I can see your frustration, but as a liberal I can’t get behind this. It predominantly favours people who are already in a position to write - we’ll end up with a bank of writers all from the same middle class social strata.

The barrier of entry must be as low as possible - and yes that means we’ll be overrun by dross. Medium will have to deal with that, find ways to stop people gaming the system - but I don’t want a platform of middle class journalists and homogenous liberalism.

I want people with amazing life experiences who can’t write when they get here, who use the expertise of others to grow their skills and become amazing storytellers. I’ll sift through mountains of dross if it means we develop those writers.

No barriers to entry, push Medium to sort the issues that arise after entry - but exclusion on the grounds of effort or talent wont fly with this flightless bird.