Medium’s CEO Commented Under One of My Articles
Here’s what he wrote about a popular growth strategy on Medium.
There’s this long-running debate on whether follow-for-follow is the right thing to do.
In case you don’t know what it means, here’s a simplified overview.
Suppose you are a new writer and want 100 followers in order to qualify for the Medium Partner Program. You go out there and write an article and comment that you will follow everyone back if they decide to follow you. You also follow a bunch of random people and expect a follow back from them.
All this to either qualify for the Medium Partner Program or to just inflate your follower count. This debate about whether it works or is a legit practice dates back to time immemorial (slight exaggeration, you know).
The long-running debate is going to end now, thanks to the new CEO at Medium, Tony Stubblebine.
Under one of my articles, A 15-Year-Old’s Take on Follow-for-Follow, Medium CEO commented:
“We will shortly clarify that follow for follow is bad faith and disqualifying.”
Thank you so much for this clarification, Tony. I hope it helps in preserving the authentic taste of Medium and sets the quality bars high again.
I have long been a critic of follow-for-follow. It steals that taste of authenticity and replaces it with greed.
You don’t follow someone because you love their articles or writing style anymore. You follow so that you can get a follow back.
Another angle to look at it and understand why it’s just a waste of time is to think long-term. Suppose you get up to 1,000 followers through F2F. Now what?
You are enrolled in the Medium Partner Program, but because no one is reading your story, you are not earning anything from the articles. No use.
Instead of wasting so much time following random people and commenting to follow you back, you can spend that time improving your craft and people will intrinsically follow you.
It’s dead simple. It’s that simple!
I have written countless articles and suggested everyone not to indulge in this practice. I knew it was not useful, but again, it was not unlawful also.
Everyone was free to do so. But now that it’s going to be official, I hope it helps in preserving the authenticity and the unique taste of Medium we all come here to experience.
Signing off! See you soon :)
