Excellent article, Dave! Very insightful and thought provoking.

I had made similar observations about Wildfire and Haque over the past several years. I follow both and have noticed a repetitive quality to their writing (mostly Haque's; a small part of me wonders whether he's actually AI since so much of his writing seems to rely on re-rearranging the same inflammatory key words and phrases in a creative and articulate way. I also find it curious that not ONCE have I ever read a response from him to any of the comments to his articles).

"For aspiring top writers, find a topic that you enjoy, has some degree of mass appeal, and makes a particular Medium demographic to feel good about itself."

While I agree with this tactic in theory, in practice I think there are substantial pitfalls inherent in this platform. In 2019, I was a top writer in Politics. In fact, for a nice stretch of time (maybe 6 mos?) ALL of my articles were consistently curated on Medium and appeared on the splash page. I received a nifty, congratulatory note from Medium's curators thanking me for my "high quality" writing and a free link to share my story with family/friends who are non-subscribers/lurkers.

But then a funny thing happened. In the spring of 2020, Medium suddenly stopped curating my articles. It happened immediately after I published one article, in particular, that questioned certain aspects of public health agencies’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly afterward, one of my articles was flagged for "misinformation." From there, it was all downhill: multiple articles removed for "misinformation” and threats of reprisals. I'm fairly certain that I'm now one step away from being placed on Medium's equivalent of a "No Fly List."

At this point, I receive far fewer views and claps for any of my articles, even though I personally feel that my writing has improved considerably over the years.

Creating content that has "mass appeal" on a platform that is so shamelessly biased, both politically and socially, is a yeoman's chore. My sense is that the only way to make any sizable "Medium demographic" feel good about itself is to (a) bash Trump, (b) bash Republicans, (c) bash white people, (d) glorify people of color, (e) bash the vaccine hesitant, (f) amplify COVID-19 fears, and (g) embrace transgender fundamentalism. Of course there are other demographics on this platform, but they are demonstrably smaller by comparison.

I, too. have noticed far less interesting and thought provoking content on Medium over the past several years. This could either be due to the fact that their lurker/subscriber ration is low, or perhaps it simply reflects the fact that more interesting and thought provoking people have departed Medium in search of greener pastures (Substack, for example).

What Medium does provide (that Substack does not) is a high level of promotion and exposure to people who aren't subscribers. Once upon a time, this opportunity held a great deal of value for me. At this point, however, I fear Medium has outlived its usefulness for my purposes. I will no longer waste my time trying to become a top writer, but I salute those who have the courage, patience, and copious time to make this effort!