Stories of fighting with the algorithm and confusions over the new updates
and I was very confused for a LONG time š
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So it seems like many moons ago, Ev Williams released an update on Medium publications. For those of you even later than me to the party, AimƩe Gramblin has a good roundup of good / funny / serious commentaries from writers who chimed in on the issue.
As someone who never broke into the world of Medium-run publications, I misread the whole situation. I thought all publications were being phased out, which was a little bit heartbreaking, considering how The Brain is a Noodle has grown over the past year.
I had this flashback moment of gratitude and appreciation where I just reviewed everything I learned from running TBIN (as if publications were truly in their final dying moments):
- I built up a workflow ā not only to edit and publish ā but to efficiently and supportively promote writersā pieces across platforms.
- To achieve this, I extended my existing Python skills to learn how to a) build a database of existing published pieces, b) randomize and share these database pieces so that all pieces ever published in TBIN get promoted over time. Many publications will tweet out their writersā pieces once, which is great. I wanted some longevity in how pieces are being promoted, not just in the initial moments after being published.
- I learned how to set boundaries more strongly than ever before, finally putting my foot down to some unpleasantry that was happening. I endured far too long in the name of kindness and politeness and making that final decision was so empowering.
- Part of that empowerment is that I had a wonderful community to reach out to whenever I had questions or concerns about whatās been going on. Also, being a part of Writers and Editors of Color (even though Iāve never written yet ā soon!) has been such a blessing.
Luckily, all of this amazingness isnāt actually coming to an end. All these before-death flashbacks were just ā¦ my scrambled brainās dramatization of misinterpreting the changes.
Sure, publications wonāt have the same weight as they did before. As some pointed out, community-based publications will still thrive as they have before.
In addition to AimĆ©eās publication Age of Empathy and Tee and Allisonās Writers and Editors of Color mentioned above, I also really love:
- ScienceDuuudeās Woodworkers of the World Unite ā a place for wood, work, wit, wisdom, wonder, wee wuns works. Itās such an interesting idea for a publication!
- Michael Burg, MDās āDoctor Funnyā for all things funny but Doctors of all sorts. Itās a huge honour because Iām neither funny (on demand) nor a doctor (though Iām working on it!)
- R. Rangan PhDās Science and Soul ā which houses nourishment for science AND soul and has amazing sciku (science haiku!) prompts
There are many, many more amazing publications out there but when I think of community-based, these are the ones where I truly find pieces of myself, and where I feel like I belong as a writer.
Thank you all for existing and building a community.
Without publications though, my biggest concern went to how writers would get their work noticed by readers. The biggest existing problem is that the algorithm is selective and ā¦ surprisingly hard to train.
What do I mean by that?
Well, with every single platform where there is an algorithm generating feed content, I consciously āfeedā content to my algorithm from time to time. For example, I specifically search certain hashtags (or tags) or scroll through and interact with specific types of accounts on a more regular basis.
For something like Medium, in addition to searching tags (not interests! theyāre different!) and then manually sorting by recent instead of most popular, I bookmark pieces from writers who arenāt getting distributed but write about topics that Iād like to read about.
On Medium, this is the most tedious process ever. Even with a regular schedule of checking these tags, Medium consistently defaults to sending me to flavourless self-improvement content or relationship advice that I do not remotely trust with clickbaity titles. Yāknow, the ones that say ā6 Reasons Youāre Still In A Relationship With A Narcissistā or some other non-scientifically backed piece like that.
I also have private lists on Twitter where I actively engage with my favourite Medium writers. Iām there, secretly and quietly bookmarking pieces so that I make sure Iām reading new pieces from these writers.
This is more effort than Iāve put into ātrainingā these algorithms than for my Instagram feed and Twitter timeline.
Yet, while sometimes it budges a little tiny bit for a short period of time, it snaps back into regular old ā12 Reasons No Man Wants To Have Sex With Youā, which frankly, itās 2021, please, for real.
I know a lot of writers are backing up their content and moving it to another platform just in case, and Iām beginning to do the same.
Thereās this Chinese saying:
åęäøč¬ļ¼åŖęč¬äø
Pronounced mm pa yat man, ji pa man yat, which is this clever play on words to say:
Not afraid of ten thousand, but scared of the āoneā in ten thousand risk.
(Trust me itās 10000000x more elegant and witty in Cantonese than the clunky English translation!)
At the same time, Iām also making sure that Iām following, subscribing to newsletters for writers that I love because as much Iām technically a writer (even a poet?), Iām actually on Medium more as a reader.
Because if Medium goes down, what am I going to fill my Medium void with??????????? More Twitter???????
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We really donāt need that.
Lucy Dan čå°å§ (she/her/儹) is trying this new thing out where she sometimes writes for an audience but sometimes writes for herself, because both are healthy ingredients to pushing writing forward. This is the latter.