Why Does Medium Authorise The Survey Only For USA Citizens?

Are writers from other countries not good enough?

Not long ago, I got this e-mail from Medium. An invitation to participate in a survey. Guess what? Yes, there are a few concerning issues with this e-mail. Anyway, I just took the survey despite the fact I’m from The Netherlands. I was just curious what the questions were, but unfortunately, I was not able to see those questions. Who is able to see them?

Hi Agnes,

Thinking about our goals for the year ahead, a big one for us is continuing to make Medium a better place for writers like you. And that starts with listening to your story and understanding your needs.

As part of that effort, we wanted to invite you to consider joining an online research study we’re running, where we’ll be looking to learn about things like your approach towards writing, your hopes for the future, and your experiences sharing writing on Medium and elsewhere.

Below is some information about what the research study entails.

Dates: 4/15/21 to 4/27/21

Location: Remote

Format: Online survey run by a third-party research company

Length: 15–20 minutes

Incentive: $5.00 Amazon Gift Card

Eligibility: This study is restricted to writers based in the United States

If you’re interested in participating, copy and paste the link in your web browser: https://survey-d.dynata.com/survey/selfserve/53b/2104206?list=3&samp=1&userid=ClientID00097483

We recommend filling it out as soon as possible as space is limited and fills up quickly.

Please note you’ll receive an incentive only if you are selected and fully complete the questionnaire. Expect an email within 4–6 weeks to deliver the incentive.

Thank you and take care.

Medium Creators Team

Age discrimination?

When I filled in my age, I was honest and filled in I am 33 years old. Why do they want to know my age? Do they restrict a certain age? Isn’t that age discrimination? This is very odd to me. Isn’t that rude to ask?

Female discrimination?

In a certain way I do understand why you need to fill in your gender, but why should I fill in my gender in this survey while it is conducted by a third-party organization? What are they going to do with my information?

But do they want to exclude female? If yes, isn’t this gender discrimination?

Continental discrimination?

Oh, and then we have the USA-only restriction. Why? Do they want to leave out all writers from other continents? Aren’t they important enough? Aren’t we the writers that should be on the platform?

Will they bring only the USA writers into the feed of each writer on this platform?

Amazon gift card?

Why an Amazon gift card for 5 dollars? Why don’t they give each participant a yearly subscription on the platform for free instead, so the writers can actually be a better writer?

What do you need from an Amazon gift card with a value of 5 dollars?

Why as soon as possible?

“We recommend filling it out as soon as possible, as space is limited and fills up quickly.”

Please note you’ll receive an incentive only if you are selected and fully complete the questionnaire. Expect an email within 4–6 weeks to deliver the incentive.

Yes, I know why as soon as possible — because they have just a few Amazon gift cards available and not more for everyone.

Incentive means: a thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something.

Remote means: (of a place) situated far from the main centres of population; distant.

My concerns

It concerns me they value USA writers, but not writers from other continents. Remote means that something will be from afar, so I thought I was allowed to participate as well! Maybe I read it all wrong. But no, only USA writers. Remote means, in my view, that you can participate in this survey as well from abroad, as I think remote is, but then I read only eligible for USA writers from the platform.

On the other hand, and this is another concern, is that I think you should encourage writers to write, instead of encouraging them to buy something with a gift card.

Why do we need all the purchases?

Instead, give them a year free membership as a gift, to keep them writing on the platform. That is what I believe “Incentive” means.