I offer Insights as a scientist, content strategist, book author, online writer, editor, curator, and owner of ILLUMINATION publications on Medium supporting 31K writers and 111K readers for 5 years
Team, thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on this issue. I am pleased that our discussion made a valuable impact. I noticed that Zulie changed the title of the story we discussed. It sounds better now. It was my major concern.
It seems rather unfair, not to mention a conflict of interest, that Medium employees can earn money by publishing on Medium. They have all the advantages.
I find it beyond fascinating that Medium promotes this person's attainment of 168K followers knowing she's not part of the MPP - it makes it easier to brag when they don't have to pay her anything. Stats are like sign out in the bush. You track them to understand what changes are happening in the environment. If you track Medium's constant changes in their algorithm and the resulting drops in writer views, read and $$$ made, it tells you that Medium's bottom line is hurting and has been for some time. The changes reduce payouts to writers while increasing dollars retained by the company. It's understandable, they're a business. But when they highlight flawed stories and promote "changes" as helping distribution while many writers see far less distribution every day, then it's disingenuous. Very sad.
The story in question does not teach anyone how to write better. I personally found nothing in the featured writer's stuff worth writing. The story in question did teach us all that we can attain huge followings via a social marketing app.
Wow this is mind-boggling. I've stopped publishing on Medium since last year so I'm quite unaware of the changes made. To think such an article was published by a Medium employee... I've also noticed that on Medium there are loads of blogs with names like matchagreentea or rainydays or something similar having 20-50K followers and 1K+ claps in every article they've published, and they have not been publishing for too long. I wonder if anyone has noticed this too 😐
I have less views on Medium now with 5K+ followers than I did with 1K.
I'm still publishing there but less and less because they don't support writers' growth. On Substack, I feel that they want me to grow, get views and make money.
On Medium, I feel that the system is ruled by an algorithm that changes hats every month.
Funny how I get way more views on Substack than Medium even though I started later here.
They need to sort ouf their stuff and have TRANSPARENCY.
Thanks for sharing your valuable experience and perspectives, Veronica. Your points resonates with me. I am also concerned about the lack of transparency. Your success on Substack is inspiring.
Thank you Dr Mehmet for bringing this story to light.
I came here from Medium.
As an 18 year old myself (whose two stories got boosted on medium) I only have 300 followers and that didn't really bother me because I gained them even after I took long breaks because of my exams.
This changed when I once came across Remi's profile and read some articles of hers. They felt very low quality but I didn't think much of it because I thought I'm acting jealous.
But this simple incidence of me knowing about Remi's popularity made me question everything I had ever written. "Are my articles boring?" "Are my articles too long?" "Are my articles to confusing?"
So, I'm glad to know that my judgement was right and that her articles aren't that good to justify 150k+ followers.
It's also sad to know that people with high quality writing aren't being recommended. I had stopped reading on Medium because every article I was being recommended was similar to Remi's. A lot of them tried to sound intellectual but clearly were not and they seemed extremely low effort and sometimes felt like reading a diary entry of someone who just gained consciousness.
I read her work. Gaming TikTok is the key here, not having written high quality pieces. Also, I do think they were written by AI (at least to an extent). I suspect the majority of the claps and comments are fake.
I mean, probably the same way, it's just a bot farm.
TikTok has no incentive in removing fake views. She's not part of a partner program there either. So they aren't paying her out.
Like I looked at 20 of her comments on Medium. She doesn't respond to any of them. All of them had 5-9 followers even though they'd never written anything. And there was a lot of overlap between followers. Of the 20 comment accounts I looked at, many followed each other. Only 1 of them posted anything. Why is anyone following people on medium who don't post?
The 1 person who did post something, posted 3 articles that were just gibberish.
My guess, if it isn't set up by Medium. The scam is this, someone is setting up a bot farm, so they can sell the bot farm's service on fivr.
My best guess, the tiktok situation was cover they had to quickly create when Zulie asked for an interview. She didn't become famous on tiktok first.
She became "famous" on Medium and then used that to become "famous" on tiktok. She made the tiktok in Dec of 2023 and then she "blew up" when she started posting about how she was famous on Medium. As far as I can tell, the flow is in the opposite direction. Medium then tiktok. But nothing about the behavior of her audience on either platform would lead me to believe it's real.
"Ever since high school, I knew you'd be famous." Read multiple comments. She is 18, just graduated high school and doesn't reply to even those people?
On tiktok Remi doesn't post videos. They post still photos of her Medium follower count.
No one is subscribing to that content. Except bots.
Hi Dennis, it is also my impression but they might have some business reasons to act like that. The problem is Medium does not show transparency for their intention. That was one of the reasons I decided to resign the boost program. The interview we discussed in this story was very problematic but I am pleased that Zulie changed the title so its harmful impact significantly lowered. In principle Medium should not promote follower increase as they give no incentives for it. It even disadvantage writers. As I explained the more followers I gained the less benefits I had for all metrics. So there is is no reason to have such a massive following apart from ego-boosting.
Insightful breakdown of Medium’s shifting dynamics! The disparity between follower count and genuine engagement is eye-opening. Embracing platforms like Substack could be the key to thriving in today's evolving content landscape. Keep inspiring and adapting, Dr. Mehmet!👍
As you pointed out, followers mean nothing. I have never gotten any benefits so far. I like subscribers who at least read our stories occasionally. It looks like the author has changed the title of that clickbait story.
The whole thing is set up unfairly. I have been on Medium about the same amount of time and have about 650 followers and about 60 stories. Honestly, I thought the account was fake and the stories AI generated when I first read them. Medium is doing some unsavory things lately and rather questionable.
Thank you for bringing attention to this matter and providing this information.
A fascinating read! I'm also a Medium defector. I've witnessed too many bot accounts and favoritism on that platform to want to continue. It makes me happy to mind Illumination here on Substack.
We had a short discussion about this over on Zulie's article. Obviously we are in agreement.
But it might be worth an article trying to think about why it's important for Medium to pull stunts like this. I think... as more of us discuss what's going on, it does seem this was a play by Medium. They are trying to make inroads into the Market over there.
They have to make it possible for new people to gain traction. And this was a person who was writing consistently.
If the entrenched parties with huge viewer counts are the only ones who get views, it feels impossible to new sign ups. This article is probably meant to give all the new people over in other countries hope.
Team, thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on this issue. I am pleased that our discussion made a valuable impact. I noticed that Zulie changed the title of the story we discussed. It sounds better now. It was my major concern.
It seems rather unfair, not to mention a conflict of interest, that Medium employees can earn money by publishing on Medium. They have all the advantages.
I suspect she doesn't gets extra money when she writes from that account. Only when she writes from her personal account.
Even so. Not fair.
It's infuriating! I can't believe that stuff like that is getting promoted
I find it beyond fascinating that Medium promotes this person's attainment of 168K followers knowing she's not part of the MPP - it makes it easier to brag when they don't have to pay her anything. Stats are like sign out in the bush. You track them to understand what changes are happening in the environment. If you track Medium's constant changes in their algorithm and the resulting drops in writer views, read and $$$ made, it tells you that Medium's bottom line is hurting and has been for some time. The changes reduce payouts to writers while increasing dollars retained by the company. It's understandable, they're a business. But when they highlight flawed stories and promote "changes" as helping distribution while many writers see far less distribution every day, then it's disingenuous. Very sad.
The story in question does not teach anyone how to write better. I personally found nothing in the featured writer's stuff worth writing. The story in question did teach us all that we can attain huge followings via a social marketing app.
Wow this is mind-boggling. I've stopped publishing on Medium since last year so I'm quite unaware of the changes made. To think such an article was published by a Medium employee... I've also noticed that on Medium there are loads of blogs with names like matchagreentea or rainydays or something similar having 20-50K followers and 1K+ claps in every article they've published, and they have not been publishing for too long. I wonder if anyone has noticed this too 😐
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
I have less views on Medium now with 5K+ followers than I did with 1K.
I'm still publishing there but less and less because they don't support writers' growth. On Substack, I feel that they want me to grow, get views and make money.
On Medium, I feel that the system is ruled by an algorithm that changes hats every month.
Funny how I get way more views on Substack than Medium even though I started later here.
They need to sort ouf their stuff and have TRANSPARENCY.
Thanks for sharing your valuable experience and perspectives, Veronica. Your points resonates with me. I am also concerned about the lack of transparency. Your success on Substack is inspiring.
Thank you, Dr Mehmet, and likewise, I love the community you have built - and continue to and would love to collaborate somehow!
Cheers
Followers don’t matter. That number has more to do with the length of time you’ve been on the platform.
Spot on! I fully agree.
Thank you Dr Mehmet for bringing this story to light.
I came here from Medium.
As an 18 year old myself (whose two stories got boosted on medium) I only have 300 followers and that didn't really bother me because I gained them even after I took long breaks because of my exams.
This changed when I once came across Remi's profile and read some articles of hers. They felt very low quality but I didn't think much of it because I thought I'm acting jealous.
But this simple incidence of me knowing about Remi's popularity made me question everything I had ever written. "Are my articles boring?" "Are my articles too long?" "Are my articles to confusing?"
So, I'm glad to know that my judgement was right and that her articles aren't that good to justify 150k+ followers.
It's also sad to know that people with high quality writing aren't being recommended. I had stopped reading on Medium because every article I was being recommended was similar to Remi's. A lot of them tried to sound intellectual but clearly were not and they seemed extremely low effort and sometimes felt like reading a diary entry of someone who just gained consciousness.
I read her work. Gaming TikTok is the key here, not having written high quality pieces. Also, I do think they were written by AI (at least to an extent). I suspect the majority of the claps and comments are fake.
The problem is, she didn't game tiktok either.
Her tiktok exists as a ruse for the article. Her whole tiktok is plugging her medium. All her "viral" tiktoks are about how she's big on Medium.
They aren't even videos. It's just static images of her 100k followers.
The whole thing was fake.
How do you get MILLIONS of views on Tiktok without having any audience though?
I mean, probably the same way, it's just a bot farm.
TikTok has no incentive in removing fake views. She's not part of a partner program there either. So they aren't paying her out.
Like I looked at 20 of her comments on Medium. She doesn't respond to any of them. All of them had 5-9 followers even though they'd never written anything. And there was a lot of overlap between followers. Of the 20 comment accounts I looked at, many followed each other. Only 1 of them posted anything. Why is anyone following people on medium who don't post?
The 1 person who did post something, posted 3 articles that were just gibberish.
My guess, if it isn't set up by Medium. The scam is this, someone is setting up a bot farm, so they can sell the bot farm's service on fivr.
My best guess, the tiktok situation was cover they had to quickly create when Zulie asked for an interview. She didn't become famous on tiktok first.
She became "famous" on Medium and then used that to become "famous" on tiktok. She made the tiktok in Dec of 2023 and then she "blew up" when she started posting about how she was famous on Medium. As far as I can tell, the flow is in the opposite direction. Medium then tiktok. But nothing about the behavior of her audience on either platform would lead me to believe it's real.
"Ever since high school, I knew you'd be famous." Read multiple comments. She is 18, just graduated high school and doesn't reply to even those people?
On tiktok Remi doesn't post videos. They post still photos of her Medium follower count.
No one is subscribing to that content. Except bots.
Mehmet, do you think Medium is shooting itself in the foot by all these algorithmic changes and promoting writers whose followers are fake?
Hi Dennis, it is also my impression but they might have some business reasons to act like that. The problem is Medium does not show transparency for their intention. That was one of the reasons I decided to resign the boost program. The interview we discussed in this story was very problematic but I am pleased that Zulie changed the title so its harmful impact significantly lowered. In principle Medium should not promote follower increase as they give no incentives for it. It even disadvantage writers. As I explained the more followers I gained the less benefits I had for all metrics. So there is is no reason to have such a massive following apart from ego-boosting.
I agree, this kind of vanity metrics do more harm than good.
Insightful breakdown of Medium’s shifting dynamics! The disparity between follower count and genuine engagement is eye-opening. Embracing platforms like Substack could be the key to thriving in today's evolving content landscape. Keep inspiring and adapting, Dr. Mehmet!👍
As you pointed out, followers mean nothing. I have never gotten any benefits so far. I like subscribers who at least read our stories occasionally. It looks like the author has changed the title of that clickbait story.
The whole thing is set up unfairly. I have been on Medium about the same amount of time and have about 650 followers and about 60 stories. Honestly, I thought the account was fake and the stories AI generated when I first read them. Medium is doing some unsavory things lately and rather questionable.
Thank you for bringing attention to this matter and providing this information.
A fascinating read! I'm also a Medium defector. I've witnessed too many bot accounts and favoritism on that platform to want to continue. It makes me happy to mind Illumination here on Substack.
The story published on Medium blog was, at most deceptive, at least clickbait-y. I don't find the mentioned author's content appealing either 🤷🏻♂️
We had a short discussion about this over on Zulie's article. Obviously we are in agreement.
But it might be worth an article trying to think about why it's important for Medium to pull stunts like this. I think... as more of us discuss what's going on, it does seem this was a play by Medium. They are trying to make inroads into the Market over there.
They have to make it possible for new people to gain traction. And this was a person who was writing consistently.
If the entrenched parties with huge viewer counts are the only ones who get views, it feels impossible to new sign ups. This article is probably meant to give all the new people over in other countries hope.