How Dare You Tell Me to Roll Over
I’m not gonna take this lying down
I’m sitting up at two o’clock in the morning wondering why you wanted to remind me I didn’t make the cut last month. As if I didn’t know.
As things stand, I won’t reach the ten-dollar threshold in February either.
The earnings fiasco is a dog’s breakfast.
I shall not wag my tail. I shall write in my breeches, hand-me-downs, in fields, in streets and on the hills. I shall never surrender. (A nod to Winston Churchill.)
Despite my not earning enough for a payout after a dry two months, let alone covered my monthly subscriptions, you continue to ask me to be your friend? What planet are you from?
Oh, and I noticed this new neat trick you pulled out of your hat — obvs you wanted to keep more money in your slush fund for the AI writers.
The paywall setting was no longer ticked by default. I discovered this when a story published two days before had a few reads (yay!) but made no cents.
It wasn’t behind the paywall, so I lost two days of potential earnings. It wouldn’t have been much — I’ve learned to lower my expectations. But something is better than nothing. Same thing happened the next time I submitted a piece to a publication. This time, my vigilantism paid off.
You seem to have corrected this anomaly, but I wanted other writers to know about these non-cents in case they’re desperate for answers to the massive drop in earnings. This isn’t one.
Now, about meta stories. From March 1, we cannot paywall them. Ironic that my best performing post in February was on that subject — it earned $1.12!
As wrote, we don’t know if Medium is going to remove all our meta stories from behind the paywall, or go full Donelon* and delete them altogether.
* (Donelon definitions: Cut off funding for vulnerable people across the world because billionaires want to get richer, a death sentence for millions of people with HIV, TB and malaria; silence writers who disagree with Medium policies.)
I won’t waste my time scrolling through the over 800 stories I’ve published since 2018 to remove the paywalls from meta stories. The message from Medium is vague. I’ll leave it up to them to do the clean-up.
That said, just in case they decide to delete them, I’ve downloaded my Medium info today, February 28.
Here’s how you do it:
- Profile
- Settings
- Security and apps
- Download your information
You’ll receive an email with a link, giving you 24 hours to download the zip file. I did mine in less than 24 seconds.
It’s Friday.
My Medium Weekly Digest arrived in my inbox this morning. For the first time, I scrolled to the bottom of the email, where the final paragraph says,
“We’re excited to see what you write next! The Medium Team.”
Balderdash!
I spent most of 2024 writing personal essays, which are now anathema on this platform. Most were about my journey of healing from grief when I lost my soulmate in January last year. Self-expression helped me and other readers who were grieving.
One never gets over grief, but I won’t write much about it this year. The days of boosts (I had four last year related to my loss), reads, engagement, and decent earnings are gone in 2025.
I need to make a buck or ten to cover my expenses. I’m going back into politics — a topic I haven’t tackled for a couple of years. There’s plenty of material out there thanks to the rise of the broligarchy.
Hopefully, Medium won’t silence the voices of writers who are not aligned with the policies and interests of the US, the white-supremacists in suits and ties.
I’ll stand up for democracy until my dying breath.
I’m not gonna take any sh-t lying down.
You’ll notice this piece isn’t behind the paywall.
If you can find it in your heart to send a dollar my way, I’d welcome it.
Thanks for being here.
