"Sometimes stories have met our guidelines for being boosted, but have created a poor experience for some readers (or writers). "
Writing about sensitive subjects is going to create negative experiences for some readers. I've had more than one threaten to have me removed from Medium because they disagree with what I've written. Having stories rejected from being boosted because it triggered someone is similar to censorship.
One of the topics I frequently cover is history, often Black history which is often presented inaccurately in schools and the media. I spend a lot of time researching what I write and can appreciate that others may disagree with my findings. Besides money, one of the benefits of boosting is distribution, getting a message across. It sounds like you're looking for feel-good stories, and most Black history doesn't produce that result.
I used to think that many of the stories I wrote weren't being read because they weren't in the right publications and hadn't been seen by nominators. I'm coming to know that several have been nominated and rejected for unknown reasons, which may include a subjective bias against the topics.
This is coming from someone who has been relatively successful writing for Medium, well into the top 6% by the only measure I have according to statements by Medium about income. The difference in readership between boosted and non-boosted stories is dramatic, and when I put great effort into the research, it's disheartening to think it may not be distributed because the truth or my opinion made someone feel bad.
There's another possibility that Medium is managing its payouts to meet budgetary concerns and simply boosting fewer stories, which is my experience. When Medium first announced its new guidelines, I felt like Br'er Rabbit was being thrown into a briar patch and had fantastic results the first month. Since then, without a change in production and hopefully quality, things have dropped considerably. I could always write about nice topics, but I wouldn't be writing about history anymore, would I?
