Writers! Stop Leaving Links to Your Posts in Comments to MY Posts

Do this instead.

Roz Warren, Writing Coach
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Published in
3 min readOct 4, 2024

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I’ve hired this dude to police my posts. He will totally hack your uninvited link to pieces with that ceremonial sword. (Photo by Mark Leishman on Unsplash)

I am writing this post to put everyone who reads me — or who pretends to read me — on notice that I am now blocking anybody who responds to a post of mine with a link to a post of theirs.

I’m done giving you clowns the benefit of the doubt.

I’m done explaining why it isn’t okay to sneak a link to your latest Medium Masterpiece into comment about my latest Medium Masterpiece in an attempt to get a few more eyeballs on your work by hijacking my readers.

I don’t care if you think your post is really good and deserves to be more widely read.

I don’t care if you think that your post is related to, adds to or augments my post.

If you do this?

I will block you.

End of story.

I understand

I understand why you’re playing this game. Say, for instance, that I have published a post about Wombats.

And since this is a fantasy, let’s also assume that my wombat post has been boosted. It’s going viral! It’s getting a dizzying number of reads. Tony Stubblebine himself has commented that it’s the most amazing thing he’s read on Medium all day.

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Roz Warren, Writing Coach
Ask an Editor

Writing Coach Roz Warren (roSwarren@gmail.com) helps Medium writers craft better, more boost-able stories. Roz used to write for the New York Times.