Moving Out - Time to Move On from Medium

“Moving Out” by SHERWOOD @ Flickr

Medium is a structurally a pretty good platform, but I feel compelled to move back to move back to a platform that enables better control of content and accessibility through search engines.

The concept it started with was excellent. They gave writers a place to write and a platform that distributed their work fairly.

That all changed, and it has disintegrated over the last couple of years.

Some would point to the paywall implemented, which does have a lot to do with it. Mismanagement and a general lack of interest in maintaining a fair and balanced platform for all writers are the biggest problems though. That began before the paywall, which only made those problems more glaring.

Medium appears nothing more than a tabloid now. The articles shown to first time users are often sensational, racist, relatively inappropriate, totally on the wing, and collections of “How to Do X Better” written by individuals that do not have the slightest idea how to improve their own position, much less that of another.

Curators at Medium perpetuate this problem, forwarding that agenda. As a result, many notable and respected writers and publications have abandoned the platform.

Since implementation of the paywall, the downward spiral continues. The paywall pushes all other writers away, except those willing to immediately invest cash. In a normal print situation, that might work out well, but this is the internet. Anyone with an internet connection and $5/month can write any sort of nonsense and have it catapulted into a respectable and highly visible position on the platform.

Writers unwilling to buy into the scheme do not have a chance, and their writing is purposely buried within the platform, as well as search engine results.

One example is Tags. Recently, I contacted support about this inconsistency with accepted practice on the rest of the internet.

Tags are inconsistent. I noticed this many months ago, but wanted to test it for awhile and make sure I was not missing something. I am not. Tags do not always work as they should.

Tagged stories are not appearing in the archive as they should, and the archive is not always displaying tagged stories as it should.

It almost seems as if someone forgot to update some code when your organizations switched from the 3 tag restriction to enable 5 tags.

Example …

Recently, I published a story —

https://medium.com/@jusTodd/a-blue-hole-quest-2627cd2963be

It has the following Tags — photography, arkansas, waterfall, ozarks, hiking — and is dated May 26, 2020

Clicking through on those tags, I would expect to see my story included within the 2020 Archive for that Tag, as well as the May 2020 Archive for that Tag.

Results…

Photography — The 2020 Archive displays the latest as being from another writer on May 19 (May 21, if you click through on on the latest for May). My story does not appear at all, if you click through on the latest for May 2020.

Arkansas — The 2020 Archive displays the latest as being from another writer on April 19. My story only appears if you click through on the latest for May 2020.

Waterfall — The 2020 Archive displays shows the latest as being from another writer on May 25. My story only appears if you click through on the latest for May 2020.

Ozarks — The 2020 Archive displays the latest as being from another writer on April 16. Mine only appears if you click through on the latest for May 2020.

Hiking — The 2020 Archive the latest as being from another writer on Mary 13. My story does not appear at all, if you click through on the latest for May 2020.

Medium support responded ...

The ranking and distribution in tag pages is determined by several factors: engagement with the post, recency of posting in the tag, time spent reading the post, and other social indications.

As such, it is a dynamic list that does and will change frequently.

So, this is really just a Social Media platform, and much like the rest of the platform, Tags function as popularity contest, rather than the way they should.

There are so many other little quirks like this too. If you are not a paid member, you will find them, they will annoy you, and your work will be pushed down the ladder in favor of a story about how the Republicans are responsible for your premature balding and inability to get an erection, or some other story much less appropriate for a General Audience.

As a photographer, don’t even get me started on the practice of stripping metadata from photos. I should have saved that response to the support ticket created about that.

I will continue to write for some of the publications on here, mostly towards my area of expertise, usability and GIS. The things I want friends and others to read, without being assaulted by racism, nonsense, or other inappropriate content are being moved.