Misperceptions
Dear Blue,
With all due respect, I think you have this a bit backwards.
I drive a General Motors car. It’s not up to me to adapt to General Motors. It’s up to them to produce a car I want to buy.
But my relationship with Medium is not of consumer to producer. I am a member. In fact, I was one of the first. I pay them. I provide them with free material. As a member, I have a right to point out what I see as flaws so they can improve.
Really, I have only two basic complaints about Medium.
The first is the text editor. It allows only simple right, center, and left justification. As a poet, that just isn’t enough. It needs to allow random line spacing and line breaks to be really useful. I know this can be done as I have encountered it on other sites. They should fix it.
Second is the News feed. Instead of allowing easy access to stories I want, it continually forces stories I don’t want, but which Medium wants to promote, on me. This is annoying as a reader. I doubt that a technical fix involving better filters could be all that difficult.
I have tried most other poetry platforms. Medium is the best, but it could be better.
As for Medium publications like Poets Unlimited, I think I have been published in all that accept poetry. My only complaint with them is that some are very slow to respond. Submissions seem to disappear down a rabbit hole. I understand that editors are volunteers, have lives and, are busy. I am well-satisfied with most of them. I just wish they could move faster.
I know that I am not just a malcontent because many others have written in support of my concerns.
I think Medium is a typical Internet company that has a good idea, but hasn’t figured out how to make money off of it. Therefore, it keeps making changes, not all of which make sense to me or others.
I don’t think I bitch. I suggest.
If Medium wants to be a community of ideas and not just another Twitter or Facebook, it needs to grow up. I simply give advice on how I think best to do that.
As a poet, I have been generally satisfied with Medium. Poetry is a tiny subset of all readers in general. I don’t expect miracles. I have managed to get to 3,300 followers, which has surprised and delighted me. I am grateful for that.
Not every suggestion is a complaint. If I didn’t like it here, I wouldn’t publish here, I’m too old to suffer fools, whether individual or corporate. I simply want to see Medium improving.
To that end, I have written them many times. No response so far.
Thanks for writing,
Mike
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