I did some research yesterday. I took 30 consecutive links on the left side of the homepage and studied them. Of those 30 consecutive links, 16 were links to articles in The Start Up, 11 were links to articles in P. S. I Love You, one was a link to an article in one of those Medium owned publications at the top of the page and two were links From Your Network (curiously, those two From Your Network links did not show up on my From Your Network feed).
There was not one single link from an independent publication other than The Start Up or P. S. I Love You. And almost all of the stories linked to in those two publications were curated. No other curated articles appeared. All editor’s picks were from those two publications. It’s like Medium has experienced a coup and has been taken over by these two publications. Perhaps Medium has turned over all curating duties to the rather biased editors of these two publications. It now seems almost impossible to get a story curated unless it appears in one of these two publications.
This goes a long way in explaining why Fiction (and a few other topics) never seem to get curated anymore. The Start Up does not accept fiction and P. S. I Love You only accepts fiction that has to do with relationships and sex. Since neither publication accepts general fiction their editors never read general fiction and therefore general fiction does not get curated.
It is so profoundly obvious!
Personally, I think Medium curators should not be affiliated in any way with any publication! It is not fair or democratic! Of course a curator who is also an editor of a publication is going to favor stories and articles that are published in their publication over all others. Of course a curator who is also an editor of a publication is going to read every piece in their own publication and curate them all and get to other publications and independent authors only if there is leftover time. All curators should be unbiased and not have any ties to certain publications or certain authors who happen to be friends or be biased towards certain topics in disregard to topics they are not personally interested in.
Come on, Medium! Take back control of the platform from these two out-of-control publications. Make the curating process unbiased and fair. And stop shunning independent authors and small independent publications (and fiction).
It’s obvious that the algorithm is deeply flawed and the curating process is EXTREMELY flawed. When one’s earnings drop by 75% it is difficult for one not to get pissed — especially when one is dependent on those earnings to help cover living expenses.
But since I joined Medium in 2015 I have learned one truth about the platform. No matter how pissed off you get by the constant, non-stop changes (most of which royally screw things up), no matter how much you vent or make suggestions, no matter how radically your earnings fluctuate because of the constant changes… It simply does not make any difference WHATSOEVER.
So there is no point to getting pissed off. It simply makes no difference. Of course getting pissed off is a natural reaction to being jerked around. It’s very, very hard not to.
The only thing I can suggest is to take a few days off from Medium. Don’t write or read or even come to Medium until the anger has worked itself out. Once the anger is released start writing again but instead of writing on Medium, write in Word or some other app. Once your piece is finished and polished then quickly upload and publish it on Medium but do the actual writing away from the intense negative vibes that are so strong and pervasive on Medium right now.
Since 2015 I’ve noticed that the vibes on Medium are constantly vacillating between joy and anger. Back and forth like clockwork. Right now were are at the very depths of an anger cycle and I have to say it is by far the most intense anger cycle I have yet witnessed. We have to realize, or at least hope, that the pendulum will soon start swinging back in the direction of a joy cycle. We also have to realize that it’s only a matter of time before Medium radically changes everything yet again and throws us back into an anger cycle.
Back and forth. Back and forth. It’s what writing on Medium is all about.
Take a break. Take a vacation. That’s all I’ve got.
