I am going to give some basic statistics for five articles I’ve published in the past few months. The results provide insights into the psychology of Medium readers. Please note that all links go to my blog, not the original Medium articles.
A New Model for the Business World
Views: 10; Reads: 5; Claps: 33; Claps per Read: 7; Revenue $1.38
This article re-introduces a 24-part series I published in February. Rather than complaining about how the corporate world exploits workers, the environment, and governments needing tax revenue, I offered Medium readers an alternative form of commerce. This is a “building” article.
Let’s not make any judgment on the Medium stats just yet. I am a bottom writer after all.
Consultation Workshop
Views: 55; Reads: 34; Claps: 243; Claps per read: 8; Revenue $3.20
This is another building article. It is about how to build a consultative attitude for individuals and groups. We all need more consultation in our lives, right?
We can see that this article did better than the first article. But I cheated. I gave a shoutout to 59 Medium contributors who I thought would be interested in this article. Without this shoutout, the traction in this second building article would have been significantly less.
Views: 67; Reads: 47; Claps: 243; Claps per read: 5; Revenue $8.68
This is my first bashing article for this study. Notice that the traction is much better than the two building articles. I did not use any tricks to find additional readers. I just let the title and graphic bring them in.
Bashing the Pro-Palestinian Encampments
Views: 62; Reads: 42; Claps: 163; Claps per read: 4; Revenue $5.99
This is my second bashing article. Again, better traction than either of my building articles. Again, no tricks.
My two bashing articles are “attacking” left-wing politics. Note that the claps per read is smaller than my building articles, signifying that, however I lured readers into this article, most did not like what I was saying.
Views: 124; Reads: 62; Claps: 73; Claps per read: 1; Revenue $7.42
By the title, this article seems to suggest that I am bashing MAGA. So it too got more traction than my two building articles. But this article takes an unusual twist. It provides a logical, political reason for MAGA to support their messiah. The low “claps per reader” signifies most Medium readers did not like that conclusion. Methinks they wanted me to bash the MAGA movement. The title sure gave them the impression I was going to do that.
Comparing Building to Bashing
In 2024, I have offered Medium readers two new building topics. First is my replacement commerce. Second is my consultation workshop. Both can improve the human condition. Both are worthy of investigation and discussion. Yet these articles with building titles fare poorly against my articles with bashing titles.
When we compare the stats of these five articles, it seems Medium readers like bashing over building.
Bashing, bashing, and more bashing
There were many Medium articles about bashing Trump, the Republican Party, and the MAGA movement. This theme is still popular.
And there were Medium articles bashing Joe Biden and his slide into old age, which didn’t start during the debate of June 28.
There were Medium articles about bashing the articles that bashed Joe Biden and his slide into old age.
And there were articles about bashing the 30% of Americans who usually don’t vote. How could they be so stupid as not to vote against Mr. Trump? Right?
Another Example of Building
Since 2019, I have offered Medium readers an alternative democracy. In this democracy, psychopaths would not rise that high. In this democracy, capable politicians entering age-related illnesses would be gracefully retired at an appropriate time. In this democracy, politicians straying into corruption would be “unelected” within a year. Again, these ideas are worthy of investigation and discussion — because the current system has unequivocally failed to address these issues.
But this alternative democracy is about building. With my five years of Medium writing, my choice to prioritize building over bashing has left me relegated to the status of “bottom writer.”
Conclusion
These results suggest Medium readers prefer bashing over building. This is not easy news to accept. We are not as enlightened as we think we are.
Even though this study’s small sample size and my bottom writer status might be conducive to ignoring these results, I still have an unpopular question that needs asking:
“When do we — the people — start building?”
More "Building" Articles that failed on Medium
Statistics, the TDG, & “The Consultancy”
Concept Review: Sociocracy
The TDG Could Use Some Helpers
Building the TDG Need not be a Civil War
Published on Medium 2024
