I can confirm that you can write anything about our publication and criticize it as much as you want to serve your purposes. Your content about my pubs only honors me as you show care.

Since our inception, some writers criticized the publication as they did not understand my vision for this unique publication.

There were more substantial criticisms on Medium and social media, even calling us a Ponzi scheme, but I did not take any action. Such ridiculous accusations put a smile on my face and energized me to serve the Medium community better.

Coming from a scholarly background, my life philosophy is to be open to both positive and negative criticism and embrace polarity in anything in life.

As a content strategist, I embrace freedom of information and never censor content in my publications as long as they meet Medium’s rules. Rest assured, there is no bullying or lawsuit from my end.

Thus, I sincerely apologize if you perceive the notes of our volunteer as such. I hope this humble apology relieves your pain. I regret this incident happened beyond my control. I will be more diligent and cautious with public comments on behalf of my publications.

To conclude, thank you for providing feedback about our publication and spreading the word. The more criticism Illumination gets, the better it illuminates. After each article like yours, many more writers join our publication. It delights me. We are transparent, diverse, and inclusive.

As the owner, I will not approve mentioned/alleged lawsuit action unless a specific defamation attack is made against an individual unfairly. I know the difference between defamation and criticism. You inspired me to write about the values of my publications for a broader audience.

Please don’t stress yourself for unnecessary concerns. I felt very sorry when I read you are considering leaving Medium. Please stay and illuminate your readers. You are an excellent storyteller with valuable content. I wish you and your loved ones the best.

You are welcome to contact me via our Slack workspace or my social media accounts privately when you need help. My doors are open to all Medium writers and readers. We are a united team in this vast content ocean.

As a side note, I regret our CEO was dragged into this matter unintentionally and unnecessarily. I apologize on behalf of all involved in this misunderstood and misinterpreted conversation that went out of context. I envision Coach Tony will take this great platform to a greater one, and I firmly support his strategy.

Teething problems happen in every progressing organization. No one or no organization is perfect on this planet. I make lots of mistakes every day and learn from them. We need to accept each other with our imperfections. Life is too short to waste on petty matters.

As I mentioned in a recent story, life is life, and the rest is the meaning we give to it. As a realistic optimist, I choose to look at the positive sides of events and relationships without denying the negatives.

Thank you for reading my humble perspectives. I wish you all a healthy and happy life.

Best Regards,

Dr Mehmet Yildiz Owner and chief editor of Illumination Integrated Publications

CC. Ella Heart, Audrey Malone

As a new reader, you might check out my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis. Here are sample health improvement articles for new readers:

Brain Health, Brain Atrophy, Dementia, Depression, Anxiety, Heart Disease and Strokes, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Metabolic Syndrome, Liver Cancer, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Cardiovascular Health, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Nervous Breakdown, Autoimmune Conditions, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, and Major Diseases.

I wrote about valuable nutrients such as:

CoQ10, PQQ, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.

Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include health or professional advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.

I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health. Here is my collection of Insightful Life Lessons from Personal Stories.

You may also check my blog posts about my articles and articles of other writers contributing to my publications on Medium. I share them on my website digitalmehmet.com. Here is my professional bio. You can contact me via weblink.

You might find more information about my professional background.

Invitation to New Writers

If you are a writer, you can join Medium, Vocal Media, and NewsBreak as a writer and monetize your content while inspiring a large audience. Repurposing your content on these platforms can save you time and increase your income. You can join my six publications on Medium, contributed by 17K+ writers, as a writer requesting access via this weblink.