Finally, A Change At Medium That Doesn't P*ss Me Off, One Writer Said.

I read 630 comments to see what people are saying. I was pleasantly surprised!

You probably know big changes are coming to Medium.

In a world that’s increasingly deferring to clickbait, AI and algorithms that favor get rich quick crap they’re taking a hard turn away from that kind of content and going back to a focus on quality stories written by people who love to write.

If you haven’t read the announcement, you can read it here.

The changes are many.

Here’s the gist:

Over the last few years, our members have told us in no uncertain terms that they are tired of clickbait and content mills, want ‘get rich quick’ siloed into a constrained area, don’t want stories that are generated by AI, and, in particular, want to read human stories that deliver actual human wisdom. The rest of the Internet is filled with cheap, attention grabbing content. We are most proud Medium can deliver our members something different… — Buster Benson, Medium. (source)

The changes are many. First, they’re dumping the 100 followers thing. Which means no more stories about how to get 100 followers clogging the feed and hallelujah to that.

Plus, they’re adding more countries. 12 more will be added on August 1, and 50 more by the end of the year.

Also, they’re fixing the read rate, and it’s about time. Because we don’t all read at the same speed. So if a reader doesn’t bounce, it’s a read as of August 1. A bounce is someone who looks and leaves in under 30 seconds. So if your reader doesn’t bounce, it’s a read. Which means you’ll see read rates going up.

In case you wonder, yes, the total member read time is still part of how writers get paid. It’s just that they won’t be “guessing” who to count as a read. If they didn’t bounce, they are a read.

Also, some elements will earn higher payout rates. Stories with high engagement rates and stories that get boosted will pay at slightly higher rates. How much more, we shall see I guess. But it’s a vote in the direction of stories people actually engage with.

One writer said “Finally, a change at Medium that doesn’t p*ss me off” lol

I read all 630 comments…

I sat down and read the comments. All 630 of them. Wow, that was a lot. lol. For the most part, writers seem to be excited and looking forward to the changes.

The comments are overwhelmingly positive and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a big difference from comments on posts regarding changes in the past.

There’s two comments I saw more than once.

The first one was people asking when (some country) is being added. They didn’t post the list of the 50 being added by the end of the year, so that’s to be expected.

Here’s the second one that was repeated.

Starting August 1, anyone can write and publish on Medium, but instead of having 100 followers to get paid, writers now are required to have a paid membership to get paid for their writing.

Some people said they’re not sure what they think of it.

One person said it feels like having to pay to earn.

Several people said they didn’t know that wasn’t already the case.

I like the change. I think it will cut down on plagiarism. It also means writers are paying into the pool they’re getting paid from and that feels fair to me.

My favorite comments…

600 comments is a lot to read. It took over an hour. Probably didn’t help that I stopped to reply to a few along the way.

But here’s what felt best of all, at least to me.

A handful of writers said they’re coming back.

They’d stopped writing on Medium because they were sick of “get rich, how to make money” stuff clogging up the feed. Sick of low quality content churned out to try game the algorithm. Sick of meta posts and clickbait. But with a new focus on quality, they’re willing to give it a shot again. That felt good to read.

It felt like Medium is finally going in the right direction.

What do you think of the changes?

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On Medium…

• It’s About Darn Time Men Stopped “Helping” With The Housework

• 3000 Years Ago One Doctor Called All Women Crazy And It Stuck

• ChatGPT Told Some Guy How To Make Money. It Made One Mistake

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xo,
Linda