It doesn’t feel like Medium deserves a bright future

I really try to avoid writing stories that come across as whining. The pressure is on me to keep writing interesting stories and growing my audience. Don’t like Medium? Go figure something else out. Again, the pressure is on me.

But as someone who has written close to a thousand stories on this platform — and as a user who observes things from the perspective of a creator and a business professional — I have an opinion to share.

There are several problems with Medium.

First, my experience, supported by many notes I’ve seen from others on Medium, suggests that the platform has decreased its rewards to writers.

Now, onto the second problem, a more subjective one that bothers me even more than the first: hypocrisy and virtue signaling. For years now, I’ve seen stories touting supposed improvements to the platform while shamelessly soliciting readers or writers to pay more money. “Become a friend of Medium” is one example.

Lastly (and it’s all related), there’s the lack of innovation and transparency. A few weeks ago, I wrote a rather bitter response to Best Gifts for Writers, According to the Medium Community:

I was surprised to see Tony Stubblebine, Medium’s CEO, reply to my comment:

I’m thankful to Tony for taking the time to address my comment.

However, it doesn’t change my sentiment. Let me explain. I’m not a tech entrepreneur and don’t want to sound presumptuous, but I’ve been involved in various companies in different capacities — building, advising, and raising funding.

At its core, Medium is a simple, self-driven product. Content — primarily text — is posted, and users can comment. It’s not a heavyweight product requiring extensive R&D or marketing, especially now that it’s established. Its main costs are staff and cloud storage, which shouldn’t be overly bloated (and if they are, the company should cut them). And even if there is R&D, where are the new features Medium has introduced in recent years?