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More Great Articles Snubbed by the Curators
Medium is great, but it can be greater
In June 2021, I wrote this article.
Same issues today, yes? For the most part, Medium has done very well in not sinking into the morass of substanceless mass media Web sites. It is, in my opinion, the best Web site currently in existence. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be better.
The recent strategic change in curation and compensation has been a huge step forward in improving Medium’s content quality. It successfully de-incentivized some substanceless stories by “productivity” bros, arguments over tech products, rambling blog entries, and other writing ploys to make money off readers with quantity of words over quality of ideas.
The staff at Medium do well. They do. However, Medium still can and should do more if it wants to fulfill its potential. I want it to, so I am trying to prod Medium into upping their content quality.
Medium still has hundreds of of clickbaity stories like very other Web site about celebrity gossip, “rules for life,” “hot trends,” all the other listicles, and the requisite pabulum telling us how to write, how to be happy, how to make money, and so on ad nauseam. There will always be people who want to write those kinds of stories, though there are dozens of sites filled with that stuff people can read for free. Worse, though, those are the fluffy stories that Medium spends too much time Boosting and distributing.
It Could Be Otherwise
Medium is creating not just a platform, but a new information ecosystem — one that’s open for everyone to participate in, and rewards quality over quantity. … One that spreads important ideas and sparks intelligent conversations.
That is a statement of purpose by Medium. I applaud the sentiment. I would prefer to applaud its…
