I am on Team Enthused about the upcoming changes at Medium. Of course we'll see how it all pans out, but based on Buster Benson's excellent explainer article, I salute the thinking behind these changes. So, cheers from me.
Me, too. I came really close to leaving at the beginning of the year. I stayed because they brought human creation back by way of the boost program and that felt encouraging. I'm really liking the direction they're going. It finally feels promising because for a long time, it sure didn't. :)
I hope fiction and popular culture essays will get more attention now that they've put the knife to most of the meta stuff and get rich quick schemes. I could actually break $100 for once.
It's very irritating to read on a platform only stuff ABOUT that platform, and I think they're making the right decision on that. Also, restricting the MPP to paying members will limit the chance of less savory people trying to manipulate things for their own benefit.
And I definitely hope some writers I used to follow but have now quit will reconsider and return...
I am totally with you on this one. And your interpretation of how it will work it much more readable than theirs, which got into the weeds a bit. I had to read it twice and I’m not a newbie. I’m already working on some more in-depth stuff, which is great because I usually write, edit, and publish daily. I’m giving myself some time on the new stuff. And hopefully the membership requirement will scare off some of the bots, human, digital, and otherwise.
I so agree, Martin - I hope the membership requirement scares off the bots, plagiarists and scammers. In the comments I also learned they have a 25% student discount, which I hadn't known.
I have to remind myself that those of us who have more than, say, 5000 followers and have been here awhile are often skeptical when we hear about these changes. But these seem more transparent and it’s about time. As for membership, I am one of those who thought it already was a requirement for the Partner Program. When I learned it was not, a lot of things were obvious about the crap content.
I read the announcement and am happy about the changes! I also didn’t realize that you didn’t have to have a paid membership in order to publish... I’m pretty sure when I joined it was a requirement. It makes sense.
I was a little disappointed to see they are doing away with the referral money because that is all I’ve made for the past few months LOL. But, I haven’t been posting links in groups and all of that. I may go back to that now though?
Oh you won't lose that. People who have referral income will keep getting it as long as the signups are still members. There just won't be new referrals after Aug 1. So you'll still get that!
One other thing mentioned a couple of times was concern about earnings "calculated based ...., the number of people who clapped, highlighted, and replied to your story". The changes seem positive overall, yet this is still a potential avenue to game the system.
When the partner program first started, they used to pay based on claps. I hated that because so many people had FB groups where they clapped each other up and didn't even bother to read. When they changed to read rate, I was happy. So I share that concern, but I think that the total read time metric will prevent that from happening again. Because even if people clap and comment on stories, if the read TIME is low, it still won't be lucrative. So I have hopes that the read time metric will be the failsafe in factoring in engagement. Knock on wood, of course.
You may be right. Hopefully. Humans are are crafty bunch though when it comes to trying to get money. Anyway the changes are in a positive direction overall it seems.
One of the things I like is that instead of *hoping* people don't abuse the system, they are now assuming some people always will and working on how to identify and deal with the inevitable abuse and I love that approach.
This pivot has really stood out for me as well. It finally feels like they're trying to game theory things that /could/ happen and are building guardrails to prevent it.
This is by far the most exciting thing I’ve seen since I started on Medium! This is what I thought the platform was supposed to be all along. The more I realized what was popular and what people really liked on the site, the less and less time I spent there, and the fewer articles I wrote. I didn’t bother spending much time searching for new articles outside of reading some of my favorite writers, because garbage content mill articles were always being shown to me.
Now I’m willing to give it another shot and will look for fresh new content that I hope will now include more of the quality I enjoy.
Exactly! I came so close to leaving, too. I have not been excited about changes there for a long time. This one sounds really promising. I'm glad you're going to give it another shot, too. :)
I'm finally seeing something that looks positive from Medium. It sounds good enough for me to rethink getting back in the Medium swing. I've stayed away for the very reasons they cite as the things they're going to do away with.
I've always thought every writer publishing on Medium should be paying that $5/month to do so. It never seemed fair that some of us did and some of us didn't, yet all of our payments came from that particular pot.
Thanks for posting these updates, Linda. I'll be watching to see how it goes. And I'm sorry you didn't benefit already from that post of yours they mentioned! Oof is right!
YES: To referrals going away. I know a few people used this to draw in large numbers of people. For almost everyone else, it was just one more ad in a string tacked on to the bottom of their articles.
YES: To having people be members in order to participate in the MPP. This has always rubbed me the wrong way. In fact, I don't think this new change goes far enough- IMO, *everyone * should have to pay to play.
YES: To eliminating the 100-follower requirement. I used to be all for it, as I thought it added a little friction to things and meant people having to put in some work before seeing any returns. Mostly, it just meant a blizzard of "follow-for-follow" comments.
YES: To expanding the MPP to more countries.
DUNNO YET: The new formula for earnings. On the surface, I like it. I just don't know that I understand it enough yet to make that a declarative statement.
I'm really excited about the changes on Medium. I think adding the requirement to be a paid member if you want to get a slice of the pie. It means that there's more buy-in from the community and people who are writing there have something at stake. I'm also glad they are changing what counts as a read. I've always been confused by that because I would have views and comments from people who have clearly read the story, but then it would say zero reads. I'm still a little confused on how the math works out, but I think it's going to be a positive change.
Hi Linda. Thanks for this. I had posted elsewhere I thought the view/read percentage multiplier would slaughter any earnings for fiction and poetry types. Clickbait we are not., and 65% is an impossibly high bar. However, i was told by someone higher up the food chain they are working on or implementing some sort of adder to help with that. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Either way, anything they can do to clean up the feed is fine by me.
Jim, in case you're worried about shortform (includes poetry and flash fiction) being affected by fast readers finishing under 30 secs, I asked Buster about it. He said that he tested on short form content (including poetry and fiction), and he was just comparing their earnings in June to their earnings they would have made under the new MPP system. He found that they would have earned more under the new MPP system! :)
Yes, I was blown away by how positive the comments were! My only concern was answered and satisfied. I was worried that the 30 sec rule, would disfavor poetry, flash fiction, and other short reads of 3 mins or under, since some readers are speedy and would finish them in under 30 secs. But I spoke with Buster. He assured me that he did tests on some shortform pieces, including fiction and poetry. He compared their earnings in June, to what their earnings would have been under the new MPP system. He found that their earnings were higher under the new system! Hip hip hooray for poetry and short fiction! :)
They did a test to be sure poetry wouldn't get lost in the shuffle and even poetry earns more under the new calculation. So that's also hopeful I think.
I don’t see how. A lot poems take less than 30 seconds to read. Mine frequently get likes and no reads. The engagement won’t count if it’s considered a bounce.
Honestly, I don't know exactly how either Denise but I know there's some kind of failsafe for short reads. What I know is that Buster asked nominators to send him examples of short fiction and poetry so he could test it. He said with the failsafe built in for short reads, everything we threw at him did better under the August calculation than the current one. So it makes me hopeful. We shall see in just over a week I guess.
I am on Team Enthused about the upcoming changes at Medium. Of course we'll see how it all pans out, but based on Buster Benson's excellent explainer article, I salute the thinking behind these changes. So, cheers from me.
Me, too. I came really close to leaving at the beginning of the year. I stayed because they brought human creation back by way of the boost program and that felt encouraging. I'm really liking the direction they're going. It finally feels promising because for a long time, it sure didn't. :)
I hope fiction and popular culture essays will get more attention now that they've put the knife to most of the meta stuff and get rich quick schemes. I could actually break $100 for once.
It's very irritating to read on a platform only stuff ABOUT that platform, and I think they're making the right decision on that. Also, restricting the MPP to paying members will limit the chance of less savory people trying to manipulate things for their own benefit.
And I definitely hope some writers I used to follow but have now quit will reconsider and return...
Yes, they want to see fiction and popular culture essays rise and that's a welcome change.
I agree, David!
I'm among the first type of comment and hopefully we get Medium to listen. It's about time Medium had more voices from other parts of the world
I so agree. It's great to include more voices from around the world.
I am totally with you on this one. And your interpretation of how it will work it much more readable than theirs, which got into the weeds a bit. I had to read it twice and I’m not a newbie. I’m already working on some more in-depth stuff, which is great because I usually write, edit, and publish daily. I’m giving myself some time on the new stuff. And hopefully the membership requirement will scare off some of the bots, human, digital, and otherwise.
I so agree, Martin - I hope the membership requirement scares off the bots, plagiarists and scammers. In the comments I also learned they have a 25% student discount, which I hadn't known.
I have to remind myself that those of us who have more than, say, 5000 followers and have been here awhile are often skeptical when we hear about these changes. But these seem more transparent and it’s about time. As for membership, I am one of those who thought it already was a requirement for the Partner Program. When I learned it was not, a lot of things were obvious about the crap content.
Yup - agree with that!!
I read the announcement and am happy about the changes! I also didn’t realize that you didn’t have to have a paid membership in order to publish... I’m pretty sure when I joined it was a requirement. It makes sense.
I was a little disappointed to see they are doing away with the referral money because that is all I’ve made for the past few months LOL. But, I haven’t been posting links in groups and all of that. I may go back to that now though?
Oh you won't lose that. People who have referral income will keep getting it as long as the signups are still members. There just won't be new referrals after Aug 1. So you'll still get that!
Ahhhh! Yay!
One other thing mentioned a couple of times was concern about earnings "calculated based ...., the number of people who clapped, highlighted, and replied to your story". The changes seem positive overall, yet this is still a potential avenue to game the system.
When the partner program first started, they used to pay based on claps. I hated that because so many people had FB groups where they clapped each other up and didn't even bother to read. When they changed to read rate, I was happy. So I share that concern, but I think that the total read time metric will prevent that from happening again. Because even if people clap and comment on stories, if the read TIME is low, it still won't be lucrative. So I have hopes that the read time metric will be the failsafe in factoring in engagement. Knock on wood, of course.
You may be right. Hopefully. Humans are are crafty bunch though when it comes to trying to get money. Anyway the changes are in a positive direction overall it seems.
One of the things I like is that instead of *hoping* people don't abuse the system, they are now assuming some people always will and working on how to identify and deal with the inevitable abuse and I love that approach.
This pivot has really stood out for me as well. It finally feels like they're trying to game theory things that /could/ happen and are building guardrails to prevent it.
Nice to know I'm not the only one that noticed it. :)
This is by far the most exciting thing I’ve seen since I started on Medium! This is what I thought the platform was supposed to be all along. The more I realized what was popular and what people really liked on the site, the less and less time I spent there, and the fewer articles I wrote. I didn’t bother spending much time searching for new articles outside of reading some of my favorite writers, because garbage content mill articles were always being shown to me.
Now I’m willing to give it another shot and will look for fresh new content that I hope will now include more of the quality I enjoy.
Exactly! I came so close to leaving, too. I have not been excited about changes there for a long time. This one sounds really promising. I'm glad you're going to give it another shot, too. :)
I'm finally seeing something that looks positive from Medium. It sounds good enough for me to rethink getting back in the Medium swing. I've stayed away for the very reasons they cite as the things they're going to do away with.
I've always thought every writer publishing on Medium should be paying that $5/month to do so. It never seemed fair that some of us did and some of us didn't, yet all of our payments came from that particular pot.
Thanks for posting these updates, Linda. I'll be watching to see how it goes. And I'm sorry you didn't benefit already from that post of yours they mentioned! Oof is right!
I wrote it a month too soon, lol.
I wonder how many are going to wait until Aug. 1 to post now? Should be interesting.
I’ve started to publish on there again and while I’m not over the moon or anything crazy I think it could be a really positive change
I look forward to the changes on Aug 1 and hope we see even more positive results. :)
I am hopeful and agree that paying into the system is fair and demonstrates a commitment to the platform and other writers.
Right? I so agree, Kathryn. :)
I posted these in a different forum recently:
YES: To referrals going away. I know a few people used this to draw in large numbers of people. For almost everyone else, it was just one more ad in a string tacked on to the bottom of their articles.
YES: To having people be members in order to participate in the MPP. This has always rubbed me the wrong way. In fact, I don't think this new change goes far enough- IMO, *everyone * should have to pay to play.
YES: To eliminating the 100-follower requirement. I used to be all for it, as I thought it added a little friction to things and meant people having to put in some work before seeing any returns. Mostly, it just meant a blizzard of "follow-for-follow" comments.
YES: To expanding the MPP to more countries.
DUNNO YET: The new formula for earnings. On the surface, I like it. I just don't know that I understand it enough yet to make that a declarative statement.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with that. Don't know how the new changes will play out, but if they favor quality over quantity that's hopeful.
I'm really excited about the changes on Medium. I think adding the requirement to be a paid member if you want to get a slice of the pie. It means that there's more buy-in from the community and people who are writing there have something at stake. I'm also glad they are changing what counts as a read. I've always been confused by that because I would have views and comments from people who have clearly read the story, but then it would say zero reads. I'm still a little confused on how the math works out, but I think it's going to be a positive change.
Me too, Molly. People would highlight and comment on the bits they highlighted, but I'd have no reads. lol
Hi Linda. Thanks for this. I had posted elsewhere I thought the view/read percentage multiplier would slaughter any earnings for fiction and poetry types. Clickbait we are not., and 65% is an impossibly high bar. However, i was told by someone higher up the food chain they are working on or implementing some sort of adder to help with that. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Either way, anything they can do to clean up the feed is fine by me.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. At least I hope so.
Jim, in case you're worried about shortform (includes poetry and flash fiction) being affected by fast readers finishing under 30 secs, I asked Buster about it. He said that he tested on short form content (including poetry and fiction), and he was just comparing their earnings in June to their earnings they would have made under the new MPP system. He found that they would have earned more under the new MPP system! :)
Wonderful news for this poet. Thank you
You're very welcome! :D I often write fiction drabbles (exactly 100 words), so that was high on my list of concerns, lol.
Well, again, thank you!
Feeling hopeful...
Me too, Dakota!
Yes, I was blown away by how positive the comments were! My only concern was answered and satisfied. I was worried that the 30 sec rule, would disfavor poetry, flash fiction, and other short reads of 3 mins or under, since some readers are speedy and would finish them in under 30 secs. But I spoke with Buster. He assured me that he did tests on some shortform pieces, including fiction and poetry. He compared their earnings in June, to what their earnings would have been under the new MPP system. He found that their earnings were higher under the new system! Hip hip hooray for poetry and short fiction! :)
"If they didn’t bounce, they are a read." YAY
Curious how/if this will impact poets but what benefits one benefits All.
Epic poets. Haiku? Not so much!
They did a test to be sure poetry wouldn't get lost in the shuffle and even poetry earns more under the new calculation. So that's also hopeful I think.
I don’t see how. A lot poems take less than 30 seconds to read. Mine frequently get likes and no reads. The engagement won’t count if it’s considered a bounce.
Honestly, I don't know exactly how either Denise but I know there's some kind of failsafe for short reads. What I know is that Buster asked nominators to send him examples of short fiction and poetry so he could test it. He said with the failsafe built in for short reads, everything we threw at him did better under the August calculation than the current one. So it makes me hopeful. We shall see in just over a week I guess.
Congrats on getting your story mentioned in the newsletter, BTW!
Thanks. It appears I wrote that a month too early. lol.
We sure shall! I love haiku - so I'll find out. Tho, actually, I usually publish haiku series.
They did some tests on poetry, short fiction and other reads and found they earn more with the new calculation method too. Knock on wood. :)
Do you hear knocking? That's how long and LOUD I'm knocking on wood. Crossed fingers too :)