MEDIUM

The Publication Dilemma

Reading, writing and publishing in the era of AI

Owning a Medium publication in 2023 can bring with it some unique challenges. Many of the challenges aren’t exactly anything new to the platform, but others have only been made possible by very recent world developments. As a result, I’ve had to slightly reexamine my role here as Editor-in-Chief of the Three Minute Thoughts publication.

Firstly, I’ve begun to relax a bit on some of the proof-reading and grammar-checking for the time being. Arguably one of the most valuable features of Medium is what an international community it is that we have here. It gives us access to a network of readers and writers that span across the entire world. But as a result of having such an incredibly diverse array of writers on the platform, our proficiency in the English language can vary widely.

Inclusivity is beginning to seem as though it may be more important than pushing people to fix all of their grammatical errors when so many of us may not even be writing in English as our first language. That we’re not all seasoned writers and that many of us are simply here to grow and improve is truly a defining feature of the Medium experience. It’s one of the most amazing aspects about writing here. But it can turn the task of being an editor into something a little bit different than I had initially expected.

I don’t want to sap any of the fun out of Medium for anyone by refusing to publish work that they’ve put thought into just because of grammatical imperfections or occasional struggles with tense. But at the same time, I’ve written for newspapers and always tried to hold myself to a high editorial standard in my own writing. As I’ve continued work for this publication, though, it’s grown clear that the role that I play here is quite different than it was for my high school and local newspaper.

I think that the term publication is actually a bit of a misnomer. To call Medium publications “publications,” seems a bit like it’s overstating what exactly they are. Owning a Medium publication isn’t something I feel as though I can exactly put on a resume, after all. That anyone at all can create them reduces what it means to be a contributor. To quote the villain of The Incredibles, “If everyone’s super, then no one is.”

And such is the case in the world of Medium publications. If everyone’s a publication owner, then no one is. Not really, anyway. The ease of publication-creation can diminish the value that these networks offer. But of course that’s not to say that all of these communities are without value or vision. Many of them can provide different or expanded audiences to all of the new authors who contribute to them. They can foster communities around specific niches of writing in ways that are often useful for everyone involved.

A lot of the time, though, the badge of publication owner can appear almost as a participation award. “I own a publication!” it can feel pretty rewarding to say. But there’s something about the way Medium decided to label this sort of ownership that’s begun to sit a little strangely with me. To own something called a publication doesn’t feel as though it should be as easy as just coming up with the name for it. When it is, it leads to a proliferation of thousands and thousands of publications that are practically destined to languish and die.

The sheer ease of creation relegates these writing communities into a place where so many of them look like little clubs rather than serious homes for serious writing.

At its best, to join a publication can feel like becoming part of a meaningful online community. At its worst though, participation in “publications” is uncomfortably reminiscent of the play-pretend recess games of childhood. Because anyone can own a publication, the editorial standards are rarely such that acceptances into them are very meaningful. I didn’t always feel that way, though.

The first time I got a piece accepted into a publication, I was simply elated. I had naively assumed my acceptance meant that I had entered into an upper echelon of writers on the platform. It wasn’t until a couple weeks later that I began more carefully reading some of the other pieces in that publication that sat alongside mine. I was discouraged to see that many weren’t very good.

It made me wonder whether the owner of the publication was even doing their due diligence of reading the material that they were publishing. It changed my perspective on just what it is to be a part of a publication. It made me want to do better.

But as a publication owner now myself, the path forward here isn’t the clearest. The inherent ecosystem of Medium doesn’t leave a lot of room for many of these communities to truly flourish. That the owners and editors of publications aren’t compensated for their work can be pretty discouraging.

I still try to do my part to fix some of the more glaring errors that I see, but I’m applying more of an even-handed approach. I’m still not publishing any content that falls outside of the fairly wide array of subjects outlined in the submission guidelines, but I’ve mostly taken off my grammar Nazi hat for now.

One of the biggest new challenges with my role as editor, too, is being forced to contend with the storm of AI-created content. As I experiment myself with some of these programs, like ChatGPT, I’m gradually gaining an eye for some of their patterns. But I’m still far from perfect at discerning what’s human writing and what isn’t. I’ve toyed around, too, with some of the ChatGPT detectors that have been released following the chat bot’s historic rise to popularity.

In my experience, they’re pretty accurate. But they, too, aren’t perfect. With a little concerted effort I’ve managed to fool them. I’m not sure yet whether these detectors are a useful metric here.

A few times now when I’ve stumbled across particularly clumsy or robotic jumbles of words within the pieces that I review for publication, I’ve tried running them through these detectors. And on a couple occasions, it’s appeared as though some submissions may actually be written by artificial intelligence.

Please don’t use AI to write your articles. And if you must, please don’t submit them to Three Minute Thoughts. It’s not my responsibility to police over that sort of thing. As a barely-paid writer, I can’t exactly treat this publication as a full-time job. I’m doing my best here, but I’m still only human.

If you’ve considered exploring publications, I hope this provided some useful information. Whether as a reader, writer, editor, or owner, it’s clear that publications can offer a lot to the Medium experience. But it’s important to understand some of the limitations under which these publications still operate.

As things continue to shift and evolve here at Medium, it’s likely that the world of publications will transition into something more tenable. There’s even been increased talk about creating a system of payment for people taking on supervisory roles within their respective publications. But for the time being, the world of publications still leaves a lot to be desired.

You know what costs just over 3/5 of a gumball per day? Supporting the aspiring writer whose article you just finished! Additionally, by the powers vested in me, I’ll grant you unlimited access to the work of all the writers on this platform. All you have to do is sign up through this link here! Can you spare the equivalent of just over 3/5 of one gumball per day? 🧐