If I may point out a deeply distressing but very obvious set of trends. These are my opinions only. Medium behaves like Trump, more and more and more. Jealous of its borders and trying hard to close them. Uncommunicative. Damaging his own country while milking it for money, benefiting his rich friends (existing big Medium pubs vs upstarts like yours which are HUGELY successful) shutting down dissidents who have been loyal but concerned about the downward spiral, eviscerating the earnings of top writers to pay off shareholders (again, my distinct impression) writing complimentary bragworthy articles about itself while not bothering to mention or take responsibility for the destruction of incomes of its top writers by stripping them of followers, effectively shutting down free speech and sharing (to your article) because it’s seen as a threat. Hgh turnover of top talent inside, indicative of toxicity in the workplace and choosing to hire sychophants who have lost sight of the original idea of Medium and what it stood for and represented, rewarding plagiarizers, shady ponzi writers who pitch HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON MEDIUM while top writers leave in droves after their incomes were eviscerated, their communications ignored and their loyalty to what Medium WAS not only disrespected but punished.
Sounds like Trump. Acts like Trump.
Oh I could go on. It's really quite remarkable. The more insular, self-serving and threatened Medium gets the more it behaves like the Orange Pumpkin.
Do NOT expect this to improve, Dr. Y. Any more than any of us expects the Orange Idiot to improve. He's toxic, and unfortunately, what we have seen this year on Medium parallels that behavior. This is what happens when greed, immaturity and fear drive business practices and in Trump's case, government. He is burning the house down around him. Frankly, that's what it looks like on Medium, too.
As with Trump, the more YOU show up as honorable, open, collaborative, professional, the more Medium seems to be threatened by what it is no longer.
I am not anti-Medium, either. However, just as I wore a uniform to fight and die for my country, I also wore the Medium banner and am deeply disturbed, disappointed and appalled at what Medium has become. It embarrasses itself, just as America is doing in the eyes of the world.
After three years on this platform, trusting it to be what it says it is, many of us writers have accepted that the path Medium has chosen, continues to choose and appears to have no interest in changing is one of self-destruction. I have done many of the same things you did for Medium, Dr. Y, and my thanks, as it has been for a great many others, is that our followers were wiped out, our earnings tanked, the customer service reduced to crickets.
There are reasons that people leave a sinking ship. At some point you realize that the ship set itself on fire. Only a fool stays aboard, trusting a crew that would knowingly do such a thing.
Just like Trump did to America.
You said:
Transparent communication is vital to collaboration, creating trustworthy relationships, and sustainable solutions.
You're right. A year ago this was true about Medium. Not now. My readers, what of them are left (Medium shows our profiles with what we USED to have as followers, but sends us emails showing the 5% we have left, which is what our pennies are based on) are now finding me on Twitter. How can you and I justify continuing to work with Medium as a primary platform when people who joined just to read us cannot find us, just as my favorite writers are no longer visible to me?
Trump syndrome. Suck the golden goose dry, pay off your friends, damage all your relationships, expect people to keep on working and be grateful, get mad when folks speak up and complain, then set the whole thing on fire.
Trump. Medium. Trump.
That's just me.