Medium

Medium

I wanted to write, and my wife wrote on the Medium platform since March of 2024, so you know, I wanted to write too.

Is The System Broken or Are They Going Broke

Okay, my wife warned me that they didn't pay very well. They were no bonuses, like they have on Vocal, for Top Story or the Leaderboard, but I wanted to try it all the same. Perhaps, I didn't want my wife to get ahead of me. Strange and competitive spousal arrangement.

The Sign Up

So I went on my own personal computer, and signed up, and paid my five dollars, and away we went. I started to interact, and I found a lot of nice people and read a lot of very interesting articles. and got a handful of followers, but wait. Was that it? Was my wife wrong? I certainly thought so. I was having a really good time, until, I went to join the Partners Program.

Joining The Partners Program

You had to fill out the paperwork, name, email address, and what you had hoped to write about, called your profile, and the subjects you liked to write about, and then it said, you had to have five articles published, and I did that, but then interestingly enough they said I would have to have been a paying member of Medium for at least two plus months. So when I had that accomplished, I went through the process again, and when I hit submit, again, this message popped up.

Our Partners Program Is Paused Right Now

What is that suppose to mean? The Partners Program is Paused Right Now. Who would want to write if they were not rewarded for it in some way. I mean some people might want to write, just for the joy of writing. However, I am not one of them.

And what does that mean exactly? Paused? Does that mean you write for free? What does two plus months mean? Two months, three months, or does it mean six months? Does that mean that your subscription fee makes other people money, but you are unable to earn? Seems like a system that is broken to me.

I admit, that I write for profit, the way my wife does and many other people on these writing platforms do. At this time in my life, I am going on seventy-one years of age, and I admit that I like to be rewarded for my efforts, and what is wrong with that?

It is a little bit like the gardening I do. I till the ground, I plant the seeds, I weed and water the garden, and watch it grow, and at the end of it, I get to harvest food. That is my reward.

My wife says the contests are like gambling. You write the article, you enter the story in the specific contests, and you see if you win anything. I said okay, I like gambling, and it was like pulling the handle on the one armed bandit, also known as the slot machine. However, it was better, you didn't have to put your hard earned money into the machine to play. You could enter the contests all you want, for one subscription fee, and write your heart out, and pull that one armed bandit, all you like. It wasn't going to get more than my subscription fee out of me.

I have made Top Story a few times, and that was very exciting, and I have made the Leaderboard a few times during my tenure on Vocal, and that was equally exciting.

Back To Medium

One thing I noticed is that under people's list of followers, people did not have a star or heart next to their name. My wife says they are people who left Medium, since the insurrection. I asked my wife what she meant by the insurrection, and she explained that in January 2025, they had yet another earnings drop. She called it the insurrection because it happened on January 6, 2025. Get the pun. She noticed a mass exodus, after that.

Long And The Short

The long and the short of it, was Medium's system is broke down,or malfunctioning, or were they going broke, and it boils down to be the same thing.

Broken?

The Medium Partners Program is Paused. That was good enough for me. I cancelled my Medium membership, and it will be nothing but a pleasant memory to me. Or not so pleasant, I lost money.

A certian amount of followers, I could deal with, but "paused" is something I can't find my way out of. I simply can't pay to write, on a platform that offers no reward for my efforts.

Do you write on Medium? Did you know of the changes that have taken place? Did you know Medium paused their Partners Program?

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