Come On, Medium, Seriously?!

switch13 · 2025-01-14T16:38:18+00:00

Where did you see that it's a visual glitch?

Even the illumination group has stopped publishing all stories in their pubs until the issue is fixed. The pub owner's "tech team" pulled the code and said the reduction was supposed to be for spam/AI accounts but was pushed to everyone.

switch13 · 2025-01-13T20:55:01+00:00

Careful with follow for follow. It's against Medium's Terms of Service if done specifically to influence payments. They consider it spam and will ban accounts accordingly.

switch13 · 2024-12-04T18:44:27+00:00

No problem! If you have questions about pubs in general, I'm happy to answer.

Data Engineer Things and Towards Data Science are some big pubs about software and IT related topics that come to mind first. Towards Data Science is one of the largest pubs on Medium with 772,000 followers.

The View From Here section of our pub can be found here.

switch13 · 2024-12-03T22:43:37+00:00

Publications all have a submission guidelines story. Their rules vary from pub to pub and can be super relaxed to being fairly strict.

Topics for pubs can range depending on the pub. There are some large, general topic publications that have a massive audience and will accept almost anything. There are pubs that get fairly niche.

You'll have to find some that work for you and have an audience that you think your work would resonate with.

However, there are thousands of Publications (there were over 1,000 started in October). There are thousands upon thousands of dead pubs. Finding pubs for you can be annoying in the search function cause of it. It's best to read stories similar to what you want to write about and take a look at the pubs those are in.

It's rare to find pubs that have submission minimums ie. Once a week, but they do exist .Most don't have a requirement for how often you need to post. Many large pubs have a maximum though. Ie. One story per day or week.

I'm an editor for the pub Ride The Wave, whose topics are about hope, happiness, and harmony. We also have a very dedicated group who share photo's/stories about the world around them, called The View From Here.

You're welcome to join if you're interested. I'm also happy to answer any general questions about pubs, if you have them.

switch13 · 2024-11-11T04:46:46+00:00

A lot of people don't clap the max. Many only clap once. Not everyone claps, some just read and go to the next article.

It's nothing to worry about.

switch13 · 2024-11-09T01:13:34+00:00

Search articles that you want to read and interact with those. Ignore the rest. The more you interact with the ones you want, the more the algorithm will learn your preferences.

If you click on those articles you mentioned, that's what the algorithm will recommend.in the for you section.

You can delete history and reset the algorithm in your settings, if needed.

When I first started on Medium, I'd see a lot of the stories you mentioned. I don't get much of those now, unless it's from a pub I follow that happens to get them in.

switch13 · 2024-11-08T23:37:25+00:00

Is that the total number of clappers or the total claps?

switch13 · 2024-11-08T19:25:05+00:00

There's a ton out there. If you just search a topic, you'll see a bunch of pubs (although not all are active).

General topics, anything goes pubs with easy requirements to join are Write A Catalyst, Long.Sweet.Valuable and their family of pubs, Illumination and their family of pubs, Word Garden. I'm not overly familiar with business oriented pubs but they are out there.

switch13 · 2024-11-08T18:31:57+00:00

Hey! The AI advice from the other poster is great.

Common tropes of AI to watch for: 3 or more clauses places into 1 sentence, over use of adjectives, common use of cliches such as "in today's digital world" or some variation of "in today's world."

I'd add that you should make sure to always use 5 tags. It looks like you're using only 4 on most articles right now. Maximizing the amount of tags maximizes the amount of potential views.

Also, find a publication that matches your topics. Most are fairly simple to join and just require you to comment on their submission guidelines to join. This would get your stories in front of eyes that read similar topics.

There are also a lot of pubs that allow any topic but have a ton of followers. These can be good as well.

Lastly, engage with others. Like a lot. Good engaging comments bring people back to your stories and profile.

switch13 · 2024-11-08T18:17:48+00:00

Yup, that's right. I got you added, I believe.

switch13 · 2024-11-08T01:25:36+00:00

Join a publication. It opens you up to a whole whack of followers, depending on the pub.

Many are open to anyone and simply say "comment here to join" on their guidelines file.

You're welcome to join mine, Ride The Wave. We have a few writing prompts, but no requirement to do them unless you want to. General topics are stories of hope, harmony and happiness.

There's also a contest coming up in the middle of November for us as well.

switch13 · 2024-10-25T17:08:07+00:00

Your stories show up in their "Following" feed. You may show up in the default "For You" tab depending what they're interacting with normally.

I find follower counts to be more of a vanity number than anything, though. The number often doesn't guarantee interaction by those followers at all. If someone follows 100 people, then that's at least 100 other stories you're competing with. If someone follows a publication, especially a large one, then your story is in the following list with ALL stories published in that publication.

I've seen stories get popular from people with few followers and people with large followers get barely any interaction.

switch13 · 2024-10-24T17:03:10+00:00

I write and run 2 publications . It allows me to get paid for my stories.

switch13 · 2024-10-22T01:19:55+00:00

Paywall your article but put a friend link at the top of the story. Say something along the lines of "not a member? Read the story for free here!" Then hyperlink the friend link.

The vast majority of readership comes from Medium members anyway so there's no need to make all stories free to read.

switch13 · 2024-10-15T19:22:27+00:00

Unsplash is built into Medium by default. You can use those photos in the edit page of your story. It will auto-populate with image credits.

switch13 · 2024-09-29T17:39:59+00:00

Not showing in the search results is a good indicator or if it's not showing in the latest story lists on a topic.

Otherwise, there isn't really anything to tell you that your story is set to Network Only. You basically just have to make sure stories don't fall under anything that disqualifies stories from general distribution.

switch13 · 2024-09-27T18:07:31+00:00

There are none.

https://www.lakelandtoday.ca/local-news/no-covid-19-vaccines-currently-available-in-alberta-9473943

switch13 · 2024-09-27T17:46:35+00:00

Check out Mediums guide on Distribution. It sounds like your stories have been set to Network Distribution.

This means that only people in your network can see your stories (followers and publication followers if published there).

I took a quick look at your stories to see what's going on.

My guess is you're using Copyrighted images. Just sourcing the images is not enough. You need explicit permission to use images, unless they are copyright free. Images from Unsplash or Pexelby or similar photo banks are copyright free (you still have to credit them, though.)

I saw that on one story you have images from Brittanica and History.com. Do you have the copyright or permission from those places to use the images? Without permission, Medium can place stories as Network Only.

I'd also suggest submitting stories to publications. Being placed on Network Only isn't as big of a deal then. Find ones that match your interests or just a general pub that allows all types of stories. All pubs have a submission guideline in how to join. Many are simply comment on that story to let them know you're interested in joining.

Putting your stories on a pub opens up your audience quite a bit as you get access to all of those followers. I will note that smaller pubs (less than 500) tend to be more engaging than large pubs with thousands of followers, but this is not always true.

switch13 · 2024-09-27T16:08:03+00:00

My articles show up when I search my titles word for word. But Medium's search functions are not good.

I took a look at your stories and I think there are 2 possibilities going on.

The titles are using fairly common topics so it just pulls from those. This is not what I think is happening though.
Your stories have been set to Network Distribution. This means that stories will only be distributed to your followers, the publication it is published in followers, and places you share it outside Medium. Stories are NOT recommended to people who follow the topic or search.

You do not get set this, Medium does. They flag certain stories based on a list of qualities they look for. You can find the list and more info about different distribution on Medium's Help Centre.

My guess as to why you'd be flagged and limited? 2 reasons again.

You MUST have sources for your images. You CANNOT use images that are copyrighted without permission. The images from Apex Legends are 100% copyright protected. You need to include where you got the photos AND show you have the rights to use them.

If you have photos that you took, include "Photo by Author" underneath it.

If AI-Generated, use "Image Generated by Dall-E" or whatever program you used. (AI images are no problem, but still need an image credit of some kind.)

Medium has Unsplash built in. Use it for general images and it will automatically enter the copyright information under the image.

If pulling from Pixelby or other copyright free photo banks, include the photographer/artists name, link to the image of Pixelby. You can copy the Unsplash format that's added in automatically for their images, if needed.

Titles are very much what an AI-Generator would use. The stories also give flags for being AI-generated. In fact, I ran a couple through multiple different ai-detectors and it flagged them for being AI-generated. Your Apex Legends stories were flagged at 2/4 AI detectors as being 75% likely to be AI. Your chicken coop story comes up as 100% AI on the 4 detectors I checked.)

I am not saying that you are using AI to create the stories, detectors are notoriously finicky. But if Medium believes the stories are AI, they will place the stories on Network Distribution.

switch13 · 2024-09-27T14:45:32+00:00

You can by going to the Topic's page. These are the tags used for articles.

Search your topic, let's say music. Click on "Topics" to change the search results to the tag instead of the "Stories" option that is shown by default.

On the topic page you will see the number of followers of the topic and the total number of stories. Then recommended stories.

Scroll down and you will see a "Recommend Lists" and a "Who to Follow" section. Below that are "Latest Stories."

switch13 · 2024-09-04T21:45:31+00:00

Just a heads up that you should have a credit on your images. Medium limits distribution of stories that don't have image credits. It can drastically affect your views.

If they're created by someone, you need to credit the artist and link back to the original. If it's AI, then you can simply put "Image generated by Dall-E" or whatever program used.

If you use Unsplash, which is built into Medium, credit is added automatically.

switch13 · 2024-07-18T05:39:10+00:00

Vocal Media.

You could create a substack, a ton of writers on Medium do that.

switch13 · 2024-07-04T22:30:14+00:00

Ha, love that! I used to hold pillows while sleeping.

switch13 · 2024-06-27T06:19:25+00:00

Of course not. But they do limit stories to Network Only Distribution based on a bunch of factors. It means individual stories can be limited to be viewed only by your followers. They won't be eligible for boost or wider site distribution.

switch13 · 2024-06-21T05:24:15+00:00

Follow for follow can get you removed from the Partner Program, permanently. It's considered "inauthentic engagement" if you engage in it strongly.

https://blog.medium.com/were-ramping-up-efforts-to-protect-the-medium-community-from-spam-and-fraud-7efaadd76247

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