Jessica, THANK YOU for saying this. Last month, I was flabbergasted when Medium de-curated a piece of mine in PSILY, accusing it of being "clickbait" after tens of thousands of people clicked on it. I spent DAYS working on it. It was an emotional intelligence piece, a feminist piece, a sociologically-informed piece (I did my M.A. in sociology, so I wasn't just blowing smoke.), all wrapped up in a relatable personal story. Over 100 people have written to tell me how much the story resonated, how helpful it was for them in terms of overcoming codependence, etc. One day, it got 37k views. The next, Medium tamped it down.

There are other stories on the platform whose success was allowed to run wild without anyone slamming on the brakes; I've seen pieces with upwards of 60k or 100k claps (which is great, and I support other writers' success)... but mine was bodyslammed when it hit about 12k. As if Medium actively wanted to thwart its performance. It was my first majorly viral story, and I felt like I was getting penalized for its success. I'm sorry you've apparently also experienced this.

I thought Medium wanted stories of substance that readers found meaningful. Now I don't know what it wants, and I hesitate now to publish more of my hard work here. If Medium wants some pieces to crash into a glass ceiling, that's the platform's prerogative, but a little bit of transparency would go a long way in helping us feel valued.