Facebook Complaints
Facebook Medium Groups Are Full Of Complaints, Demands, and Aggrieved People. With No Etiquette From New Writers.
Too many new Medium members don’t understand the nature of the platform: write well and be found by interacting with other writers. Facebook Medium groups have rules of engagement and it’s a good idea to find out what they are.
My FINAL RANT for 2023 in one of my favourite Facebook Medium group
HEADS UP! No link bombs on this post. (that means “do not post a link to your newest story here!”
The BIG question for 2024: Does asking for engagement on a post, such as reading, highlighting, and commenting, goes against Medium’s policy or not?
In the words of Tony Stubblebine himself: It goes against the purpose of what Medium pays for, so please don’t complain to us if it doesn’t work or the minor rewards go away.
We are seeing far too many demanding posts about views/reads and some things need to be spelled out. Especially for those who have joined Medium recently and don’t understand the etiquette of sharing Medium links in a Facebook group.
Here’s an example of a copy/paste link bomb (CPLB) which is repeated over and over again in one of my favourite groups:
i have all done with your article check it plz response from XXXX. and its your turn do same plz… am waiting for your response on my article thank you so much dear… here is mine (no, I am not including his story link)
I took the time to look into the story which drew this CPLB (copy/paste link bomb) to see the responses XXXX had himself left, when demanding a reciprocal interaction.
Ha! XXXX left no claps, no comment, and had highlighted two or three sentences in the story. Not what you would deem to be fully engaged. Those highlights could be done in about 30 secs.
On another story XXXX left the same CPLB, and on the story to which he was responding he left this comment: “medium is the best platform for blogging…”, highlighted a couple of sentences, and no claps.
Mind you, he got no engagement from either of the writers he had just bombed and then laid out his demand.
I took the time to explore his profile, because he is doing himself no favours in the group with posts like this:
“Hey…check my statistics..🥺💔 read properly
Please don’t do this to me. 🥺I’m right with everyone You can check but this attitude is not right. Plz read clap response highlight genuinely… I will do same🥰✨and you know i always fully reciprocate to all…”
It turns out he joined Medium in December 2023, started as a Friend of Medium and joined the Facebook group in December 2023. He also publishes on Medium under a different name from his Facebook profile name.
And there we have it: brand new to Medium and brand new to the Facebook group — with absolutely no idea of how interacting in the Medium groups works. Absolutely no idea of how Friends of Medium works, either.
Certainly with no idea that everyone else can easily check out his “responses” because he tells the writer to look for XXXX as the relevant name but fails to say he is a FOM.
Begging for Reads and Claps — Trying to Make Money
There are dozens of begging posts in Facebook Medium groups, pleading for at least 30 secs of reading time…… because the writers are not making any money.
Read ratios are all over the place because of the influx of people who didn’t join Medium simply to write. It’s going to get worse!
A well crafted headline and a compelling image linked to a powerful first paragraph is what they don’t have or understand.
Facebook Has Its Own Rules About Spamming As Well. My Experience As A Moderator Made That Clear.
I removed a spammer from a group of 12,000 members because of his Link bombing 💣 and rorting the Medium payments system by getting extraordinary visibility by demanding 50x claps on every link he dropped.
Not many know that Facebook counts link bombing as spam and refuses to publish many of them when posted as a comment to an opening post. Admin has to be active to make sure new members quickly learn this is not acceptable and they will get reported and moderated if it continues
Generic comments on Medium itself don’t do them any favour either like ‘good read’, ‘amazingly written’, ‘liked it’, and ‘fantastic writing’.
Quote from one Facebook Medium group member. “when I say and ask for claps, I mean reading and clapping both. It feels like some of the people in this group do not read, and just push up 50 claps and zooms off. I mean claps though essential, reading is what matters. Please open your tabs and play the entire story if you cannot read. Or else there is no point having 2k-3k claps when your reads are just 10 or 20.”
Understanding Why Some Of The Complaints Arise Within The Group
- Part of the problem arises when someone deploys their own link, saying "fully engaged " when they have not yet done it. They may do it up to an hour later, but it's not there when you check right after they say they are fully engaged.
“fully engaged” means having read the whole story (not a 30 second browse), given some claps (5–50 whatever you like), highlighted a sentence or two, and used that highlighted section to respond to the story with a comment. You can highlight without commenting on that exact section as well.
You can also use the highlighted section to share the story to other platforms like LinkedIn, or Twitter — and help support the writer if you wish.
Don't say "fully engaged " until you have actually done it.
2. Clicking on the link constitutes a view. Coming back to read and comment later screws up the algorithm and MPP because your second visit doesn't get added to the statistics of the first one. A 30sec read now and a two minute read later doesn’t add up to lots of reading time.
Buster Benson told you all about this.
3. Medium is designed for you to read, highlight, comment when you FIRST open the link. Too many people don't know this, and it's killing you in the view/read ratios.
Don't open links when you haven't got the time to properly read and engage.
4. Sending your links via DM to members of the Facebook group, as a link bomb 💣 through Facebook Messenger, is SPAM.
It breaks the NO SPAM rules of any group.
It means the Moderators cannot do their job, by vetting and approving (or rejecting) posts by members.
In the past, we have seen members sanctioned for spamming. Now it being done by DM.
5. Medium's TOS will not countenance that behaviour. Their algorithm is able to detect patterns of behaviour, including an unusual level of interaction being sourced from Facebook on a single writer's account.
Alex Benzer
6. Earnings are capped.
Your reading can’t pay out more than you pay for your membership (so $5/month or $15 on the Friend Tier). Actually, it’s a little less than that because Medium needs money for their own stuff.
Your membership fee is a hot 🔥 potato being passed around, gradually being peeled away every time you read someone's story until there's almost nothing left. The MPP algorithm is highly sophisticated and you will just get burned if you keep trying to manipulate it.
Tony Stubblebine wrote about in one of the biggest Facebook Medium groups.
What are our obligations in a Facebook Medium group to those who drop links, particularly if there is no apparent connection to the opening post?
If you offer to read and engage with every story dropped in a link under your opening post in a thread, you are obliged to do that.
Regardless of whether their link is to a story which is irrelevant to yours, is a topic of no interest to you, comes in a copy/paste link bomb you have already seen 20 times in the same group.
if you made the offer you are obliged to read and engage.
There are 13,000 people in just one group where I am an active Member, and many of them never post a link or comment. They are passive members. Others are very active and invite discussion.
*Some write on topics which do not interest us.
*Some members will never read your stories
*Some hold views which we find objectionable.
*Some writers only want to engage on specific topics
Being Engaged As A Reader, A Fan, or just A Viewer on Medium.
You have to be engaged for 30 seconds before Medium registers you as a reader. There’s plenty of time in 30sec to have a quick look and decide what you want to do
- If you stay any longer, you start to earn for them, which includes the first 30 secs. as paid reading time.
- If you leave before the 30sec is up, it counts only as a view.
- If you highlight, clap once, or comment with a single word, you are a fan of the story. Even within that 30 sec window.
- If it’s a new writer to you and you become a fan of the story, you have also become a fan of the writer, whether you follow or not.
- You are NOT obliged to take any action other than to see if you want to interact with that writer and their topics, unless you have committed yourself by your own Facebook actions to do more.
Once you do decide to take action after that 30sec view, it’s customary to read the whole story, clap as much or little as you feel is appropriate, and leave a genuine comment, especially if you have highlighted part of the story.
Don’t copy/paste your comments in Medium and don’t use AI — because it’s very easy for writers to report them to Medium.
It’s time to pull up your big girl’s pants, stop crying, and start using the native Medium platform as it is intended.
Remember: no link bombs on this post.
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