Peace on Medium
Why Kill an Albatross!
An open letter to stop allegations
“Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.”
I usually don’t write these types of stories.
My focus on Medium is on health and well-being, sharing my reviews, observations, and personal experience.
However, this piece is a necessity for me as an exception. As the lead editor of a significant publication on Medium, I felt obliged to share my thoughts as unnecessary drama affects the mental health of writers on this platform.
The purpose of this story is to add clarity to my publication's position on Medium, levering an incident caused by a person who stirred the emotions of a community. I usually don’t like these sorts of stories, but as a publication owner and chief editor, I feel obliged to communicate clearly and eliminate misunderstandings.
Our publication has a strong affinity for all communities as an ardent supporter; therefore, I am writing this post coming from my mind, heart, and soul with care, transparency, and authenticity.
I’d like to introduce myself first so that you understand my genuine message. I am the founder and leader of the ILLUMINATION publication on Medium.
My publication gives voice to thousands of writers and supports those who suffer from many rejections, discrimination, and discouragement for raising their voices.
ILLUMINATION is a publication that I established on diversity, equality, and inclusiveness values. My vision is to include all minority groups bringing them together to create synergy and fusion.
We have a fantastic editorial team. Some of my editors are influential voices in your community.
You can meet our volunteer editors at this link.
Many writers wrote about the values of this publication and how they felt at home under the protection of this publication.
WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT ACTIONS TAKEN
When an issue was identified and alerted, I took immediate action and responded promptly. It was a story against Medium’s policies accidentally published by one of our volunteer editors.
It was as if the sky was falling down. I never had such a reaction from anyone in my life, even in more intense life-threatening situations.
So, even though the alert in the form of a spamming post on Medium was abusive, insulting, provocative, and defaming, here is what I said immediately in a public post attacking me on Medium.
“I have reviewed your comments. Those are not our values, and we are sorry the incident happened. Our editorial team have rectified the situation promptly and taken appropriate measures. My publication supports hundreds of LGBTQIA writers, giving them a strong voice and amplify their messages. I promote LGBTQIA stories in our collections. Publications with many editors supporting thousands of writers submitting hundreds of articles daily sometimes may make mistakes. However, that does not mean I am “a bigoted person”, and it hurts to be called so. I do feel that the 3000+ diverse writers I support can prove I am the farthest from being homophobic and bigoted…”
In the same post, here is how our editor Linda Caroll (an all-star Medium writer), responded immediately:
“I am so sorry this happened. That piece should not have been published. It was bigoted and uninformed and has been removed from Illumination.
It is an incredibly difficult task to maintain communication with 30+ editors with the speed at which Illumination is growing. That said, this incident has started a conversation about which types of voices and messages should not be accepted. It’s a bad situation, but perhaps with a good end result.
I cannot speak for anyone else, but in my experience, Dr. M has been the farthest thing from judgmental or homophobic. Truly, it is as simple as lack of clear guidelines, and content slipping through that should not have.
We are working to change that because this publication is not a place where hateful content belongs. Rather, the goal of the editorial group is to create a caring and welcoming place. There’s no room for hate speech in that.”
Another fantastic editor of my publication Chris Hedges (a top writer in LGBTQ), who took immediate actions also provided a quick response with an apology, but I cannot find the response from Chris now.
Three editors apologized immediately and took prompt action to rectify the situation, but provocation and allegations did not stop. A defaming article tagging many writers appeared on Medium. The post created alarm bells and flooded my inbox with shaming email messages.
I am grateful that the post was deleted. Many thanks to Medium for taking urgent action by removing the defaming article against Medium rules from the ecosystem.
IDIOTIC CRITICISM OF MY COMMENT
Yes, there was a comment from me on the article I skimmed through. My comment was not supporting the idea in the questionable article.
As a scientist, I took the duty of call and specifically pointed out that what author referred was scientifically incorrect.
What is wrong with responding to a piece of writing on Medium with politeness and assertiveness? I always respond with courtesy, kindness, and support to all our writers.
Every writer is unique and deserves respect in my book. Supporting the content of writers do not necessarily mean agreement with their content.
There are thousands of articles on Medium, which I’m afraid I have to disagree, but I respond with politeness and kindness. This is my personal value and cannot compromise due to the provocation of idiotic voices.
There is a cognition problem by the provoker who cannot understand simple English and using my comment as an excuse to attack us and defame us. This approach and the patterns in the provocation reflect a psychological motive.
As a scientist, I know that sexual orientation is a natural phenomenon. I studied the human brain and anatomy for seven years at the doctoral and postdoctoral level.
At a personal level, I have empathy for all people from any sexual orientation and compassion for the suffering of minorities. I support suffering people as my altruistic contribution to society. I experienced the pain of discrimination myself because I belong to a minority group. I suffered from a lot of discrimination and rejections due to my ethnic background. But I did not change my identity, kept it as is with pride, despite harsh punishments imposed on me.
Here is an independent view from Rosennab (Dr Bakari) who reviewed my response. Dr Bakari is an outstanding writer whose work gained international scholarly recognition and ardent supporter of my publication. She is a strong voice to those most suffering on our troubled earth. I am honored by the review and assessment of Dr Bakari.
“I was tagged in several of these posts by the accuser. Honestly, I took these accusations serious because homophobia is a serious issue. I read several times trying to find the evidence of homophobia. I read the response by Dr. Y. that the accuser posted as evidence. The statement, as I understood it, stated that Dr. Y. was aware of research that states homosexuality is not a preference. I was totally confused about how this statement was interpreted as homophobia. I have made no response or statement because the discussion was filled with too much negative emotion and too little logic. I stay away from those statements. So, I can only imagine the exhaustion Dr. Y. has felt in being forced to address untruths and misinterpretations. Rest well. Your community trusts you.” source
THE REAL PROBLEM
Our publication is attacked, defamed, and labelled with unacceptable terms.
Yes, there is a place, time, and a requirement for activism, but Medium is not a place for overt activist activities.
Medium is a peaceful place to share our words with professionalism, courtesy, and a broad mind. This is a wonderful platform giving voice to thousands of writers and insightful and inspiring content to millions of readers.
I am a person who embraces humility and lives his life with modesty, tolerance, empathy, compassion, and acceptance. I embrace diversity and always act with politeness to everyone, even to my opponents.
Not tolerating bullies shouldn’t be characterized as arrogance.
Challenging bullies is a noble act.
CONSEQUENCES OF PROVOCATION
Attacking and defaming a publication operating under diversity, equality, and inclusiveness values conflicts and contradicts with the values of a community.
Attacking and defaming a publication operating under diversity equality and inclusiveness values is as if we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Attacking and defaming a publication operating under diversity, equality and inclusiveness values is as if you are killing an albatross which is the last hope for those who need it.
Think again before sending me another unnecessary email filling my inbox and wasting my time, and preventing me from serving our writers and readers.
With this unnecessary approach, the attackers are about to kill an albatross.
Carrying the dead albatross in our necks is not a desirable outcome.
The issue caused by a provocative and dramatic message creating a storm in a teacup caused unnecessary stress.
I shared my pain and learned lessons in this post.
One of our editors couldn’t accept the allegations against our beloved publication and resigned from the post.
Two writers tagged in the spamming post left the publication due to provocative allegations.
The social media allegations due to this baseless provocation affected our publication’s functionality.
Here is what happened to Dr @Marina T Alamanou PhD.a globally recognized distinguished science writer and editor, whose articles curated on Medium distributed to many topics.
“I am really sorry for what happened! I would like to know who is the assh@le that created this problem. Thanks to this idiot I had all my illumination articles taken down from facebook and I had limited access to my instagram! I am convinced now that what happened has to do with a miserable little ass@hole that doesn’t tolerate diversity and has a tiny tiny micropersonality….” source
This injury is bad; but we are strong.
It makes us even stronger.
REALITY CHECK
My publication is attacked and defamed because of a single offensive article.
None of our editors agreed with the concerned article which was published accidentally. We publish 500–700 articles with the voluntary contribution of only 20 active editors and 10 consulting editors spread across the globe. As soon as our senior editors sensed the issue in the concerned story, they de-listed the story and removed the writer from our publication. They also updated our process and procedure to deal with risky content more effectively and efficiently.
What else can we do in this imperfect world?
I respect and support values of our readers. My editors and I took immediate action to address the situation as evident from public posts.
We didn’t do anything against community values.
Do you know the challenges of operating a publication on Medium?
If you don’t know, please check this story encouraging a reality check.
We do not want defaming of our publication representing the voice of 3.200+ Medium writers and cannot tolerate allegations by micro-personalities projecting their fantasies.
FINAL WORDS
We are writers, not activists, on the wonderful Medium platform.
But, we can undertake the role of an activist with kind words without blaming, slandering, and shaming.
Please stop filling my inbox with dramatic messages making me feel guilty.
We don’t accept the allegations.
We are proud of who we are.
Stop bullying us as we have no tolerance to bullies.
Stop posting allegations and defaming messages on social media.
If attacks persist, we will take legal actions.
Those who are attacking us, falsely representing a community, are shooting themselves in the foot and killing an albatross.
Let’s collaborate and illuminate with unity.
Let’s use honey instead of vinegar to catch flies.
Let’s not destroy peace on Medium with unnecessary drama.
Let’s not kill our golden egg-laying geese for peace.
Let’s not kill albatrosses showing us the way in this dark journey.
I hope the genuine, authentic, and transparent message in this letter is understood and taken with goodwill.
Our publication embraces all writers valuing a huge variety of voices.
Here is the evidence to support writers on a specific topic.
“Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.”
This story was written with the inspiration gleaned from the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
No Defamation, Discrimination, And Hate Speech Published on Illumination Integrated Publications.
I usually don’t write these types of articles. This was an exception. My focus is on holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments.
Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers
Why 442 Million People Live Diabetic and What We Can Do About it
Defeat Metabolic Syndrome and Slim Down Waistline with Three Tips
Six Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Lower the Risks of Mental Disorders
What Can We Do About NCDs Killing 41 Million People Yearly?.
Reduce the Risks of Neonatal Disorders to Prevent Infant Mortality.
Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits
I also write about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
I publish my lifestyle, health, and well-being stories on EUPHORIA. I wrote several articles on major diseases and valuable nutrients for health. My focus is on metabolic, cellular, mitochondrial, and mental health.
You might join my seven publications on Medium as a writer by sending a request via this link.
You might find more information about my professional background.
