Great questions. The system is biased against everyone at some stage or another. Without bombarding you with my work - here's a summary of all the changes that have happened on my watch. https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/the-full-history-of-medium-changes-as-explained-by-a-penguin-a4345815f6fc
Two years ago, if you wanted to make money on here you had to rock up and do a 'I hate white men' article set to broadcast and not interact with anyone in the comments.. Back then I wrote this out of frustration... https://medium.com/p/1af4cac64e59 and I stand by it. Less than a year later GEN was dead and buried - readers were bored.
Those people who'd been making a living writing men are trash articles were replaced in the summer by 'white people are trash' articles. The pivot in 2021 away from publications gave the indie writer like me our best few months on the platform. At one point I was able to pay my rent from Medium alone. Of course it didn't last, and I think the latest pivot is towards giving newer writers their fair share and a pyramid of earnings to climb. I think they're trying to break the 'only 8% of writers on the platform earn over $100 a month' rule. And I think they will. We still have a demagogue problem, Katie Jgln seems to be the latest iteration of this. She rarely interacts, her articles are often tub-thumping but she's here and she's sticking around - and if I have to sit through a few Katie Jgln's to get a Steve QJ or two, then so be it.
Many writers on here have other measures of success, I have no real desire to be a journalist or to make a living on this platform. I'm a scriptwriter. My writing successes come from publishing a play or from getting something on TV. Medium is something I do because the reward (people reading my work and commenting) is instant, if you've ever submitted a script somewhere, you'll know you can wait six months to a year before anyone gets back to you, if they do at all. Medium feels like fun comparatively and as a result I don't take it too seriously. I'm always polite, I don't fight (often) and I enjoy the quick cut and thrust of political and social commentary. I suspect Tim and Umair are much the same - Medium is their side hustle, a fun outlet for their creativity. Sometimes the writing is profitable, sometimes it isn't. They write anyway because why not? Others flounced off in a fit of pique when they felt they weren't being properly compensated for their work - and Medium didn't give a shit at all. One of them came back in a hilarious about-turn having told everyone he was done.
I guess that means Medium is weeding by the system... but only really weeding those people who haven't properly embedded to the core of what the platform is about. I've got nothing to lose, so I shoot from the hip on all my work - and I believe, in the fullness of time, Medium will evolve a strategy that favours writers not chasing the algorithm once again. They did it last year between April and June - then shot themselves in the foot and ran a prize which awarded a huge pile of cash to three non-Medium writers and set the cat among the pigeons. Everyone wrote about writing for a few months, it was tedious.
What I can tell you is that after 4 years, if you bang out good quality stories, you'll start to gather momentum. Followers don't matter.... what matters, as with the world of scripts, is residuals. People still find my work from 2018 and it still pays the odd dollar here and there. You got 1000 pieces doing that in a back catalogue (and I don't have that many yet) then you'll be compensated now for work you did a long time ago. A bit like going to the gym. This seems to be where the pivot is landing at the moment - nothing is flying off the shelves the way it did last year, but everything seems to be on a wider shelf for longer. More breadth of reading over months than instant viral success and huge cash payouts. A rebalance of the money from superstars to the general public - as a socialist, I can heartily endorse this.
And yes, I love a good debate so no problem at all asking questions or arguing with me - I live for that sort of thing. Ultimately it's up to you how you find your Medium journey. I love it here and that's why I've been here for 4 years and why you'll find me active in the comments for many years to come.
