Pros
Previously a great community.
Some good writers.
Good UX.
Cons
Huge pay cut January 2025, with 'hidden' reason (which was a decision to cut money to most writers).
Nomination team and publication owners completely in the dark about decision to cut pay to writers
Writers in the dark constantly emailing and asking what's going on. It was a horrible situation. Currently a mass exodus to Substack, with writers fed up and angry.
Curation Team members are in the dark about how hard it is to be a nominator, but there's NO conversation between Curation Team and Nomination Team. One Curation team member was in the Medium Slack channel and was very defensive of the Medium team.
Curation Team gets paid for their work. Nomination Team and pub editors may not get paid, but will work anyway and put work forward to try to get it boosted. Pub editors are doing a lot of free work and resentful.
Culture of 'secrecy' and hierarchy is unhealthy. Why aren't the contract employees doing boost nomination invited to participate at offsites?
Always feel like Medium is looking for ways to take any money away from writers they can.
Medium may have a vision, but if they do, they aren't sharing it. It feels like an exclusive club and an us vs. them culture. Writers on Medium are not valued now.
Some writers using AI have been paid thousands of dollars and chosen for features in the Staff Picks.
Pubs are currently losing strength, and pub owners are disheartened and miserable.