Etiquette on Medium
Who Are You?
And, why are you tagging me, Stranger?
You’ve seen my little Friends of Medium (FOM) badge. Yes, that $15 per month badge means my engagement on your posts earns you 4x as much as the $5 a month partner’s reads will earn. I want to support the writers I love and those who genuinely engage in my work.
You are a stranger to me. Still, I’ll reciprocate with everyone who gives full engagement in my work. I love that it means 4x the earnings for you. It’s why I became a FOM — to be able to give back to my wonderful readers and supporters.
So Stranger, after seeing my little badge, you’ve decided to include me in your big block set of profile tags. However, I find no evidence of your previous engagement on my posts. Believe me, I will check as far back as my past half dozen posts. If you tag me and I don’t recognize you, I’ll look for you in the responses and highlights on my posts.
If I find that engagement, I’m cool with you tagging me.
However, claps without the rest of that engagement won’t inspire reciprocation from me no matter how many posts you clap. That’s how the clap jumpers cheat you into giving them real engagement. They clap a bunch of your posts and move on without actually reading and engaging. I’m not falling for it any longer.
Yeah… is that considerate? Would you look kindly on that, Stranger?
I don’t tag someone I don’t read — unless something in the context of my article speaks directly to, or of, that person. Most of the folks here seem to follow the same guidelines. I admit that I do have a block of tags I frequently use, all of the writers to whom I subscribe. I know them; I read them faithfully; they know I read them; I am not a stranger to them.
Get to know me through my writing. Engage fully on my posts and I will happily reciprocate. Before you tag me, Stranger, let’s get to know each other, please. That’s the etiquette of writing on Medium. That would be considerate. Thanks.
If you enjoyed my offering, please buy me a KoFi.
Denise is owner/editor of the WE PAW Bloggers publication. It’s an exclusive pub for members of the Facebook group, WE PAW Bloggers group is a writers’ forum. The FB group is a family of writing creatives supporting one another through networking and reciprocal interaction on our journey of growth as writers. You must be a member of the group to join the pub.
