Boost Nominators Can Only Nominate, They Can’t Boost Anything

Clearing up some enduring misconceptions about Medium’s latest program

A lot has happened this week that I’m excited to talk to you about. That’s good because it’s only Saturday, and that means I’m getting ahead on writing this newsletter.

First of all, I recently read this wonderful article by

Linda Caroll

in which she responds to the accusation that boost nominators “only nominate their friends.” I think this criticism comes out of a widespread misconception about the program.

What everyone needs to understand is that boost nominators don’t have the power to boost anything. They can only NOMINATE something for consideration. That’s a huge difference. Ultimately, boost nominators aren’t the decision makers. All we do is put a story on the desk of a decision maker and that decision maker makes the choice.

IT’S. NOT. UP. TO. US!

I wish it was, but I also can understand why it shouldn’t be.

The benefit of oversight

I can appreciate the need for multiple levels of approval. If it was just a one-step process and I had the power to boost anything I saw without accountability, then, I’d probably only boost my own stuff. Do I want more people to see my work? Yes. Any writer who tells you otherwise is lying.

If I did have unquestioned boosting authority then, yes, people would have something to complain about. But that’s not the way it is. Somebody once said something about how absolute power tends to corrupt…

It’s better when a couple people are involved in an evaluation process. That encourages everyone to be diligent about doing a good job. In fact, it’s the only way a program like this could possibly work. So, even though I don’t like it when something I nominate isn’t accepted, I understand the reasoning behind this system.

Ignorant criticisms

I, too, have had conversations with people who are not involved with the program but who think they’re entitled to berate me with their ignorant assumptions. I instantly lose respect for somebody when they insist they’re right even when I explain to them the reality of their misunderstanding. I’ll block people for this. I don’t have time for it.

The idea that a boost nominator could boost “his/her friends” and therefore the program is “unfair” is absurd. All you can do is nominate. The reality is that if you don’t nominate good stories, they won’t be boosted. You have to do the job, and it’s not an easy job.

I spend a lot of time with writers fixing up their work because I want to see their message receive greater attention. There have been a few times when it’s taken a week or two to get an article up to shape (for example, if the author has a busy work schedule and can only address my suggestions on the weekends).

Writing is an undercompensated profession

There’s a LOT of uncompensated labor that goes into writing. The only thing that’s sustaining about picking writing as a career path is that you feel you’re making a contribution to bringing some decency into the world. The second you betray that with thinking about ways to “game the system” everything comes crashing down.

The only one who gets gamed is you.

Even so, the armchair quarterbacks are content to bleat about how corrupt you are at all times. It gets a little tiresome, but that’s the internet for you. Come to think of it, they’re probably just bots.

My “Super Nomination” proposal

The last thing I’ll mention about boost is that one change I’d like to see is to give the nominators one “super nomination” per month that was basically an instant approval. Obviously, there would still have to be some oversight to make sure the nominator wasn’t submitting something that went against the standards of the platform, but those details could be worked out.

But again, if “super nomination” was implemented, I’d only use it on one of my articles. Again, I’m just being honest, and that might be why such a proposal hasn’t been implemented.

Feedback would help me be a more impactful writer

The good news is that the power of boost seems to have diluted a little bit in the last month, at least in terms of earnings. In all fairness, I think boosted stories earned too much for a couple months. October was my first month since boost began that a boosted story wasn’t my top earner.

Still, I’d REALLY like to understand why a story that has a 79% read ratio and generated 123 comments didn’t get boosted? What’s the rationale? It would be extremely helpful to me to have this information. Heck, if I had that information, maybe I could write something that breaks the internet. Isn’t that the objective here?

I’ve had a couple articles that have had read ratios in the mid to high 80s that haven’t been taken. It’s not easy to write something with a read ratio that high. That data indicates you’re NAILING it. Isn’t that the kind of content the platform wants?

Here’s the link in case you want to read that one. If you think you know why it wasn’t boosted, then please tell me (It wasn’t the awesome featured image!).

The one that got away

So, again, I think it’s a positive that Medium appears to be moving away from a “boost or bust” model, but I’d really love to have the feedback on why some of my extremely popular stories aren’t boosted. The problem is that it feels like I’m being discouraged from writing those stories, and I’m not sure that’s the intent of the platform. My readers clearly like stories like that, so some clarity would be welcome.

For example, I really wanted this one to get boosted.

Once You’re Down in a Rural Town You’re Never Getting Back Up

Maybe I’ll just write the essence of the story again from another angle and see what happens on the next go round.

I’m starting to catch on to Substack

This week, I was delighted to discover some other great Medium Writers on Substack, those include

Kristina God

and

Michelle Teheux

. I already knew that

Alison Acheson

, and

David Perlmutter

were here. I’ve only been dabbling in Substack for the last 6 months, and discovering the community side makes me want to up my game.

Check out Kristina’s interview with Zulie Rane and Sinem Guenel. I appreciated their insights. These two young women made me feel like a dinosaur. I found it interesting to see their business approach to writing, and it’s really working for them.

I get the sense that I’ve taken the long way around on my writing journey, but a lot of the good practices these great young writers talk about are things I’ve started to figure out. I’m turning into a grumpy “get off my lawn” type of guy who still thinks he has to lick a stamp in order to send in a submission (Did any of you ever have to lick a stamp?).

At the same time as I say that, I think there’s value to an “old school” approach to writing... ya know, the typewriter class. I have been trying to recruit a friend who is a couple decades older than me, and he’s too scared of scams to even start accounts on places like Medium or Substack... which is a shame because he’d do SO WELL here!

I think young people are really hungry for the insight of compassionate people from older generations. All young people ever get are the endless, incessant criticisms from the exploitative people of older generations (the exploitative ones aren’t afraid of internet scams because they’re running the internet scams, that’s why they’re over-represented).

I’m nimble on my feet for a dinosaur

So, anyway, I feel it’s my niche to take what I know from being a member of the “typewriter class” and fusing it with the business model of the young writers who are crushing it today. I can’t tell them anything about how to succeed on Medium, but I can offer good advice about how to deal with back pain (that might sound funny now, but it’s going to get less funny as you get older, I guarantee it).

I’m running out of space and I still have a lot to say. Maybe I’ll start doing another newsletter per week. We’ll see. As of right now, I’m excited by some new things I can try in order to elevate my Substack game. I’ll muse on that for a week and have more for you next Monday. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to leave your wonderful questions!

Also, I think I’ll dig up one of my “make money writing on Medium” articles from 3-5 years ago to share next time. I’ll provide a friend link, and then go through it and tell you why all the advice is wrong. That should be fun.