My subtitle may be a bit hard to wrap your head around, but its pretty logical if you take a minute to ponder. Don’t fix what isn’t broken with a social platform. However, Medium, while it is your right to attempt to improve upon what features as you wish as none of them are fixed. You never promised us you’d leave the platform as it was (which was close to perfect when I joined back in fall 2013), so we definitely understand it wasn’t in your policies to have a forever fixed social network of “everyone’s stories and ideas”.

Expectations → Disappointment

We expected you to make changes the would improve the experience of the users, the community of voices, and we asked you time and again for iterations on features. We wanted you to continue bettering the platform that allowed us all the share our stories and ideas for the world to hear, which is why when I joined back in November, I created what is now the largest inspiration/motivation collection on Medium with a name of “Inspire the World”. I wanted to give everyone a place to share their inspirational stories and ideas for others to use as fuel towards their own betterment. Your platform was the perfect place to do it as your mission swore by it: “Everyone’s Stories and ideas”.

I championed that motto. I was so convinced that Medium was the place to be that I begged everyone I knew to join Medium as it changed my life. I wrote my first piece, “How to Succeed”, and started meeting incredibly influential people that I wouldn’t have anywhere else. I wrote a couple more pieces before my best performing article to date, “Entrepreneurial Advice Nobody Gives You”, and learned so much more about myself. I was communicating with people across seas, even made an online best friends by the name of Violeta from Rome and Dima from Russia… I was reaching and engaging founders, CEOs, entrepreneurial and technological moguls, and incredibly insightful individuals every step of the way. We even built relationships that changed our lives.

You know what else happened because of the original Medium? Because of a wonderful piece I read on Medium that would of never reached me or anybody else without your open platform, I was able to muster up the guts to get out there and pitch my business idea to a very important person at one of the world’s largest companies. He love my idea and decided to join me in founding Tuurtle Labs to develop stylish and eco-friendly mobile products that improve the user experience. We are on a mission and plan on sticking to that. We founded our company on values and operate accordingly. I loved the mission and values of Medium set worth by Ev, but it appears they have changed.

Medium allowed everyone to be heard

I will be heard today when I finally post this piece because I am the editor of over 10 largely followed Medium Collections. But do you know who won’t be heard because of Medium’s change of heart in the mission? Me, the freshman computer scientist student back in October who started his first blog with a mission to educate and inspire others on a platform by Ev Williams that promised him his voice would be heard. The young woman building a blog to inform the worlds of her ambitious pursuits, the introvert with great ideas of how to change the world for the better, and the many other voices just looking to be heard — none of them will reach the listening ears waiting for their inspirational stories and ideas. You’ve broken what wasn’t fixed instead of improving it, but like I said before, you haven’t built a fixed platform, there’s still room to reflect and make the appropriate changes inline with your original mission.

We all get annoyed by people who point out flaws or shortcomings without offering any better solutions, so I have somewhere for you to start.

These collections are my very own publications, you promised me that. You told me I could do with them what I wanted. You even went as far as saying it was my “very own publication”! Then you went and took all that power away. I wanted to give everyone a place to share their amazing stories and ideas for like minded individuals to read and build on as you allowed me to when I joined Medium. All I want is for you to give me that power back. Add a non-default option for collection owners to accept open submissions.

Everyone Makes Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes, I do it everyday. We fail and are presented three choices: stay down, get up and try that method again, or get up and adjust our strategy. The people are no longer able to be heard on your platform, so they’ve taken their cries to other social platforms.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. — Abraham Lincoln

I’ve received a number of messages from my peers asking me to make them writers in my collections, but that wasn’t my mission. I didn’t want to pick and choose who could be heard. I wanted to pick the right content from anybody for my readers. Accordingly, I will not be choosing who can publish to my collections. I will keep my collections idle until open submissions (or a better solution) is reinstated.

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything — Malcolm X

As I mentioned above, I will be heard because I have ten publications of my own to spread this piece to. Whether other collection owners follow suit is their choice. I may not be able to change your mind, but don’t forget that your community expected something of you and they have the power to walk away at the moment of disappointment.

Its time for you to realign your operations with your mission, myfriends@Medium.