A massive automated account farming scheme taking over Medium’s recommendations system and pushing away real writers!
I agree and I also think that the Medium team doesn't understand what is happening. I read their explanations and what I take away from them is that they need someone in the team who actually understands tech and AI and automation. They clearly don't. They being railed by someone (or some group) that is clearly exploiting Medium's lack of technical acumen.
Anyway I think you did a good job with your analysis
I just read your other article on this and now I'm thinking that makes even more sense, them trying to open up a new market and encouraging new demographics to sign up by promoting this writer as a role model could be a concerted effort. And of course they don't want you to report on that 😅
Yana, thank you for your hard work on this. My Medium Account has the least views and reads all time. I hardly earn shit any more even when publishing high valued writing, it isn't seen anymore. Not to talk about boost, I'm totally disappeared and it sucks. I have been writing on medium since December 2023 and it had been a dance the first months, and then, zero.. I've got 1200 followers and gathering this number took time for me, so I really don't understand how do young accounts with not personal stories can have these astronomic counts and Medium doesn't get suspicious. I've also tried to throw my writings out on TikTok, guess what? Nothing happens.. yes, Medium is building the better internet, but unfortunately not for genuine writers like me😭
That’s why I think they’re behind all this, although I have no proof. The TikTok story is a lie, I made a research and wrote another article about it, an extended version of this one. They so that for many of us now, in order to promote new countries…
I'm liking Medium less every day. Keep sharing this valuable information. Medium is in a death spiral and it looks like there's no stopping it from crashing and burning.
This is very sad but we do know that medium had not been working well. I wrote an open letter to tony got some vague answers and new rules on boosting come out since. i think there is a lot of complaints I hope they try to fix it but I don't know if they are. I don't know if they care for the little writers like me:)
I honestly doubt they’re trying to fix anything but profitability. Which is understandable of you’re in Tony’s shoes…the ways they do are talking a lot about the new values of the platform.
I think no one is safe anymore. Every month in the beginning I'm wondering will I be next...It's not healthy to be in that kind of relationship. Toxic even.
As a moderately successful writer on Medium (I make between $300-$1200 a month on the platform, depending on my Boosts, mostly), I appreciate the work you've done here. Most of my writing, whether people like it or not, is what I like to think well-researched and usually full of references to sources.
Medium really has a choice to make now. They either prevent this kind of engagement somehow (without the catastrophic removal of valid accounts that they recently did while trying to contain A.I. bots), or they lose the platform to TikTok-style short term garbage, and lose writers like me.
I was attracted to Medium for its long form style of articles. If those get shoved out of the engagement algorithm and kill our earnings even more than they've fallen already, the platform is dead.
That's exactly what I believe is happening right now. Medium just wants to control the earnings distribution via boosts and (now) promoting free stories...
This is incredibly sad. Especially considering all these positions they've been hiring for lately. I've even applied for some. What could be a huge success story for tens of thousands of people, depending on where they take it individually, seems like it could be only filling the pockets of a few close to Tony. I wish someone could create a platform that covered their costs, paid a reasonable wage to their staff (not inflated, reasonable), and really supported writers.
Seems ethical, supportive business practices don't actually exist anywhere for very long. Look at what's happened to every single social media network that's ever existed - greed ruins everything.
That is exactly what rouns Medium too. I just looked at Zulie's personal profile on Medium - still getting boosted after becoming Medium employee - wrong on so many levels....
A massive automated account farming scheme taking over Medium’s recommendations system and pushing away real writers!
I agree and I also think that the Medium team doesn't understand what is happening. I read their explanations and what I take away from them is that they need someone in the team who actually understands tech and AI and automation. They clearly don't. They being railed by someone (or some group) that is clearly exploiting Medium's lack of technical acumen.
Anyway I think you did a good job with your analysis
Thank you! I fully agree. I tried to give them a heads up but it only turned against me. They accused me of ‘targeted harassment’…
I just read your other article on this and now I'm thinking that makes even more sense, them trying to open up a new market and encouraging new demographics to sign up by promoting this writer as a role model could be a concerted effort. And of course they don't want you to report on that 😅
Yes exactly!
Yana, thank you for your hard work on this. My Medium Account has the least views and reads all time. I hardly earn shit any more even when publishing high valued writing, it isn't seen anymore. Not to talk about boost, I'm totally disappeared and it sucks. I have been writing on medium since December 2023 and it had been a dance the first months, and then, zero.. I've got 1200 followers and gathering this number took time for me, so I really don't understand how do young accounts with not personal stories can have these astronomic counts and Medium doesn't get suspicious. I've also tried to throw my writings out on TikTok, guess what? Nothing happens.. yes, Medium is building the better internet, but unfortunately not for genuine writers like me😭
That’s why I think they’re behind all this, although I have no proof. The TikTok story is a lie, I made a research and wrote another article about it, an extended version of this one. They so that for many of us now, in order to promote new countries…
I'm liking Medium less every day. Keep sharing this valuable information. Medium is in a death spiral and it looks like there's no stopping it from crashing and burning.
Will do! Thank you! I feel the same way about Medium…
This is very sad but we do know that medium had not been working well. I wrote an open letter to tony got some vague answers and new rules on boosting come out since. i think there is a lot of complaints I hope they try to fix it but I don't know if they are. I don't know if they care for the little writers like me:)
They don't care about us at all. That's why it's time to pivot to other platforms and try new things.
Yes, we need to move on
I honestly doubt they’re trying to fix anything but profitability. Which is understandable of you’re in Tony’s shoes…the ways they do are talking a lot about the new values of the platform.
I went through and blocked all the AI I could find. I know that’s fairly useless, of course
Useless, I believe so too. Tony said they are ‘net positive’ to the platform because they bring more traffic…
I'm curious to see where this will lead and how or if Medium will make any changes.
I believe they won't. They want this. But I feel this will bring them down if they don't control it. It can lead them to bankruptcy very fast...
Confirmed a lot of what I thought was happening. Yo the gaslighting is real.
Thanks for sharing this - I've gained around 12k followers in the last 12 months. But it's tough going. And the boost is a total mystery to me.
I've started on Substack to diversify my interests just in case the inevitable happens...
I think no one is safe anymore. Every month in the beginning I'm wondering will I be next...It's not healthy to be in that kind of relationship. Toxic even.
As a moderately successful writer on Medium (I make between $300-$1200 a month on the platform, depending on my Boosts, mostly), I appreciate the work you've done here. Most of my writing, whether people like it or not, is what I like to think well-researched and usually full of references to sources.
Medium really has a choice to make now. They either prevent this kind of engagement somehow (without the catastrophic removal of valid accounts that they recently did while trying to contain A.I. bots), or they lose the platform to TikTok-style short term garbage, and lose writers like me.
I was attracted to Medium for its long form style of articles. If those get shoved out of the engagement algorithm and kill our earnings even more than they've fallen already, the platform is dead.
Thanks again for this.
FWIW, you really rock at writing and should have been earning more.
Thank you Ossiana 🤗🥰
That's exactly what I believe is happening right now. Medium just wants to control the earnings distribution via boosts and (now) promoting free stories...
This is incredibly sad. Especially considering all these positions they've been hiring for lately. I've even applied for some. What could be a huge success story for tens of thousands of people, depending on where they take it individually, seems like it could be only filling the pockets of a few close to Tony. I wish someone could create a platform that covered their costs, paid a reasonable wage to their staff (not inflated, reasonable), and really supported writers.
Seems ethical, supportive business practices don't actually exist anywhere for very long. Look at what's happened to every single social media network that's ever existed - greed ruins everything.
I agree 100% with you. It is very sad that many writers who work hard are not recognized.
That is exactly what rouns Medium too. I just looked at Zulie's personal profile on Medium - still getting boosted after becoming Medium employee - wrong on so many levels....
WOW no words for that one...
Wow...
Unfortunately yes…
It's incredibly sad to see what Tony and Julie have done to what used to be an awesome platform.
I agree, very sad and disheartening.
There are situations when big corporations are compelled to provide answers. It tends to be through media and/or legal pressure.
I hope Medium gets some external pressure too...
Some scrutiny news media scrutiny would be a good thing.
Not sure, I'm not talking about nostalgia :)
I see. I referred to the slogan of Medium’s campaign to gain more subscribers. The CEO, Tony Stubblebine says Medium is the better internet
Exactly, while promoting these tiktokers, most of which I believe are bots…