When your ship has sailed because the dock gave no solid anchorage for it...
I know I’m a damn good author as are SO many others who are complaining across the Internet about the scheemy nature of this platform that once was [insert early day medium memories]. Some of the best hidden gems are leaving Medium in droves. It’s too bad they were not given the opportunity to be discovered or platformed. Like the Land Run of 18(something) but in reverse: this exit from Medium is running away to a brighter future, to save what’s left of our self respect/dignity. And it’s not for a lack of trying: I’ve been on here for a year and have engaged with many accounts, been extremely proactive but only gained 183 followers while earning a total of about 4 bucks for hundreds of hours spent on here (a combination of writing my own stories, engaging and reading other’s work). This place was once an oasis for independent writers to land (perhaps I should have jumped on the bandwagon years ago) but even people who have been here for years and built up a handsome following STILL do not deserve the kind of backlash treatment from Medium. It’s slimy and grimy — heck, I’ll go as far to say insidious. Shani Silver wrote a tremendous amount of masterpeice articles here on Medium (that’s what intitially drew me to the site!) and then she departed recently — but not without a magnum opus of blog entries which I encourage everyone to read:
Medium Is Officially, Genuinely, Actually No Longer Worth It
How a once-beloved space for writers became a waste of my time.
As a reader in general, I’m also fed up: Medium recommends the most basic bitch articles to me (on the discovery feed) which I’m no longer stomaching. I think a lot of these people have used ChatGTP and copy paste — I also don’t like how everybody uses Unspalsh. What the the heck, y'all — do you know the pennies photographers are earning for their work over their?? It’s like one unethical platform feeding another unethical platform.
One Million Reasons Unsplash Is A Disaster For Photographers & Designers
We recently featured an article by photographer Samuel Zeller touting the virtues of giving away photography on…
I have several people I actually follow but their work does not headline as much as other people who I am NOT following. Sound familiar? Yea, Medium is following after Instagram and dating apps: this pesky thing they do in the beginning to build up your hope and enthusiasm and then once they baited you in — GOTCHA! — they let go. Whiplash. Ghosting your good name. You were just an unsuspecting pawn in a pyramid scheme, that’s all this really is. It’s mentally and financially debilitating because all artists and writers want is for our name to be recognized (through validation in engagement) and respected (through financial compensation). As a children’s book author it’s even hard to make a living selling my books, and this article confirms I’m not crazy for thinking my books deserve more of the limelight:
How Do You Even Sell a Book Anymore? | The Walrus
As sales slump, the labour of trying to bottle hype is largely left to writers
I‘ll cherish my $4.03 — a whole year’s worth of income and not even enough to buy a latte. Thanks Medium! Now I suggest you and your elite gatekeepers read the room of what the Internet is saying about you right now….
