Who Turned Up In Your Daily Feed Today?
And Why?
A fellow writer just responded to the essay I wrote about Medium sending me a free T shirt by telling me that had it had turned up in her daily feed — twice!
Medium is now using you to taunt me, she said. Second day this was in my daily reads. Yeah Medium, I know. Roz got a t.shirt and I didn’t.
Why would Medium would show her the same post twice? Are they actually trying to taunt her? To goad her into writing more pro-Medium work?
Is showing a reader the same post multiple times something that Medium does often?
Or did the Algorithm just get the hiccups?
Who knows?
All I know is that it was the first time anyone told me that I’d turned up in their daily feed. When I thanked her for letting me know, she replied that my work turns up in her daily feed fairly often.
Great news! I had no idea. As far as I know, there’s no way of knowing how often your work appears in somebody else’s feed. (Unless they tell you.)
For all I know, I’m in everybody’s daily feed at all times. (I sure hope so.)
But if I am, nobody has told me about it.
Nor would I have any way of tracking that.
This isn’t a stat that Medium shares with us.
Ever wonder how often your work turns up in someone else’s daily feed? And why certain people keep turning up in yours? (Especially a writer whose link you wouldn’t click if they were the last writer on Medium?)
Although I spend hours a day reading the work of other Medium writers, I almost never read the work that turns up in my daily feed.
My favorite writers rarely turn up there. Instead, the stuff that Medium runs by me seems pretty random.
What does this mean?
(1) I’m not the reader Medium thinks I am.
(2) I’m not the reader Medium wants me to be, and Medium is trying to fix that.
(3) It is totally random.
Or else?
(4) It’s totally nefarious — Medium has some ultimate scheme for taking over the world up its sleeve that involves tinkering with what it’s feeding our brains.
Or it could be something else. If you have any suggestions, thoughts or juicy conspiracy theories about what Medium puts in the daily feeds? Share them by posting them as a response to this post. (Or — writing prompt alert! — by writing your own post about it.)
And? Going forward, when responding to a writer’s work, considering telling them if it appeared in your daily feed. Not only will it make them happy, but if enough of us start sharing this information, we all might learn something about how Medium works.
You can start here. Did this post turn up in your Daily Feed? Let me know!
Writing Coach and Medium Sherpa Roz Warren writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, has been in 15 Chicken Soup for the Soul collections, and is the author of Our Bodies, Our Shelves. Drop her a line at [email protected].
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story by Roz Warren, you might also enjoy:
