Medium's writer pay fiasco: here's what I've learned

Boy, how would you like to be a Medium employee coming back to your email inbox today after a relaxing weekend?

One day you’re roasting weenies by the pool, the next you’re being e-screamed-at by an endless string of enraged writers who’ve seen their pay disintegrate overnight.

Over the course of about a year and half, Medium has gone from somewhere you could actually make a living as a writer to a complete disaster.

Last week, the site’s VP of content, Scott Lamb, wrote this post explaining that Medium was suspending a bunch of Partner Program accounts and tweaking its algorithm to reward genuwiiiiine human beings.

The only problem?

The “tweak” completely turned off the spigot for … everyone?

Lamb’s post now has 1,100 replies, most along the lines of: “What on earth have you done?!?!”

Stories that should be earning many dollars are now earning very few cents, and it’s been radio silence from the executive team for the past couple of days.

Here’s what I’ve been able to figure out so far.