About a month ago, I wrote an advice article for Medium.
I didn’t expect Medium to change its mind. While I have seen writers like Walter Rhein, Dylan Combellick, and Nadin Brzezinski start from almost zero and build a large Medium following, I, after six years, still languish as a bottom writer. I have zero creds for giving anyone advice. But I gave Medium a piece of my mind anyways.
One suggestion was to limit each member to follow only 50 writers or pubs. My reasoning was unlimited follows sets up quid-pro-quo deals between writers. If I comment-and-clap on your stuff and you comment-and-clap on my stuff, then both our stuff gets more attention from the Medium algorithms and we get more exposure in the feeds. We help each other out, right? In my case, this really has not worked. Rather I suggested Medium emphasize that readers follow writers because readers like reading these writers.
But I was following 507 writers and pubs. There’s no way I could follow that many writers. I should at least take my own advice, right? So I did a cull on my follows.
There are about 20 writers I regularly read. I kept these writers.
I also kept another 10 or so writers who I like yet do not show up on my feed for reasons I do not understand. Two of these writers have interesting ideas that I have yet to grok. For example, Frederick Bott wants us to move into a “solar energy” economy and Stephen Yearwood wants us to move into a “job rights” economy. I need to keep reading these writers. Maybe I will see more of their work on my feed. Maybe I will understand them later.
There were a few writers I expected to be on my follow list. But they weren’t. Maybe I forgot to make the follow connection. Or maybe they muted/blocked me because I was annoying them with my alternative democracy — and some automated software removed them from my follow list.
I kept the writers who had shown a little interest in my alternative democracy (the TDG). Maybe I can eventually convince them to take the next step in this democracy some day.
My quid-pro-quo deals were either lop-sided in the other writer’s favor or we just lost interest in each other’s work. I culled many of these writers.
And there were writers that seem to be no longer active on Medium. I culled most of them as well.
Now I am down to following only 209 writers. A 59% cull!
So what has changed?
Medium has two main options for building a feed. I mostly partake in my “For You” option. Previously, it had about 70% follows and 30% new writers, which I found to be a nice balance. With the cull, that ratio is reversed.
With more new writers showing up on my feeds, I am taking a good look at their titles. If the title looks like another anti-Trump, anti-Republican, anti-MAGA rant, I give it a pass. If the title looks like Dear Abby for the Democratic Party, I give it a pass. After all, if these ways had worked, we would have fixed American democracy by 2017 by the latest.
If the title looks like a new slant on politics, I might risk a read. With the cull, I have found some articles about how toppling the Republican regime will only give the Democratic Party a green light to govern nothingly again. Some people are finally figuring this out. While I do leave some claps and a comment on these articles, I can’t get these thinkers into the TDG yet.
But no more quid-pro-quo deals
If someone asks some good TDG questions, I will bring that person into my follow fold. A pretend interest in the TDG will no longer work.
And there is a small chance that your content could be interesting enough for me to displace some of the time I am giving to the 30 writers who currently entertain and educate me.
So what’s next?
I’ll keep the 209 follows for now. But I can see at least 50 of them are on shaky ground. These writers will likely be culled in the next round, probably in September.
I am down to writing one Medium article per week. Not much point to do more writing when I get only 10 readers per article. I need only keep the TDG showing up on Medium feeds.
I still enjoy reading my 30 or so favorite writers. I enjoy dialoguing with Sam Young and Benjamin David Steele, who I regard as real political innovators.
I find it amazing that many political writers on Medium are still putting their faith in the Democratic Party than in themselves.
I find it amazing that many people still believe we can bend the will of the overly ambitious people who aspire to govern us.
Some day, enough of us average citizens will recognize that we can’t fix things by complaining, voting, and protesting. The TDG need just 1% of the population to start this movement off.
And we don’t need the permission from the political elite, the wealthy, the academics, the media, the civil authorities, or even the majority of our neighbors to start building the TDG.
Just find three neighbors and start!
Published on Medium 2025
