As I read this illuminating story, I reflected on my own Medium experience. I began as a babe in the woods, happy to have a place to improve on my craft and express views. I developed a niche and a following and found a way to find relative financial success. I was never one of those making tens of thousands monthly but did reach a peak of $3,700 while averaging over $2,000 per month.

Most of the announced Medium changes excited me, they were throwing me into my briarpatch.

I don't know what got more frustrating, the inability of Medium to address the constant cloning despite hundreds of reports by myself and readers or the secret changed to Boosting criteria which are still unknown. I have 44,000 followers, more than half certainly fake with the real ones not seeing most of my stories unless they've subscribed.

With some fluctuation, my income is dropping hundreds of dollars monthly with no corresponding decrease in production on my part and hopefully quality. In 30 days with 400 followers on Substack I've had twice as many views and made up for the lost Medium income. I'm frustrated most by the lack of transparency at Medium. They seem very much like a company in financial turmoil, monthly payments are arriving later and reduction in Boosted stories has decreased the money they pay out to writers. Complaints about Boosting are coming not just from the writers not getting their stories read but the editors nominating them, themselves trying to guess what it is Medium wants.

Enough of my rant, gotta go add a couple stories to Substack where I got almost 100 new subscribers yesterday.