You know, or probably you don’t: I don’t do social media. I got on Facebook in 2009 for 4 whole days when I “unfriended” myself and shut down my account. I drive everyone nuts because if they have a picture or announcement they want me to see, they must send it by email. Everyone else gets it by FB. And there are plenty I never get. That’s my fault. I tried Twitter for 4 hours in 2014.
I found Medium by accident. Had I understood it was social media, I’d have avoided it, too. I found FB intrusive, although I will confess that I didn’t read any directions so didn’t set up my account to its best effect.
Several months ago the trolls came to Medium. We had been warned by a prescient writer (Gutbloom) that they were on the way. Then they ran off Kel Campbell, as I understand it. Long story. You likely heard it if you were on Medium then. And I found some other inconsistencies that bothered me a lot. I thought about leaving. But I love it here. The talent is astonishing. The community warm and interesting. Why should I let losers ir, as my dad used today, misfits run me off? So I decided to see what I might do to make myself feel safe and happy.
I read a bunch from people I respect about Kel. I read responses from trolls. I decided to start reading everything someone I followed wrote. I am not get finished. I read a lot of prolific writers. And many. I also began looking at profiles before I responded.
As a result, I have saved “my” Medium. I curate my follows. I follow fewer but am finding more talent. My feed was once clogged with so many recommends that I was seeing little original work. I still don’t see nearly enough.
And, I found that the trolls are all new and have 7 to 14 follows, usually the same 7 to 14. All their “work” is demeaning and bullying and only responses. It was almost funny.
Emotional baiting is right! For people with too little to do and too little heart, they sure knew exactly how to draw intelligent, caring people into long and infuriating fights.
It got so bad that some of us made a pact to private message one another should we notice someone feeding a troll. Interestingly, to me, they do go away if they aren’t fed. Probably because they’re are getting fat elsewhere in Medium.
Right after we made our pact, I noticed the trolls got sneakier. They began engaging as if they truly wanted to understand. Once someone responded, they got darker, quickly. I saw one just last night responding to a beautiful piece. His response so missed the point, purposely. He was waiting for someone to correct him. I wouldn’t have caught this 6 months ago. I looked him up: 7 followers. No one engaged him. No one recommended his response. Yay!
You probably already know all this but that’s my experience. I do not want to see talented writers and great people go, especially those in my community. I have messaged two people that I believed they were being trolled. And I have been messaged once. We stopped responding and never heard another word. So our pact is working, it seems. Of course, we do have to read the trolling when it occurs so I just keep checking the profiles. They come in gangs to attack so we have our gang to stay safe. This and checking profiles takes just a few seconds but has saved my Medium.
I’m so glad you caught on right away. You are a recent and wonderful find. I would truly hate to see you harassed, and I would absolutely hate to see you leave!
