11 Comments
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Untrickled by Michelle Teheux's avatar

Well, that sucks. Mine had dwindled down to $11.09, but it used to be a pretty healthy chunk. I actively recruited other writers to Medium when this program was new. I know a helluva lot of writers, after 30 years in journalism. I took the time to teach a lot of people how to do this.

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William Spivey's avatar

I didn't even get an email. To me this means another broken promise. The loss due to ending the referral program only costs me $15 monthly. The change in the Boosting program cost me thousands. It used to be my worst story earned from $25-50. Now, some stories barely reach $5, this with 47,000 followers of which I believe a small percentage are real. Diversification in platforms is the only solution.

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Elena Freshman Schumann's avatar

Yes, you have a right to complain about the Cuts in Referrals, now that this platform has decided to monatize. IE it has decided to make money. However, should this platform actually be monatized in the first place??? Anyone is free to charge for the goods and/or services they provide, that is capitalizm and I am not against it, but I liked this platform better when no one was charging money or profiting of it. I thought it could be used for a free flow of ideas which does not include profit. I guess I was kind of naive about that. Elena

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Untrickled by Michelle Teheux's avatar

I don't know how you buy your bananas, but I need to be paid for my work.

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Elena Freshman Schumann's avatar

You miss the point. This forum is voicing opinions, not work. No one is asking you to voice your opinions. Charging for voicing ones's opinions limits the people that are going hear those opinions. You are less likely to hear someone's opinion if they charge for it verses it being free. Again you can charge, but you have to be aware that you are limiting your audience to a great extent. You may not care, but if you do care how many people listen to you, then you will not charge.

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Untrickled by Michelle Teheux's avatar

To the contrary, this forum is work, not voicing opinions. It is a big part of my livelihood. I can and do voice my opinion for free in multiple ways and places, but I am here because I require money to live.

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Ossiana Tepfenhart's avatar

Same.

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Elena Freshman Schumann's avatar

You are correct in that my definition of "work" is very limited. However, You are still limiting the amount of people who are willing to read what you saying because they are being charged for it. You have every right to charge, that is the American Way in our capitalistic system, and I have argued that capitalizm, which does have a lot of problems, is perhaps the best we can do, provided that there should be certain safeguards built into the system to prevent it from causing people to suffer needlessly. I am NOT a communist, that model does NOT work and allows totalitarianism to flourish.

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Patrick B. Stewart's avatar

Right before they ended the program, I made around $50 each month just from the referral bonuses. Now, I'm down to $8.50. I'm sad that the users who have supported me for months will no longer be able to. I can't even look up WHO the reference members are to try and move them to Substack to support me. I mean, can't I just be given the user names so I can reach out? What a beating.

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Ossiana Tepfenhart's avatar

It's rough. I'm praying that Medium listens

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Apr 2
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Elena Freshman Schumann's avatar

I guess I replied to the wrong Post. SORRY. I was replying to a post about the current deportations of undocumented workers. I am apologize for the mistake.

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