A Respectful but Necessary Response to the Update on “meta” stories

Can prolific writers realistically comply with this request?

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Since it was Scott Lamb of the Medium team, who shared the recent update in the Medium Newsletter, regarding “meta” stories, that is the person I am hoping to hear a sensible reply from, in a reasonable amount of time (especially with a deadline having been imposed on certain writers).

My issue with respect to the update that was discussed, has nothing to do with how right or wrong, the decision is, or whether or not I agree with it.

I’m more done than anyone will ever realize on this entire subject, even though I previously declared just recently, how that would never be the case.

In spite of having fallen into the niche of being a meta writer on this platform; I know for a fact that based on the 1,900 stories I’ve published, and for various publications and themes, I could also very easily claim several other niches.

Therein lies my problem.

Here is what Medium has “requested” we writers do:

“…we’ll be reaching out to writers with paywalled meta stories to ask them to be removed from the paywall, so please remove all Medium-focused writing from behind the paywall by April 1st. We appreciate your assistance and understanding.”

Being the prolific writer that I am, naturally, I have no idea just how many of my nearly 2,000 stories would need to be removed.

I suspect at least 1/3 of my stories (if not more) are still eligible to remain behind the paywall. That’s easily 500+ published stories, covering a diverse amount of topics and themes.

I was NEVER just a meta writer.

So even if 500 stories are still valid and paywall eligible, am I to assume that Medium expects me — the writer- to go through the remaining 1,500 stories and remove them from the paywall?

Excuse me for saying, but am I the only one that sounds insane to?

1. My stories are currently being ostracized, plus no longer compensated, after the platform allowed me to put time into publishing in the first place, and legitimately placing them behind the paywall
2. Now I’m expected to expend additional time on these same stories, locating and removing them — to the benefit of Medium, because they can’t be bothered to come up with a better way to do it?

I seriously wonder if prolific writers like myself, can realistically comply with this request, not to mention why we should even have to.

Medium, this is your mess, not ours.

Since this is your dog and pony show, quite frankly, it should be up to you to figure out the logistics.

Final Thoughts

This story is not to pour fuel on a fire that continues to keep smoldering, with or without my help.

I sincerely want to know how this request to update stories is supposed to happen, in the case(s) of writers who find it too overwhelming to try to fulfill this tall order.

So Scott Lamb, if there’s a button we can click, to make this magically happen, or some other way to accomplish the “ask”, then by all means, please respond and enlighten us all.

And while you’re at it, I guess you might as well let us know what the consequences of not following through will be.

…because unless there’s an easy way to do this, as far as this writer is concerned, it’s not about to happen.

Thanks