Medium is a rapidly growing network and a lot writers and readers are finding opportunities to connect and support one another. But in some ways, it feels like there’s a wall between users on Medium. Currently, the only two ways to communicate inside of Medium are through Notes and Responses.
My experience with both, however, is that communication can quickly get lost.
It’s hard to keep track of all the conversations you’re having without one central location for them to be housed. Like an inbox.
Responses are great, but sometimes we have thoughts we want to communicate to other writers that are irrelevant to everyone else but that writer. And why are Responses treated as posts? When I look at my stats, I want to know the stats of my Posts, not my Responses. That information is helpful, but why can’t it be separate?
Then there’s the issue of Responses taking up writers’ profile pages, causing our posts to get lost in the myriad of conversations we’re trying to have with other Medium users.
And why can’t we moderate Responses to our posts the way we would be able to on a blog? Not that anyone has responded to any of my posts in a way that I disagree with, but it would still be helpful. When Responses are given the same weight as posts, it feels like Medium gets cluttered.
Direct Messaging would allow us to network so much better. If someone wants to ask someone a question that’s relevant only to that person, there has to be a much more effective way to do it than in a Note or a Response.
Furthermore, and it really comes down to this, I want to be able to say thank you to everyone who Recommends a post of mine they’ve read on here. If they leave a Note or a Response, I can, but what about the people who read and only Recommend?
That’s where the wall really exists. When I’m on Twitter and someone Retweets or Mentions something I’ve written, I try to make sure I thank each person who does. I’m grateful, and I want them to know. But on Medium, as it currently is, I can’t, unless I find them outside of Medium. But if Medium is a network as it’s supposed to be, it doesn’t make sense to have to go outside of Medium to engage these interactions.
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Tom Farr is a blogger, storyteller, and screenwriter who teaches English Language Arts to high school students. He loves creating and spending time with his wife and three children. He’s the author of Extraction, a serialized supernatural thriller on Medium. He blogs regularly about writing and storytelling at The Whisper Project.
