I would largely agree with your overall points, Dr. R, for I always support your POV. However, Medium no longer pays me at all, and I have nearly 11k followers, which does not translate to an income. That doesn't make any sense at all, since my output hasn't much changed. That said, the recent Vox article stated flatly that Medium failed. I agree. That some of us folks who were wholeheartedly on board this idea for a very long time complain that they turned the system into a Ponzi scheme which doesn't value writers but only those willing to market the membership like an Amway dealer, that's what we didn't like. Don't like. I don't at all disagree with your major points, however I do point out that changing the algorithms over and over and over isn't strategic. That was only part of the issue.

We most certainly don't have to agree on this. However wiser writers than I have pointed out the erratic, unpredictable and ill-fated tweaks that some folks euphemistically call the natural course of business. No. They were careening downhill like a drunk at the wheel. The more sober of us were pointing that out not by way of complaint about preferring old times but what was clearly poor management with only one outcome. I don't mind changing when the changes clearly move a business forward. I've run a few of my own. Medium was a disaster, and every addition tweak made it more of a disaster most especially for people who take their writing very seriously.

I have clients who want my stuff on this platform. I'm a senior writer here with four years plus invested. The 11k followers that I currently have do NOT translate into any kind of income. Thousands of views and likes do NOT translate into income. So one has to ask, why be here?

My clients ask me to be here. And I still get plenty of comments from people I care very much about. And every day one of them tells me that they are beyond frustrated that they can no longer find their favorite writers and exhausted by the sewage in their feed.

Me. Too. I complained because I CARED. A great deal. I cared that good writers weren't able to get enough followers and that those who did follow them couldn't find their work. It doesn't just happen to me. This is a universal complaint among many who have communicated with me and ultimately quit Medium in sheer frustration. So while some of your commenters below are quick to judge, I would caution that. When we are invested in a platform, we will comment, and we will often complain. That doesn't necessarily make us all whiners. A goodly number of us were watching a good thing go to rot. And it has. But don't believe me. Read what the Verge wrote.

Read the article: https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/13/23206711/medium-fail-new-ceo-ev-williams