Do You Fear Medium Will Shut You Down?
Your Fears are Well Founded
When Medium first started shutting people off, I imagined these authors had been doing nefarious things like clapping after a quick read in order to seduce others into reading their stories. Then Medium shut down my friends who had been writing thoughtful responses to my stories.
Then they shut me off.
You might want to know what I did to deserve it. You might want to avoid getting shut off yourself.
Let’s start with what Medium accused me of and warned me to stop doing. Here’s an excerpt from their email.
After additional review, we’ve decided to reinstate your Partner Program access.
To avoid being flagged again, please comply with Medium’s Rules in their entirety. We also recommend refraining from the following:* Any form of spam, phishing, or scam meant to deceive the reader.
* Posting a high volume of stories that are AI-generated, plagiarized, or regurgitated forms of low-quality content.
* Engaging with paywalled stories in a coordinated way that isn’t authentic or that is part of a reciprocal arrangement meant to inflate earnings artificially.
If your account is flagged again, we will likely permanently remove you from the Partner Program and may also suspend your account.
You can now rejoin the Partner Program, reconnect Stripe, and re-lock any stories you’d like to paywall.
First, I assure any person who has received my claps, that they are authentic. I never, ever, even once clapped or commented without a good, long read.
Second, I don’t plan to rejoin the Partner Program. It feels like bait and switch. Medium continued to make money on my stories after shutting off the mechanism through which they led me to expect fair payment. They didn’t even notify me, much less warn me in advance.
Third, I never came close to violating any Medium rule. The shutdown happened without legitimate justification.
Fourth, I plan to report Medium to Google Play for fraudulent activity in a couple of weeks or so. My account will probably go dark at that time.
Until then, I will continue to read but not publish. There are about a dozen authors whose work I have followed faithfully because I enjoy it. Two-thirds of them have also regularly read my work. That may be the mysterious sin which precipitated the shutdown.
If you want to avoid getting turned off by Medium, don’t engage in meaningful relationships with other writers. When you clap for people, ask them to not clap back at you.
I felt sad delisting over one hundred of my publications here over the past few days. Thank all of you who read any of them. Your responses buoyed me.
I left the Shortwise publication standing despite my stories and some others no longer appearing there. One of my contributors deleted his account today out of disgust with this platform. Submissions will no longer be accepted.
I’m balancing the good memories and awful feelings. My spiritual approach will help me avoid vindictiveness but without accepting the role of a doormat. I will not write in fear.
Too many of my friends here are afraid. Medium is an abusive partner. Don’t be the 1950s housewife who agonizes over what she must be doing wrong to provoke her drunk husband into shaking his fist.
I’m waiting until September to report Medium for fraudulent activity to give you time to read this essay. You have my permission to copy and share any of its content with or without attribution.
