The Witness Chronicles August 16, 2023
Leaving Medium, piles of indictments, writing challenges and plans
My other writing platform, Medium, changed their algorithms and I saw my revenue plunge by 90%, and their explanation was basically an insult from their CEO. Late last night the Georgia election interference indictments dropped and Trump now has 18 co-defendants there. This is a very different challenge and I get into why. Finally, an essay on writing about the good and the bad and balance.
Because I have chosen to leave Medium as a writer, with the occasional exception, my political writing will originate here on Wednesdays. You’ll still also get The Grasshopper on Sundays where the focus is more on the writing lifestyle.
An Open Letter To My Medium Readers
Yes, this is one of those moving on things
If there is anything you learn as you get older, it is that things change, and yesterday things changed for me as a Medium writer. Medium’s CEO made changes which can only be described as self-serving and, to my mind, cynical. The algorithm that determines how writers get compensated changed drastically, resulting in a 90% drop in my earnings.
When I questioned this on the Mastodon thread, this was Tony’s response:
“I think all of your writing is good and I'm happy when I read it.
But the new payments do better reflect that their is a big gap between things people are happy to have read and things people are happy to have paid to read.
You could flip your frame here and say that it's not that you are no longer wanted or not valued as a person, but just that Medium is able to provide you readers, but not able to provide you enough super fans to warrant the prior payment level.”
I have no idea what this means. If you read me, you know I write opinion and observation pieces about politics and climate issues, things that are directly affecting our daily lives in significant ways. Medium has always rewarded writers when members read our work. Now, apparently, things like claps count more than the quality of the writing or the subject matter.
I have written 1041 articles here, by any standards a significant body of work. I would not have done this if I didn’t feel I was providing value to readers. But as a writer, I will not work for free, and neither should you. My writing over the years has attracted 6000+ followers, readers interested enough to choose to see my work. That is intensely gratifying, but, it seems, not to Medium.
18 months ago I started a Substack newsletter called The Grasshopper where I write about the writing lifestyle. It was created to give me a more personal outlet for a different kind of writing than what I do (did) here. That’s where you’ll find me, for better or worse.
I’m angry, frustrated, and sad about the way this has been handled. It is entirely unclear what Medium wants, or why they are doing this. Their algorithms were supposed to be calculations based on the relationship between what we write and who reads it. Now there appears to be some kind of value judgment being applied.
Sorry, but that does not work for me.
The Indictment Pile Has Changed
Trump now has eighteen co-conspirators and cannot pardon himself
It’s been a strange week and it’s only Wednesday. Another week, another long list of criminal indictments. But these are different. For one thing they are being prosecuted under Georgia law in a Georgia Court. This has major ramifications for Trump and they are not good.
As mentioned above, Trump, if elected, cannot pardon himself if convicted, nor can he end an ongoing state trial. He would not have jurisdiction to do so. And, under Georgia state law, the governor cannot pardon him either, though the current governor would be unlikely to do so, not being a big fan.
The trial will be televised, unlike the federal court trials, which undoubtedly has news junkies like me drooling at the prospect of Trump and his lawyers trying to restrain him from outbursts and the very real possibility of contempt of court. Video records are very powerful as evidenced by the extensive footage of the January Sixth insurrection that has resulted in hundreds of convictions and jail sentences for Trump’s goons.
Then there are those eighteen co-conspirators, a cross section of crackpot lawyers, political operatives, and a bunch of local Trump crazies who are accused of impersonating electors, falsifying records, and intimidating witnesses with death threats.
All are being prosecuted under Georgia RICO Acts designed to go after organized crime, originally in New York, and effectively used to prosecute organized crime. One prominent user of these laws in New York was Rudy Guiliani. He is co-conspirator number one. I guess he learned from the crime bosses he once prosecuted.
Or actually did not learn anything.
As with everything the former President is involved in, this will devolve into an ongoing circus that will last months or even years. When combined with the ongoing federal trials, he will be embroiled in trials through the 2024 election cycle and buried by legal fees that already have passed $40 million. Add on the costs for his eighteen buddies and the Republican National Committee and his various PACs who have been footing the bills will be broke.
Yesterday Trump announced he will be introducing a study of the 2020 election results that he says will conclusively prove he won the election. It should be interesting though there will be nothing we have not heard ad nauseam. It would be cool if they produced it as a comic book.
Then maybe Trump could read it. Nah.
It’s too easy to make cynical jokes about this stuff but unfortunately it is dead serious and threatens the very core of our democracy, a democracy the Republican Party has all but declared dead, in their shameful unwillingness to stand up to a charlatan and his cronies.
This is the real American Tragedy unfolding here and it both scares and alarms me, because so many are willing to pretend his rants have substance and are justified. Lives have already been lost and ruined by this man’s monumental ego. And he is already inciting more.
Some pundits are predicting that as these events pile up and unfold almost hourly, they will begin to chip away at his popularity and ability to raise funds. Though he has been incredibly successful at leveraging these indictments to fan the flames and suck money from supporters, his legal bills may turn out to nullify those successes. They have just gotten started.
Meanwhile, there is no governing going on in Washington at a time when we face another existential crisis, climate change. In the long run, that will dwarf this political circus and its leader, a man who knows he is vulnerable and trying to bluster his way out of convictions that will come.
My admiration goes to the prosecutors and judges and juries brave enough to stand up for the rule of law that is the backbone of the American experiment, the idea that no one is above that law. No one.
Writing About Bad Things, and Good Things
Finding balance in an unbalanced world
My writing covers a territory somewhere between the calamity of the world right now, on multiple levels, and a corresponding contemplation of all the good in the world. But that work appears in two different online places and there is the risk of being labeled a ‘doom and gloom’ writer for the former.
The problem is I’m not, at heart, a doomer, I’m trying to be a responsible observer and voice in my political and climate-related stories. Despite the beliefs of some, climate change, for example, is ubiquitous, very real, and increasingly hard to comprehend in its scope. And politics, yikes!
On the other side, with my newsletter The Grasshopper, I explore the inner and outer life of a writer coming to grips with being a creative and an observer. The two kinds of work help me achieve a degree of personal balance, but I often fear that readers in one place simply see me as the bearer of bad tidings.
To some degree this amounts to shooting the messenger when you don’t like the news they bring or the ideas they offer. That’s the risk I take and it is a tiny one compared to those many face on an existential basis.
Writing is hard work and the trick is to make it look easy. But that can be said of anything in life where we try to find grace in the midst of personal and public challenges.
Today, algorithmic changes seem to have suddenly demoted my more controversial writing, with earnings plummeting overnight while readership has not changed appreciably. I am semi-retired so this has a direct effect on my quality of life despite having built a large following here and on my newsletter platform.
It’s a Sunday in summer and unlike many places the weather is perfect. My preference would not be to deal with these issues when I could be out enjoying our remarkable planet. And that will be my choice a little later today. But I can’t help but feel that something is out of balance and I don’t understand it.
Writers of all kinds seek clarity when we write, even when the topics are murky and the waters muddied. Especially in those circumstances. I don’t really know if today’s changes represent a major direction change for Medium. Their explanations, though sincere, are pretty obtuse about how they see the future of the platform and what it offers to readers.
In my experience here, which spans several years and over a thousand articles, I have seen growing appreciation by readers and a corresponding increase to revenue, so seeing a precipitous drop with no understandable reason feels a bit like getting fired from a job you love. It is, frankly, painful.
On the other side of the balance thing are the comments, claps, and other responses in support of my work on both platforms. But I have to admit I am questioning my commitment to doing this despite loving almost every minute of it. It is one of the risks of writing online that we are subject to changes beyond our control.
One of the great gifts of a platform like Medium is our ability as writers to write what we want and earn from it if readers read. Another is the instant feedback from those readers, something that was very rare in traditional publishing where your work goes out there into the ether and may never be heard from again.
You see top writers here peeling off and starting Substack newsletters or similar things because of this serendipitous lack of control. I’ve tried to balance my writing life by this kind of expansion while staying with both places to write. But there is a difference between the two platforms.
The newsletter is completely mine as long as I don’t incite violence or promote things like racism or sexual misconduct. But Medium is a different kind of business and sometimes I think the model has become too complicated by trying to regulate what readers see and by directing them to topics seen by mysterious editors as more reader-friendly.
At least that’s how it appears to me today and it is throwing off the balance I have worked to achieve between my interests and offering readers thought-provoking content, which they appear to appreciate.
In various advice articles we are told to simplify, avoiding long sentences and paragraphs, to leave lots of white space, and to use lots of subheads to work with those who skim rather than read. At least that was the emphasis from a usability and user experience point of view.
I’m not sure I know what is seen as desirable anymore. I made a choice years ago to write and format as I saw fit rather than adhering to the standards suggested above, and it did not hurt my readership. In fact, when I see what readers highlight, they don’t choose the simplistic stuff, they like a well-turned phrase even if it hits hard. Often, especially if it hits hard.
That’s what’s on my mind this morning after this disconcerting news. I have decisions to make and need clarity before I make them. Unfortunately I’m not certain I will find it. Which really bothers me as both a writer and a reader.
Two of these articles, the first and the third, appeared first in Medium. The second is original to The Witness Chronicles, which will be the case moving forward.
We’re having a strange summer, though nothing like what other places are experiencing. Late last night I lay in bed listening to a massive thunderstorm that dropped 2.72” of rain in about two hours, a deluge. That’s closer to normal for the entire month of August.
Besides my Medium disappointment my family has been dealing with our 92 year mother recuperating in a nursing home so she can return to her home, the house I grew up in. It’s a familiar story to anyone with aging parents. You learn to deal with a lot of new things and costs.
I’m revamping my writing plans once again and may start doing business freelance writing again. I’m mixed about that but I just lost a fairly significant chunk of writing revenue. So it goes, as Vonnegut would say.
Did you write today?
Martin Edic
2269 words
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Thanks for another batch Martin. As always, you've given me much to process. i have an idea that you might wish to consider. There are points in our lives that, occurring at an impressionable time, that shape our personality and determine our approach to events. Although he was a less than fervent church attender, the young Donald Trump was exposed to Norman Vincent Peale and the "Power of Positive Thinking" he espoused. The idea that Trump twisted that theme into "I can do no wrong." would explain his self-serving approach to all he does. Just athought.