Why Medium Sucks.

The realest story you’ll ever read on Medium.

A week ago, I posted a question on this Medium writer’s group that I am in. The purpose of posting that particular question was my grievances with Medium.

I am relatively new on Medium but still, it’s been more than a couple of months, I even had the full membership for some time but honestly, it sucks! I am annoyed to the point that I figured, writing this is the only way to cope further from here. I need to vent.

Moreover, I always believe in this saying:

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

I want to be an agent of change. I hope that I am not the only one who feels this way. While I am writing, I am sure that I am representing not just myself but hundreds of other writers who have similar grievances.

So here’s the question I posted:

What do you dislike the most about Medium?

Here’s the link, if you want to see popular Medium writers bitchin’ about Medium.

I was overwhelmed by the response I received. The fact that not only are there many other popular writers have some complaints but also that even their arguments were more or less similar to mine.

I have compiled a list of the issues that I think most people can relate with.

The Left-center bias.

To avoid guilt by association, I did some test searches on Medium. The two main areas of bias for which to test are political and religious. Here are my results on political topics.

• When I search “White House”, the top result is “The Obama White House”. There is no current “White House” account such as you would find on Instagram and even Flickr, a relatively small social media. The current administration has no presence on Medium at all. Odd for the most active Presidency on social media.
• When I search “Donald Trump”, the top 4 suggested accounts are The Economist, The Washington Post, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and an account with a swear word I’ll omit here. Neutral? Not by a long shot. To my recollection, The Economist has not featured a positive article about Trump since he has been elected. The Washington Post, the media arm of Jeff Besos’ empire, is Trump’s archenemy, right next to The “Failing” New York Times (as Trump likes to call it). As for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton being recommended when one searches for “Trump”, well, let’s call it a serious error in algorithm. There seems to be a lack of pro-Trump/ conservative accounts on Medium, or else they don’t show up on search results. Either way is an indication of bias.

The first post is a hit piece on evangelicals dumb enough to support Trump. The third is a promotion of “Non-Trump Evangelicals”. Given a higher percentage of evangelicals voted for Trump than any other Republican President before (some estimate as high as 80%), this promoted post is obviously a minority view, leaning towards anti-Trump, anti-conservative, and anti-evangelical.

“It’s so politically one-sided. I’m not some right-wing dude but it’s pretty lame that not a single conservative article ever gets curated.” — Sean Kernan.

Payment issues.

Writers from many countries like India, Brazil, the Philippines do not get paid for their work. This is what Medium has to say about it:

To join the Medium Partner Program and start earning revenue based on member engagement, Medium requires you to create a Stripe account and link your bank account or debit card. You can learn more about joining the Partner Program here.

At this time, Stripe is the only payment processor for the Medium Partner Program. However, Stripe is still in the beta “preview” mode in India and “Beta” in Brazil.

What this means is that while Medium users can sign up for this beta mode while residing in India, it is still outside of Medium’s payout region. As such, please note that Medium is still unable to pay any revenue to users from India or Brazil while the program is still in the preview or beta phase. We recommend waiting until Stripe officially launches in India and/or Brazil before joining the Partner Program.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and are working on introducing more payment options to the Medium Partner Program in the future.

Although it doesn’t look like it’s completely the fault of the platform but still as a layman, all I’m concerned with is that I am not getting paid for my work.

“… many writers in different countries (including us here in the Philippines) are not able to monetize their work yet.” — rea marilou martin.

The cookie-cutter curation process.

You must have noticed that only a certain kind of story gets curated and you’ll always see the same names in your feed. This slashes any opportunity for creative writing or doing something different. Every writer wants his work to be appreciated.

You can’t measure everyone with the yardstick. I can understand that it’s not possible to read every article manually but then at least have some variations.

I don’t want to use irrelevant photos just for the sake of it. Let me have some freedom. I can’t write a certain have just because you want me too. Everybody’s got their own way of expression, just appreciate that.

“The fact that Medium treats creative writers like second class citizens.” — Steve B Howard.

Also, just how long some articles take to get officially rejected while certain articles get curated almost immediately. Favoritism? I hope not.

“Lately I’ve noticed that always the same names get featured (editor’s picks) , even when their article are low quality.” — Sexy Sira.

Half of the articles are about Medium itself.

How to get popular on Medium? How to become a top writer on Medium? How I got 1000 views in one day? How you can get 100 million views in 30 seconds! How to become a millionaire from Medium.

I mean, just shut up!

“That 50% of the articles are about Medium. And once you be read one, the Medium algorithms only ever serve you up more!” — Ash Jurberg.

The publications.

The story is similar with the publications. They want a certain kind that means they want a certain kind. nothing else works. But hey! Wait. You’ll see the exact same thing published in their publication that they claim they don’t want.

“I’m all for each publication having its own rules — that’s standard. But what really urks me is when they literally say what kind of pieces they don’t want or they don’t accept yada yadda. Then I see loads of those exact type of posts being published on their publication? Yet if I submit something original, it’s rejected because “we already had something similar”. So…a bunch of “how to this” “how to that” is acceptable even though your submission guidelines say it’s not? It’s a small thing but I just think it’s either favoritism at play, in which case, that’s not fair. Or it’s just a lack of paying attention to their own guidelines, in which case, why even bother having them? It’s put off a number of publications.” — Alexa.

Why do responses count as Published stories?

I was reading an article the other day, I really liked it, so I wrote “Great work!” in the response section and guess what? My story just got published! Like, really? That counts as a published story and it will show on the list of my works?

“That responses count as published stories.” — Thomas Hahn.

Are there any other grievances, that I might have missed, in the “responses”?

Feel free to express yourself!

Hope Medium LISTENS!