EXPOSE SHITPOST
Medium Readers Are Absolutely Fraudsters
Hey, if you’re here to just clap and run then get lost, don’t scroll down my article
It has 2 months since the new MPP came out and most of us aren’t quite thrilled about it.
Well, if you ask my opinion, then I would like to pass the judgment because Medium is not paying me yet (yellow laughing emoji)
However, I would like to praise the updated analytics dashboard that shows all the necessary details in a much more convenient way.
But hey, I’m not here to dive into its detailed review
In this article, I would rather talk about the unforeseen consequences that have occurred since the launch of the updated dashboard.
I’m going to shed light on the harsh reality that every genuine writer faced until now.
Imp note: These are my personal views, and it is not aligned to affect or hurt other person’s opinions or views, you’re more than welcome to share your views in the comments.
So, let’s talk about the crucial events that took place after the new MPP
While many were lamenting about their decline in earnings (especially technical writers like The PyCoach (who wrote an extensive 11-minute article about it, explaining his problem)
Writers also came across another obstacle; it was very common, and everyone didn’t give a single thought about it.
The fraud readers of Medium.
These folks usually depend upon the follow-for-follow schemes,
I had read somewhere (kindly correct me if I’m wrong) that the prior MPP system was like if somebody used to read your article until the end, then it was counted as a genuine read.
Well, it seems I was wrong or incorrect about the old MPP system concept, therefore, I honestly apologize for the confusion, on the contrary, thank you so much Transylvanian for correcting me by addressing it in a detailed way in the comments. Thanks again for your contribution.
This made it an easy and secure way for these fake peeps to claim that they have read your article as they would just scroll down towards the end, leaving comments like, “Nice article” and “Thanks for sharing” in the comment section.
These tactics allowed them to hide their dishonesty.
However, with the new MPP, due to the diverse set of rules, you know the *30 sec counted as read” rule along with engagement activities like clapping, commenting, and highlighting (I guess I don’t have to explain here), had exposed these fraudsters into the spotlight.
But this led to a shocking realization for many writers, they discovered how their efforts were being wasted by these fraudsters who pretended to engage genuinely.
The Reality of Facebook Groups
One place where these people are often found is the popular Facebook group “Medium Writers and Genuine Readers”.
This is the one and only medium article-sharing group with over 12K members where heavy link-sharing and genuine engagement shit takes place
Other groups are not as popular as this one and I’ve also a part of this group for a very long time
See, I’m not here to blame the whole group community, believe me!
Many wonderful peeps also live here, who always reciprocate reads.
However, a few are polluting the group’s mission of mutual growth and engagement.
These folks claim that they read your article and comment that now it’s your time to return the engagement by pasting their article’s link
But the truth is when you actually check your stats, you’ll see that your read ratio remains unchanged.
Basically, they are only pretending to support you
And here you’ve agreed to take the responsibility to return genuine engagement.
STOP, there is a limit to hypocrisy.
My Purpose
My purpose behind writing this article is because nowadays whenever I visit the FB group, there will be (90% assurance) someone who is complaining about being tricked into false engagement and didn’t get what they actually desired.
I admire Lesley Dewar There's always another story to tell’s approach, she has been the only person in that whole group who took an intellectual step by implementing her efforts totally on Medium.
I noticed that nowadays she isn’t that active in the group like that when she was the group’s moderator.
She also doesn’t share her article links anymore (or maybe she shares sometimes, I haven’t encountered it yet) because she knows well that it would only harm her stats.
Lesley, if you’re reading this, I fully respect and support your initiative.
Also, I share the same ideology as you
If I could increase my reach by writing and genuinely engaging with the medium community, why waste my time returning those fuzzy engagements on that known-to-be engagement group on Facebook?
It feels like an unnecessary burden
Not only Facebook groups, but Medium is also full of fraudsters, or I would say “clapsters”
Two weeks ago, I came across an article by Jimwebster, that claimed even medium consists of fraud readers, better to call them “clap spammers”.
This article really opened my eyes as I used to believe here on medium readers would be mostly genuine and friendly regarding engagement.
Jim emphasized a crucial fact that everybody had ignored until the moment he published his article.
(I said this because everybody in the comments was claiming that they didn’t know about this).
He said
“There’s a bunch of people on medium that click on your story, give it a clap and then quickly make a dash to the exit.”
“Some of them even clap multiple times for different articles.”
Point to be noted!
But if your audience is clapping you and moving on without reading the story, they are negatively impacting your ratio. As such, all other engagement points are worth less.
My P.O.V
Just think if they really read your piece, there would be a 2–3, even 4-minute time gap or interval between clapping and commenting notification
But in this case, you would see the interaction was done within almost the same time.
Imp Note: I’m talking totally about those who clap 50 times and straightaway exit the article without reading it genuinely, it doesn’t mean that everybody will do that.
What should be done then?
Straightaway Block.
No mercy
You might wonder how to spot these fake readers; well, it depends upon what sort of strategies you would take to hunt down these folks’ naked hands.
Moreover, you can take the help of Medium analytics to watch out for who is really reading your work and who’s not because it shows detailed infographics about your story’s performance.
This is where analytics becomes handy, and that’s why I praised it earlier.
My last touch
As you know, I’m always out of content ideas, so I thought why not do some expose shit.
I had many things revolving inside my head regarding this matter and I wanted to speak about,
So, take this article as its end result.
I don’t know what kind of update or feature medium would push in the future, but I genuinely hope the CEO takes some sort of action against these fraudsters someday.
Well, that’s from my side though. 🤷♀️
Have you ever faced these kinds of Fraudsters?
What steps do you take then?
Comment below to share your valuable feedback on this article 👇
Show your love by clapping 👏 and sharing it with your fellow mates.
