Dear Medium,

I call foul on your currently featured fiction collection. I noticed today you featured fiction, and I was initially pleased. I thought fiction wasn’t really your thing (until recently — more in a moment), so you surprised me. And when I clicked to the collection, I was pleased again to see “Made Up Words” as the header, with the tagline, “Bright and burnished offerings to enjoy between the demands of life and work,” and a MUW story by my old friend and MUW contributor, Lisa Renee.

Hence I thought you were featuring Made Up Words, the independent, community-borne fiction publication, because that happens to be the title and part of the tagline of the publication my old friend Todd Hannula 🤓 started, and other old friends Veronica Montes (who wrote that tagline), Tom Farr, Lisa Renee, Grey Drane, and some others have worked on, especially Veronica, to highlight, assemble, and raise up great fiction and its writers on Medium.

It was they, led by Todd, who answered the call when the fiction-loving community on Medium were actively seeking a cozy nook in this increasingly vast Medium space to enjoy some made up words. Fiction on Medium would not be what it is today were it not in good part for their efforts and that of the many writers they support. See, beautiful, right?:

So I hope you’ll understand my dismay and reason for writing this letter: Upon clicking on that “Made Up Words” header above, I was brought to this:

My screenshot above does not show the two other featured stories, but they were also both from Great Jones Street, which happens to be the new fiction publication that’s part of your beta monetization system. Hmm…

So you (or, at least someone on the curation team representing you) titled your fiction collection Made Up Words, and then taglined it with the copy from the Made Up Words publication, but then in turn featured only stories from the new beta monetization fiction project, Great Jones Street. Yes, I know Lisa’s was on the front page of the fiction collection tab, but then a few minutes later it was replaced with this:

And a scroll down the page, again, showed only GJS fiction titles.

What gives, Medium? I mean, many of us have accepted that, to a degree, no matter how hard independent publishers work to build something of value on Medium, ultimately having collectively played a significant role in making Medium what it is today, it seems you consistently turn to supporting outside, established media/publishing people and brands to build your brand. This has been a shared sentiment among many others, publicly and privately voiced.

Now, if giving benefit of the doubt, which I prefer to do, perhaps whoever decided to copy the title and tagline of MUW, an independent, community-based fiction publication, sought to honor MUW. But, if so, then why not feature any stories from that publication whose title and tagline was jacked for your own fiction collection, which then pointed only to the new fiction monetization baby?

Oh, wait, you just changed the heading of the collection to “The fabric of life.” But, part of Veronica’s tagline for MUW remains, while still not featuring any MUW stories:

I simply don’t get it, Medium. I’m no digital media/publishing whiz, but as a people- and community-oriented person who spent over three years of various activity in this space, including starting what I believe is now the longest-standing, active publication on Medium, I’ll tell you in all sincere and respectful honesty, the people who strive everyday on this platform, in this network, they have made and continue to make Medium what it is. Many come here for eachother and the independent publications, not your premium brands that you pull in. You’d be nothing without these people.

Same goes for the people who work hard to assemble and build meaningful publications, not necessarily to become premier publishers but to build communities, most on their personal time. They have in fair part made Medium what it is. You’d be nothing without them, either.

Look, I get it. You need to bring in revenue somehow. You need to establish Medium as the place for all one’s worded wants and needs, and as my other old friend Kel Campbell (Remember her?) once argued, you can’t monetize mediocrity. I get that many have unfair expectations of you to provide every person who posts words here to get paid for their effort. It’s not reasonable or viable. All I’m saying is, while you do what you need to to bring revenue to the company, please also do your best to support and raise up those whose independent efforts have made you who you are.

Thus I sincerely hope as you actively try to be the next Internet that you don’t lose sight of all this — these people and the publications they put their hearts into creating and reading. But unfortunately, seeing such things as this today, it suggests you’re growing blinder to the people who comprise Medium.

Concerned and disappointed,

Shawn White

Oh, by the way, the app tagline still has Veronica’s words.