Are spammers exploiting Medium’s Post Promotion Algorithm?

James Watt wrote, “But maybe I’m missing the point of Medium entirely — maybe the goal isn’t to foster individuality — but rather cater to a very specific audience where words all resonate together in a giant echo chamber”

The few years I have been reading Medium, it was never this way. Medium has, at least for me, always been a source of excellent writing. Back in the days (2012-ish) when they would allow selected people to write on this platform, I’d visit Medium for really insightful thought provoking articles and ideas. Then, the platform was made open for everyone else, and it was still quite good, as you could see good quality articles trending. I remember last year having discovered some really nice publications and authors and learned hugely from their interactions and their writings.

Lately, it seems in Medium a few posts are trending that are useless, trite, content-free, link baits (e.g. “Why did Steve Jobs wear turtle necks”, or “why do people not read your posts” etc). I don’t get to see short stories, real life experiences that move you, thought provoking articles that startle you, trending anymore. What has happened? Do these authors not write any more on Medium? Surely that cannot be the case.

Medium really needs to figure out ways to get rid of these junks from our reading feed. Who are these authors whose trite posts keep jamming my reading feed because Medium thinks I must read them? I have not yet heard the names of these authors, or I have never followed them, nor I would ever! Why do these keep propping up on my reading feed?

On the other hand, I am sure there are hundreds of excellent thought provoking posts and articles from that get posted to Medium by the minute, but you will not find them shared by Medium’s own algorithm. Why is this so?

Finding relevant stuff on Medium in the clutter

Frustrated by the profusion of these trite posts, I usually remove all “Top posts” now (again, that is a loss, as there may be hidden gems that I miss), and instead focus on my preferred tabs. Is the best strategy for me? I am not sure as I doubtless miss new and interesting posts. But at least better than wading through the chaff. The other way I find the best pieces in Medium not on Medium itself but referred from other people’s posts on Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram or in a blog links. Again, not an optimum solution as I’d not like to spend time on Twitter or Facebook when I could spend quality time reading posts in Medium. Looks like spammers have started exploiting Medium’s algorithms in post promotion.

Quite a sad state of affairs, really. It’d be nice if Medium engineers got their acts together to weed out useless junk and send really worthwhile stuff to read.