Avoid These Medium Sins

To maintain credibility and be taken seriously

Photo by Stephany Lorena on Unsplash

Some Mediumites are clueless …

Or operate on my writing comes first AT ALL times mentality.

We all have moments when we’re unaware. Or not at our best. So, for the ones who mean well but have annoying tendencies on this platform.

And for the folks who can’t be bothered with authentic engagement with other writers.

I’m here — with a vampire bite of insight.

There are Medium sins; that makes people not want to engage with your writing.

Here are the ones that boil my blood!

Thou Shalt Not Clap For An Article Thou Haven’t Read

The notifications and stats show you clapped, but the number of reads didn’t change. Read ratio actually decreased; because your applause is low quality when pretending to read a story you haven’t engaged with.

Thus, doesn’t count for anything. Except now, you’re added — as a fake fan.

Did you know when you clap for a story you haven’t read, you’re not encouraging the algorithm to recommend this piece?

The more users give bogus claps, the more they mess this up for the writer.

You’re not doing the author a favor by clapping for no good reason.

Usually, applause happens after a performance ends. Sometimes the audience claps before a performance, to hype the crowd and give encouragement. This helps plays and concerts, adding to the excitement and positive energy of a show.

In Medium’s world, this tampers with performance. It’s hard for the story to rebound after several premature, fake interactions.

You’re raining hard on the — my article was published party.

At times there’s the possibility Medium’s stats aren’t updating. Yet, becomes quite obvious when the same result happens every time you clap, for some reason.

People will catch on if this is a behavior you practice.

Because it’s interesting how stats magically resolve when the next person applauds. Huh — what a coincidence!