Sour Grapes About Medium

There’s a quote I love by Baudelaire. Says one should always be drunk. But maybe don't get drunk on someone else's glass of whine.

Happy Friday,

Buckle up, this might not go where you think it’s going. Apparently Nick Wignall left Medium. I don’t usually use names, but he had over 330K followers and announced his departure publicly. Didn’t just leave Medium, he also took all his posts down. Whoosh. Took his bat and ball and went home. Don’t want to play no more.

Since then, I’ve run across several people discussing his departure from Medium. Some of the posts are flavored with omg. Omg, if Nick Wignall can’t make it with 331K followers, what hope is there for any of us? (Omg, omg, omg)

Some posts are angry. I read a post, here on Substack, that said Medium is dead now. Nevermind they have a million paid members and finally became profitable. Nope. Dead. I am not saying the name of that person, nor linking to the piece.

I’m not linking to anyone. This isn’t about “who” it’s about what. I ask that you do the same. Any comment with names will be deleted. I wouldn’t want to find myself talked about on someone else’s blog so I don’t do that to other people.

Lots of people are struggling on Medium. We’ll go there in a minute, okay?

For a young eighth grade student? Medium must be looking very fine. She wrote a piece about the future of poetry in a world of AI. It was her first post on Medium. And became one of Medium’s top read stories last month. Over 10,000 claps so far.

Please don’t anyone tell that child Medium is dead.

Because for her, it’s not dead. She’s what, thirteen? When she wrote that post, she had 6 followers. Now she has almost five hundred. Can you imagine? To experience that at thirteen. If ever a new writer needed encouragement to keep going, there is it.

Here’s another. A young woman wrote about the magic of hidden away writers. People who pop out of the woodwork once a month to write on Medium. Publish a book every two years. How magic that is to her. Also one of the top read posts last month. 12,298 claps from 1,150 people. Guess Medium isn’t dead for her either.

I am not here singing Medium’s praise.

This isn’t even about Medium. Which will make sense shortly.

Some writers carve a niche for themselves. And they carve it so deep they become inflexible. Their niche defines them. They write one kind of content.

*This* kind, whatever *this* is in each case. Maybe it’s how to fix your sorry ass life. Maybe it’s climate alarmism. Omg the planet is dying. Politicians suck. Capitalism sucks. Maybe it’s men suck, all men suck. Narcissism seven days a week.

There are many paths for writer with a one track mind, who writes about the same thing day after day after goddamn day. And they do. Same thing. Every post.

Here’s what would really suck. It would suck to be that person and have Medium promote their work and then one day —wham! — it’s not what they want anymore. It would suck to have built up 200K or 300K followers playing to that schtick only to wake up and find out it’s gone out of vogue. Not what Medium wants. Sorry.

Frankly, I don’t care why Medium decides. Maybe they want climate posts to come from an actual climatologist. Maybe stats show them what people want to read, and it’s not that. I don’t care why. It’s their site. They get to decide. If I spent ten years and millions of my own dollars trying to build a site, you bet I get to decide.

But? There are writers who are not that. Not niche writers carved in stone.

Writers like me. I don’t even have a niche. A year ago I almost left Medium. I had deleted a couple of dozen posts. Was deciding what to leave when I slink off into the shadows. Then one day it dawned on me what I was doing. I’d drunk the whine.

There are always people leaving Medium. Way back in 2018, big writers left. In 2019, 2020, every year since the payment program started. People sharing their glass of whine about how it’s not paying well. Not worth it. And I drank the whine.

Every time a big name leaves, there will always be die-hard followers who jump on bandwagon to defend them. Throw out drama like confetti at a parade. If so and so left, what hope is there. Omg, Medium sucks. Blah, blah, blah.

What’s worse, it coincided with my own slump. People saying this place sucks. And my own results sucked. So I drank up the whine, asked for another glass. Drowned my miseries in that glass of whine like any good drunk.

For me, I got lucky. Two things happened at once.

First, some knob wrote a post saying websites are dying. I laughed my butt off. Because 5 websites I manage for clients collectively make multiple millions every year. I can promise you websites aren’t dying. Dawned on me there’s always someone saying something is dying. Because it doesn’t work for “them” anymore.

Medium is dying, Vocal is dying, websites are dying, seo is dying. Even Substack is going to die, don’tcha know, because Nazis. No. Nothing is dying until it’s dead.

Then Ariel reached out. Said I like what you’re doing with History of Women. It’s an interesting publication. We’re starting a boost program, would you be part of it?

Those two things. Got me to stop and pay attention. Think for myself. Dawned on me Medium doesn’t care if I leave. No one does. No one. Substack won’t care, Medium won’t care. Hell, my job wouldn’t care. I die tomorrow, they’ll hire someone else.

Only I care. What happens to me.

Dawned on me I’m not attached to a niche. Maybe I can stop writing the same old same old shit that’s not getting views and whining that it’s not getting results. Maybe I can try something else. Some people can’t. Or won’t. And that’s fine.

Ever writer has to find their own way. Doesn’t matter if it’s Medium, Vocal, Substack, YouTube or heaven knows where. It’s hard to make it as a writer. But if writing is what you’re meant to do, you have to decide what work for yourself. Decide when you’ve put in enough effort or if there’s something else you can try.

Yes. It’s harder now. The more writers there are on Medium, the harder it’s going to get. That is inevitable. Easier to win an art competition with 30 entrants than 3000 entrants. No reason writing wouldn’t be the same.

There’s a quote I love by Baudelaire.

“One should always be drunk. That's all that matters...But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.”

Only thing a write should never get drunk on is someone else’s whine.

Love to know what you think.

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