Oh it’s entirely possible I missed the primary message of your article, but I don’t think I was directly responding to it. Let’s call my response riffing to a meta-point about the overall and continuing health of Medium as a platform that actually pays independent writers real money. I respect resilience, God knows these days I mostly just try to put one foot in front of the other. I’m a disabled combat veteran and single father to children with significant needs. Shannon’s strength of purpose does resonate with me. I have read with interest quite a few of Shannon’s articles documenting her journey, and I will continue to do so. In terms of the sniping and jealousy of her, to paraphrase a person I know, we writers as a whole are indeed an intensely competitive, deeply insecure, graspingly jealous and bitchy lot. LOL. It goes with the territory.

Several people have talked recently about drops in engagements with their articles and have attributed it to Medium’s tinkering with its formulas. Perhaps. But I think writers would be better served by looking within. Medium has proven there is a diverse audience out there hungry for quality and original writing. The open question is whether or not it is sustainable, and if it is (as I presume we all hope) then how? If we’re talking about advice to writers, which does go to the message of your article, my point is writers will likely see better results over the long term by putting their trust more in quality and originality than on volume. I know that is what will keep my interest as a reader.

All this said, I sincerely wish every writer on Medium the best of success, including Shannon and you!

Regards,

— Matt