Summary

The website content discusses the limitations of Medium's user profiles, advocating for more customization options to better showcase a writer's diverse content and enhance reader engagement.

Abstract

The article on the undefined website emphasizes the need for Medium to offer greater freedom in user profile customization. It argues that the current one-size-fits-all approach hinders writers, especially those who cover a variety of topics, from effectively presenting their work. The lack of ability to feature multiple stories or organize content by topics means that interesting articles can get buried, potentially deterring readers with differing interests. The author illustrates this issue with their own diverse writings, which range from books and productivity to sports and fantasy baseball, and points out that this limitation can dissuade writers from publishing certain types of content on Medium. The article also highlights creative workarounds by some writers, such as using personalized publications as a substitute for customizable profiles, and references other community members' calls for improved profile features. The overarching sentiment is that providing writers with the means to curate their profiles would not only make them prouder of their Medium presence but also attract more readers to the platform.

Opinions

The author and other writers are dissatisfied with the restrictive nature of Medium's user profiles.
There is a strong desire for the ability to sort stories by tags, create featured sections, and have multiple featured stories to better represent the breadth of a writer's work.
The current profile setup is seen as an impediment to writers, particularly those with diverse interests, as it can lead to a sequential burial of stories that might not interest all readers.
Some writers have resorted to creating personalized publications to mimic the customization they wish to see in their profiles.
The lack of customization is perceived as a factor that could drive both writers and potential readers away from Medium.
The author suggests that enhancing profile customization would be beneficial for the Medium community, fostering a more engaging and personalized experience for both writers and readers.

The Case for Customizable Profiles

It’s time for Medium to give us more freedom with our user profiles

Chances are, if you have been writing or even just reading on Medium for a little while, you have probably heard some complaints about user profiles. While much of the beauty of Medium lies in its simplicity and clean look with white space that is easy on the eyes, the restrictive nature of user profiles is an impediment to the writers who make Medium so great.

Here’s the problem.

While there is some visual appeal to the simplicity of user profiles, it puts writers in a difficult position. Yes, you can click on a profile page, read a quick bio, scroll down for a sequential list of their stories, and then click on tabs to see their claps, highlights, and responses. But it puts active writers in a tough spot.

For writers who like to write often and about different topics, they run the risk of “burying” stories that might interest readers beneath stories that do not intrigue them. Since writers are only allowed one featured story and cannot sort their stories by tags and tabs or featured sections like publications, their options are limited.

Take my profile, for example. I like to write about a number of different things. If you scroll through my profile, you’ll see stories that fall into the following categories:

Books
Book Publishing
Writing
Poetry
Remote Work
Fantasy Sports
NFL/Football (mostly the Philadelphia Eagles)
Productivity
Updates About My Publications

And probably more that I am forgetting.

Some of those topics are related, but many have nothing to do with each other. If you find my profile page from Twitter because of something I tweeted about fantasy baseball, you might not stay long if the first four posts are about books and working remotely.

See the problem here?

This has frustrated me (and many others, I’m sure) to the point where I hesitate to publish things on Medium. There are sports-related posts that I choose to only publish elsewhere because I know that Medium does not have a lot of readers who like to read about sports, and I don’t want to chase potential readers from my page.

Isn’t that awful?

Some writers have been creative in addressing this user profile shortcoming. Here’s an example of something that is becoming more and more common. A couple of days ago on Twitter, I posted this tweet from the Publishing Well publication account:

It received a ton of great replies, and I was able to find and follow a bunch of great writers on Medium. I encourage you to check it out and follow some (or all) of them.

But there was one response to the tweet that stood out. Instead of linking to a personal page, Sabrina Monet linked to her Sabrina Monet Writes Here publication:

Sabrina Monet Writes Here

Sabrina Monet Writes Here is a collection of essays on film, television and media. Whether you’re three rows back at…

medium.com

Isn’t that page beautiful and simple? It’s exactly what a customized user profile could be. Instead, since our options as writers are so limited, Sabrina created a personalized publication to achieve what should be available right on our profile pages.

And I know I’m not alone here. In addition to seeing the complaints about Medium on both Medium and Twitter, Linda Caroll wrote an excellent story about this same topic just over a week ago. Linda made a much more thorough and passionate case than I am making here, so I definitely recommend checking out her story:

An Open Letter to Medium About the Red Headed Stepchildren Here

You give so much, and yet — you cripple us

medium.com

In addition to making some of the same complaints and arguments that I listed above, Linda made an excellent point by saying, look, we aren’t even asking for something that doesn’t exist. We’re just asking for some features that are already available to publications.

Most importantly, Linda agrees that this shortcoming is taking people away from Medium and not bringing people to this wonderful platform. We all love Medium, and that’s the main point here.

We just want to make it better. We want to invite our friends. And we want to have profiles we’re proud of.

Mike Maher is a writer, editor, and publisher, and you can find him talking about books and sports on Twitter at @MikeMaher, publishing work about books, writing, and publishing at @PublishingWell, covering the NFL on his Philadelphia Eagles blog, The Birds Blitz, and talking fantasy sports and sports betting at FantasyPros, BettingPros, and his own site, Juiced Ball Era.