Thank you for sharing this very helpful list. I am a new writer, though not so young in age terms, but in mind and energy! I am writing not much in this period because I am focused on my new coming website and profession.

However, I read everyday Medium writers' articles to understand the atmosphere of this platform and what I can write and expect from it.

During Summer, I joined the MPPF looking for some directions about the paid system on Medium.

Thanks to your article and to the email that I just received, today, I felt relieved. If you are wondering why, here’s the reason:

I noticed since the end of August, polemic and defeatist voices and articles, which made me feel uncomfortable. In fact, I joined Medium and the group with a lot of enthusiasm, but soon after, with all those complains on the FB group, about Medium new polices — regarding publishing, curation, and paying system as portrayed in those weird articles — , I felt demotivated.

I was really disappointed while, on the other hand, I was willing to read them as misleading because I wanted to believe in Medium democratic standards. I was aware that they could have been written with only an apparent understanding and sympathy towards new joining writers, but in facts, with a malignant intent to manipulate them.

I saw this writer like Pinocchio’s fox and I stopped to participate actively to the group, because I did not like all those questions about how much money and how many claps one received, well camouflaged with nice words… it all seemed forced and weird, if not quite intrusive.

I was only wondering why Medium was not intervening or how could the majority of authors not reading between the lines of what he was publishing!

Then, I started to read articles from other writers, especially lady writers, addressing directly some “young”, “glamourous”, “male” etc writer, which made me recognize that person, even though they never, rightly so, exposed his name. Honestly, being one of the new writers and being Italian, I thought that it all must have been a coincidence and a misunderstanding.

Where I saw polemic speeches transformed in articles, maybe they were just real general articles with a line in common. That’s why I blamed my social Italian sense in seeing a connection, a “question and answer” game going on the platform.

Still, I am not 100% sure that you’re referring to the same person, although I take it as a confirmation to my uncomfortable feelings about that man’s articles. Actually, at a certain point, I even felt that he was trying to get our personal infos, misleading us in order to gain some sort of advantages. Maybe, he was even selling those results to analytic companies, being the writer involved in business and economics.

Now, I hope we are talking about the same person, otherwise, I probably wrote a bunch of conspiring words and allegations, which I wouldn’t have written had I not recognized a connection between my perceivings and what I came to read this morning.

Therefore, disregard my comment if I did not get it right or take it as an evidence of the damage these kind of writers can originate in new members… After all, words and cleverness are the most damage inflicting weapons, when well used!

Of course, this morning, I left his group because this new acknowledgement did not made me feel rude in doing it and I did not want to appear an associate of his!

Thank you, very much.