
To all the poets gathered in our space,
we’d like to issue out a new announcement:
we ranked the genres — at the end we found
your own has been selected for denouncement.
We used to think impressions were the key
your claps defined the value, where it lay,
but now we know that this was a mistake.
We value those who have more words to say.
We are a platform built for binging eyes,
engagement, clicks, and views are our real treasure.
Your quality is hard for us to judge
so quantity will serve the better measure.
Disciples of the frugal use of words
may find their analytics in stagnation.
Cheer up! Just post eleven poems a day
we may select a couple for curation.
Your titles, too, could use a little work-
no one will read if they don’t click at all.
“Ten Things I Add To Coffee,” you will see,
will bring those hungry readers in a haul.
When you bought in, we promised this would be
a space to share in your poetic skills,
we should have known this couldn’t last for long —
turns out your art just doesn’t pay the bills.
If you’re upset, take heart, it’s not so bad,
we have a new assignment for your kind:
Five thousand words on our platform’s regression
then find another space for your expression.
With Love,
Medium
—
Medium’s new partner program rules have radically de-incentivized shorter works, at the expense of some communities. Very few short-form writers were making significant money from their work, but we object to the implicit devaluation of an entire art form.

