More writing, less marketing!

How To Fix Medium

Do we all agree there’s a problem?

No, I don’t actually type on this! It was used by a newspaper where I worked, but that was long before my time. I’m old but not that old. Photo by Michelle Teheux

I’m a relative newbie here, so for me to presume I know how to fix Medium — or that it needs to be fixed — takes some nerve. Fortunately, I don’t have any shortage of that.

To sum up the issue: Many of us are overwhelmed by the flood of stories about ways to gain followers and make more money on Medium. To make it worse, most of these stories are of alarmingly low quality in terms of both their information and writing.

My feed is full of such pieces because when someone says they have information about succeeding on Medium, I’m interested. Occasionally, these stories are well-written and insightful and have genuinely helpful information. I’ve learned from them. Such pieces have a place here, absolutely.

But in a world without gatekeepers, we need a system to address the problem of uneven quality. The algorithms see that we who are writers click on these stories, and soon, we are overwhelmed with them.

Before I ponied up the $50 for a membership, I felt that Medium was a wonderland of compelling writing. Medium kept emailing me loads of the most intriguing and irresistible headlines! (None of them were about making money on Medium, either.) I would quickly run through my free…