Snafu At Medium, A Share Thread With A Twist and Happy Thanksgiving Canada
How is it October already and where did summer go?
Happy Friday,
Let me tell you what I’m not doing tomorrow. I’m not digging out my garden after three days of rain. That’s what I did last weekend and wow, what a mess.
On the flip side, I got to be taller for a while, thanks to the several inches of mud caked at the bottom of my rubber boots. How is it October already? I know, I said that last week, too. Sometimes it astounds me, the way time flies.
Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada, which astounds most of my American friends who don’t realize Thanksgiving arrives so early here. Without delving into history, it makes some kind of sense because it’s a harvest celebration and I promise you, no one in Canada is harvesting anything in November.
If you’re in Canada like me, Happy Thanksgiving.
***
Snafu at Medium. Good news, or bad news?
If you write on Medium and views have been pathetic in the last couple of weeks, it’s not just you. It’s not even Medium, really. I mean, sort of?
I’m a member of a slack group for boost nominators and a Medium staff member popped in yesterday to let us know they recently discovered organized fraudulent activity that affected views and earnings for writers in the partner program beginning on or around September 25.
They said Medium’s rules prohibit systematized bulk engagement and they are taking action. They just wanted us to know about it and said they’ll share more information as they work to resolve the issue.
I don’t know if that’s good news or bad news. I guess hackers gotta hack just like haters gotta hate. But if your views and earnings have been down for the last couple of weeks, that might be why. Cross your fingers, I guess.
***
A share thread with a little twist…
Over the past months, I’ve done a share thread almost every month where I ask for story recommendations to help me find new writers to nominate for a boost.
I didn’t do one in September, simply because I had so many great posts submitted to my three publications that I ran out of boost nominations before I ran out of month. So this month, I’d like to do one early. But with a twist.
Because, see, I am Canadian. And Monday is Thanksgiving, and here’s something I’m grateful for. I am so grateful for all the writers that keep writing great stories that keep readers paying five bucks every month so Medium can pay us some small portion of the fees they get. In case you didn’t know, we writers are the minority there.
So if you know of a really great story written by someone else, not by you, could you please share it in the comments? And if you know a strong writer who is not getting the views they should be, just share their profile. I’ll go look.
What a nice surprise that might be for someone who gets a boost in views because you shared their post. You know? It feels like a Thanksgiving kind of thing to do. And yes, I’ll do it again for American Thanksgiving in November. :)
I’ll start, okay?
This short story called “The Door” will have you at the edge of your seat. It’s not horror scary, but it’s a great read by one of my editors who’s relatively new to Medium and a strong writer. Check out Fox’s Garden, too. You’ll like.
I’ll spend a chunk of weekend reading, and thanks in advance for the shares. :)
On Medium…
Four Out Of Five Top Banned Books Are LGBTQ. This Must Stop.
If I Could Go Back in Time and Tell Myself One Thing, This Would Be It
The Harsh Truth No One Tells You About Living on This Bitter Earth
If you enjoy my writing, please click the heart or share this post. Thanks. :)
xo,
Linda
I'm glad Medium found & could resolve the issue, but IMO it raises more questions than answers. And I know a lot of those can't be answered publicly, but still....
One of my first ones- and this is really just me wondering aloud- is if they know how much any given author was deprived of, and if so, are there plans to compensate them?
I only say the authors are leaving because I signed up for Shannon Ashley and Zane Dickens here on Substack and they both made it clear they quit the big M.