This Chrome Extension Displays the Topics Your Medium Story Was Curated Into

Summary

A Chrome extension has been developed to automatically display the topics into which a Medium story has been curated, addressing the inconvenience caused by Medium's removal of this information from its stats page in October 2020.

Abstract

The article discusses a new Chrome extension designed to restore the functionality that Medium removed from its stats page, which previously showed the topics a story was curated into. This feature was important for writers to understand their niche and where their content fit within Medium's platform. The extension, created by Marianna M. V. dos Santos, automatically displays these topics on the stats page, simplifying the process for writers who previously had to use more complex methods, such as inspecting browser source code. The extension is not available in the Chrome Web Store but can be downloaded from GitHub and installed manually.

Opinions

The author believes that the removal of curation topics from Medium's stats page was a disappointing move for many writers.
Writers are seen to value the transparency of the Medium algorithm and the ability to know which topics their writing is suited for.
The author suggests that hiding curation information does not enhance communication or reduce interest in the curation algorithm among Medium users.
The author views the workarounds previously used by writers, such as those demonstrated by Zulie Rane and Ria Tagulinao, as clever but not user-friendly, especially for non-tech-savvy individuals.
The author is confident that their Chrome extension provides a valuable and convenient solution for all users, including those with technical expertise.

I know you were starving for this. You’re welcome.

Image created by me, using a logo from IconFinder

Remember when your stories were curated? Remember when your stats page displayed a very motivating message stating “Distributed by curators in” following a list of topic labels? Yeah, those were good times, when the Medium algorithm was, a little bit, more transparent. Knowing the topics your stories are being curated into provides useful information, such as which subjects your writing is a good fit for and where your readers are finding your stories on the platform. In other words, it helped writers to better understand their niche inside Medium.

Back in October 2020, Medium removed this information from the stats page, in an attempt to make the platform more relational. This move disappointed many writers, who already had a writing strategy that involved knowing in which topics they have higher chances to get featured. Hiding this information is not making anyone interested in communicating more with other Medium users. It’s not decreasing our interest in the curation algorithm either.

Many writers have been trying some workarounds to find their curation topics, as Zulie Rane in this video and Ria Tagulinao in this story. Their approaches are very clever. However, they require the users to dive into the browser’s source code, which not a comfortable action for people without a tech background; and it’s a tiring method to be doing all the time.

Therefore, I decided to go further and create a Chrome extension to do it automatically for everyone. Even if you are experienced with HTML, you can benefit from this extension to make your work easier.

Here’s what my stats page looks like right now:

Curated topics of one of my stories, displayed on the stats page

If you’re already salivating to have this extension, I have good news and bad news for you.

Bad news first: you won’t find it in the Chrome Web Store.

The good news: The extension is available in an alternative way!

These are the instructions to install it:

Download this repo as a ZIP file from my GitHub.

Unzip the file and you should have a folder named medium-curation-topics-extension-master.

In Chrome/Brave go to the extensions page (chrome://extensions).

Enable Developer Mode (right top corner switch)

Drag the medium-curation-topics-extension-master folder anywhere on the page to import it (do not delete the folder afterward).

And that is it. You can now use and manage it just like any other Chrome extension!

To see the work in action, open a new window, navigate to your stats page, choose one curated story, click on “Details” and check your curation topics below the story title.

Happy curation!