Member-only story
My Comment Strategy in Medium’s Current 2025 Climate
Choosing stories over comments
Medium is using an algorithm to decide whose comments are legitimate. Algorithms, created by fallible humans, are mistaking genuine writers for bots–and punishing them. Either their earnings dry up, or their accounts disappear.
My 7-Step Commenting Strategy
I developed and tweaked my process after the Medium List feature was released. I got the idea from creating my “Featured Followers” pieces to celebrate my first anniversary on Medium. Here’s an example that shows my approach and format.
Medium gives a default list called Reading List. I created several other lists based on topics to store articles I wanted to quote in one of my articles, but that’s beside the point. The one that matters here is the one I called Response, where I store articles I’ve read and for which I plan to write a comment.
Since I’ve been struggling to publish one article per week, I’ve not written comments in quite a while, and that folder has over 130 articles. I’ve not read any in months that weren’t related to a topic I planned to write about since my Reading list contains over 250 articles. I add articles that show up in my feed or in the Medium newsletter I receive on Fridays.
This strategy requires a text-only app like Notepad. I can do this on my tablet if I’m away from home, but it’s much easier on my laptop. There’s no way I’d attempt it on a phone!
My 7-Step Commenting Strategy
- Step 1 — I scroll through the Response list to find one I feel inclined to respond to.
- Step 2 — I open a Notepad app. Medium has gobbled up my half-written responses in the past.
- Step 3 — I copy and paste the title of the article I’m responding to and the link.
- Step 4 — I copy and paste the author’s name and handle as well as the name and link for the publication unless it was self-published.
- Step 5 — I copy and paste any pieces I want to quote directly as I re-read the article.
- Step 6 — I’ll write my response in the Notepad app, including the quotes and put asterisks next to the quoted…
