The Medium Meta Circlejerk

Medium’s model encourages pandering to its members

Medium has a problem. The way it pays its members pretty much encourages circular engagement. For those unaware of its Partner Program, what it does is allow writers with a paid membership to make money from getting views but only from other paid members.

I had decided to sign up as a way to motivate myself to take writing more seriously. Medium seemed like a great choice because I can just hop on and write. The Partner Program was just a cherry on top. Maybe if I did well enough I could make a bit of side money. But as soon as I signed up my entire feed was filled with articles about how to make money from writing, and why your articles weren’t getting views. It was basically all clickbait for other Medium writers!

How disappointing…

I had always thought of Medium as a classy corner of the internet, but even it can’t escape the culture of clickbaiting. Even casting aside the obvious ploys to get views from other paid members, at least 50% of the posts have a Buzzfeed style headline. You’ve been doing X all wrong. Here are Y reasons to do X. Y things I love and you will too. Medium is not all that different than the rest of the social media it tried to separate itself from. It’s just coated in a nicer paint.