I am as guilty as everyone else. I have written articles about writing on Medium. Tonight, as I sat down to write this article, it was going to be a complaint about all the articles about writing on Medium. Then I realized that subject was tired too.

Let me preface this by saying I am an utterly sold-out fan of Medium. I love writing here. I also love reading here. I do not want to see this site disappear because I think it is unique, and some of the best writers I have read have been right here on Medium.

The problem is that it just does not seem sustainable. The constant influx of stories written about writing will eventually destroy the platform. I know it is a community of writers, and I understand that most paying subscribers are writers. However, some people are not writers or only dabble in writing who pay their subscription fee because it is a great place to read fresh and engaging content.

Those people should be our true audience. If they leave, then we are writers writing for one another and trying to bargain claps and fans and compete for a slice of a shrinking pie. Readers will disappear if the content continues to be primarily geared toward writing, specifically writing on Medium.

Think about a law firm that specializes in business law. They are so large that they contract with another firm to handle their in-house family law issues (marriage, divorce, etc.). The family law firm is also quite large so the reciprocate and use the business law firm for all their employment and business law. These firms focus so much on providing (selling) their services back and forth that no one is serving outside clients anymore. It works great for a time, but without the influx of outside clients purchasing the services of either firm, it is destined to fail. I know that it is a bad metaphor, but it is late and the best I can do.

I want to see Medium grow. I want it to be the premier place on the web that people come to find articles about life, love, careers, technology, parenting, and to peek into the lives of other people. I want to recommend Medium to my friends and family, who are not writers. I want to shout to everyone that they can find the most exceptional writing on the internet, in one spot, for a mere $5.00 a month.

I get it, I really do. I want to know how other writers are making money, how they are marketing, and how I stack up compared to them. I have written stuff, recently, about writing here. I read what others write. Some of it is helpful, some not so much. Regardless of the quality of the writing, if it is about writing on Medium, it seems to perform well. We all want our articles to do well, and most of us hope to make money while doing it. Hence, the cycle continues.

That is why I think the site will eventually self-destruct. Maybe it won’t close down, but it will fall well short of its potential. That is why I worry when my feed and the publications I follow are increasingly filled with the same version of “How I Made $$$$$ Writing on Medium,” or “Do these 5 Things to Triple Your Earnings.”

As I have said, I am as guilty as anyone. I write this stuff. I read this stuff. However, if Medium becomes a site that only holds appeal for writers, then that pie we all want a piece of will shrink. I will continue to write about writing on Medium, but I hope to move more toward the personal reasons why or what I have gained by being a reader here. I hope this is just a trend and that it will fade.

We need great publications, like The Writing Cooperative, as a resource for writers. Publications like Med Daily that are designed specifically for writers are valuable as well. These are places that writers can come to study and hone their own craft and marketing. It is the entirety of Medium being overrun with the new genre of “Writing About Writing on Medium.”

We certainly need to be free to write whatever we want. Without that essential freedom, this platform would not be what it is. As long as the articles about writing continue to outperform virtually all other types of writing, people will keep writing it. I don’t want to see us destroy something with so much potential.

Imagine how much larger the pie would be if the majority of people who came to Medium were here to read the fabulous content. Those that are here to write would see explosive growth in their earnings and be motivated to write ever-greater content.

Yes, I know the irony of writing about writers who write too much writing about Medium. Seriously, I get the joke.

Now, I am off to read some of the stories I saved as scrolled through today. The meaningful, enlightening, hard-hitting, funny, sad, beautiful work people are sharing because they are artists and words are their palette.