10 ways Medium could improve

I had a right old rant about this when they decided to get rid of their profile customisation options.

I believe every site should off a dark mode (and their mobile app already does) yet I was given an answer that basically summed up as 'no'.

For long-form reading, studies have actually shown that light mode can be more harmful for the eyes and for people like me who struggle with light sensitivity, this is a big issue.

They've given so much power to publication editors once again and I get that people work for free in their own time to be 'editors' for some of the bigger publications.

Yet these editors haven't got the experience to actually edit and this leads to badly curated publications full of rubbish articles and clickbait nonsense.

Publications should have higher standards than just the average person checking submitted articles.

The big publications on Medium have once again been given quite a bit of power with the new 'boost' feature, which is a shame because they're the most boring providers of articles going.

The majority of them as I mentioned above due to the editors are usually full of clickbait nonsense about how I can make £1000 a month on Medium.

They've now removed the stats for views, reads and claps in favour of a more stream-lined look, which simple includes claps and responses.

The majority of users on Medium are trying to use it to make some sort of income, not being able to see at a glance which articles are doing well and which aren't is an issue.

As I mentioned, they made the interesting decision to change the stats and how writers are paid out on their articles, yet this has led to further confusion due to Medium not being able to accurately report stats.

Supposedly we get paid based on the amount of time that paid members are on our articles, yet I have multiple instances of paid members clapping/responding but not getting any views...

Does this then impact how much I'm paid? Who knows...

I don't need to know how to get to £100, £1000 or even £10,000 a month on Medium.

Why?

Because I've already read 10,000 other articles all saying the same thing.

I understand that the non-fiction articles are always going to perform better, but there is a growing need for showcasing short-stories and poetry.

Medium already has a good reputation for non-fiction articles doing well, why not give a showcase to some of the fantastic short-stories and poetry.

I accidentally clicked on a UX based article and since then all I've been able to see if more articles talking about Python...

This despite clearing my history and recommendations.

If you're going to have an algorithm show me what I want, at least make sure it works.

This isn't to say the community is bad, but I have never read any of the 'staff picks' articles that they've recommended.

I'd rather read articles that the people I follow recommend.

Chances are, I'm more likely to read the articles they recommend because I'm already a fan of their writing and they get their inspiration from somewhere.

Touchy subject this one, I understand that not having adverts is a big boost for the users of Medium and it's likely they would need to include them to start paying writers who get external views.

Yet I feel for those who do get a better reading away from Medium should get something for that.

Medium already got rid of payments with affiliate links, so they certainly should bring something back to allow for some reward for external views.