How technology missteps can turn loyal contributors into unintended casualties. Welcome to the bizarre world of Medium.
How Medium alienates its authentic writers while allowing spammers and scammers run like wild horses
For the last two years, I have been an advocate for this platform, dedicating my time to fighting spam and scams, mentoring others, sharing my life lessons, and curating content from good writers with integrity.
Ironically, I now find myself labeled as a spammer by the very platform I sought to protect — a platform that has repeatedly failed to safeguard its own community, including its leadership accounts.
Scott Lamb, Medium’s VP, recently published a post proclaiming their new measures to combat spam, abuse, and manipulation of their Partner Program.
His words were passionate, but for many, including myself, the actions described don’t match the reality we experience. While some applauded his rhetoric, others — myself included — couldn’t ignore the glaring contradictions.
His post may have gone viral, but the comments revealed an uncomfortable truth: the real problem goes beyond the authentic writers unfairly being targeted but with Medium’s own mismanagement and reliance on immature AI tools.
Here is my 2 cent badge to show you the reality of Medium.com!
These tools, it seems, have a habit of mislabeling dedicated writers as abusers while failing to address the actual spam and scam accounts that still plague the platform.
Let me paint a quick clearer picture:
Scammers impersonated me countless times, stressed me, deceived my readers, and damaged my reputation. The same thing happened to established writers and prominent figures like former Medium director Buster Benson and even Scott himself today.
Yet, despite these ongoing issues, Medium’s response has been to penalize genuine contributors by slashing their earnings and, in some cases, suspending their accounts outright.
They don’t care about those who sell guaranteed claps, comments, and highlights in freelancing platforms and dark side of the Internet. I wrote a satire about it last year after catching some scammers while spamming our community resources. I reported it to Medium support which did nothing about it.
Sharp minds are now asking the burning question: How is it that my stories from the past few days show reads and engagement, yet suddenly have no earnings? How is that even possible?
They continue by challenging wisely, if those interactions were from scammers who have since been suspended, shouldn’t their reads, comments, and engagement have vanished along with them? Something doesn’t add up here, and it’s leaving us all scratching our heads.
Medium is home to some of the sharpest minds — writers with decades of experience managing far more complex platforms and companies.
Yet Scott’s message comes across as though it’s trying to placate them like clueless amateurs. Of course, there’s no ill intent here, but the tone reeks of desperation, a rushed attempt to address chaos without proper thought or review. And let’s be honest, it’s hard not to notice.
One smart writer captured the frustration perfectly: ‘I’ve been here for five years, and this is the worst experience I’ve had. EVERYBODY is making BUPKAS for their work.’ They dismissed the usual explanation of ‘fluctuations’ and asked directly:
‘Has Medium run out of money, decided not to pay writers, or is something preventing it? These are great questions which require proper and transparent answers.
After my retirement from healthcare sector where I spent 53 years, I was invited to this platform as a reader by my mentor Dr Mehmet Yildiz who inspired and coached for free to become a writer, editor, and publication owner. Over time, I built an audience around 4K followers and 400+ subscribers, created a Health and Science publication, and poured countless hours into elevating others’ work. Now, it feels like all that effort has been devalued.
Meanwhile, another Medium executive, Britany, is busy inviting academics to the platform, painting it as a haven for intellectuals. Yet, when I left a thoughtful and sincere response on her article, she didn’t even bother to acknowledge it. This lack of engagement speaks volumes — it feels more like empty lip service than genuine authenticity. Academics are not naive enough to fall for such simplistic and unprofessional attempts.
Scott claims Medium is addressing abuse, but the reality paints a different picture. My earnings have plummeted from a few hundred dollars per month to mere cents — not because I care about the money, but because it reflects how the platform’s systems fail to recognize authentic content.
Meanwhile, after Medium opening the doors to 77 new countries which was a good thing but a portion of people act like scammers from those countries continue to flood the platform, and my publication, Health and Science, is inundated with low-quality, AI-generated submissions hoping to make money from the MPP.
My volunteer editors and I spend hours filtering these out, yet our contributions are dismissed, and we’re left feeling disrespected and labeled as unethical by faulty algorithms. Even worse, valuable content we curate for readers is censored.
This situation isn’t just frustrating; it’s deeply disheartening and heartbreaking. To be misjudged by an immature system and lumped into the “unethical” category undermines everything I’ve worked for.
Ignoring what is matter for readers like golden opportunity of reading times as mentioned by Dr Yildiz in a response, in a desperate attempt to appear innovative and competitive with gimmicks like the ridiculous clap and highlight features prone to abuse and misuse, Medium seems to have dug itself into a deep hole — and now it’s floundering, struggling to claw its way out.
It is their problem as they created it. So, I no longer expect anything from Medium, and like many others, I’m questioning whether my precious time here is worth it. I downgraded my FoM as it did not work as advertised. I don’t think my half century long life lessons are appreciated it.
Despite all, I sincerely hope Medium will one day rise to meet the standards it claims to uphold and make the authentic writers feel at home and offer what paying readers want. Until then, I’m reevaluating my focus and considering where my efforts will be truly valued.
Here is my 2 cent story on Medium which will be a 2 million on Substack in 2026. It is properly architected and designed using universal principles and community values, not gimmicks like vanity matrices of follows, claps, or highlights.
We Are Building a Creative Support Path for Freelance Writers in 2025
We will offer customized services based on the needs of creators, freelancers, and content entrepreneurs with…medium.com
Thank you for reading my story.
If you are a new writer, please check out our updated submission guidelines before sending your first draft so that our editors can publish them quickly. Here are the links to guidelines:
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I am a retired healthcare scientist in his mid-70s, and I have several grandkids who keep me going and inspire me to write on this platform. I am also the chief editor of the Health and Science publication on Medium.com. As a giveback activity, I volunteered as an editor for Illumination publications, supporting many new writers. I will be happy to read, publish, and promote your stories. You may connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Quora, where I share stories I read. You may subscribe to my account to get my stories in your inbox when I post. You can also find my distilled content on Subtack: Health Science Research By Dr Mike Broadly.
If you are interested in being a writer for my Health and Science publication on Medium, you can send your Medium ID via our writer registration portal here.
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