Changes I’d Like to See in Medium

Nothing major, just some polishing

Curation

No, I don’t want to know why my story was not curated. What I’d like is a quicker way to see which stories have already been rejected and which are still being processed. Right now I have to click into each individual story to find out.

I like to futz with things

Why do I want this? If a story has been rejected, I’m going to take another look to see if I can improve it. Not for curation, it’s too late for that, but to increase the chances that future readers might share it. I’d like to know that sooner rather than later.

Separate stories from Responses

When I click Stories from the first menu link, I get my real stories jumbled in with Responses. I can go to Profile or Stats to see just stories, but why not separate these everywhere?

Separate the stats too. I’d like to know how many people have read my stories separate from responses. There is no way to know that now.

Bypass the IOS bot helper

That’s a very nice tool, but sometimes I know what I am after and just want to go to Help. Sure, I can just open a browser for Help.Medium.com, but why not let me get out of the Bot quickly if it isn’t what I need?

If the same tool is in the Android app, do the same there.

Fix the app interface

Wherever you are, one click should take you back to a known starting point. Backing out to get to Home is very bad design.

Make it more obvious that the apps are not giving you everything you’d get in a browser

I didn’t even know what I was missing until I was several weeks in and had read more documentation. Speaking of that…

Make a test for new writers

Not a writing test. A site usage and test. Do they think they get paid for claps or for time? Can they delete a story they wrote last month and republish it today? That kind of test.

Have a cheaper option for people who just want to read and comment

It’s nice that a free membership gets people some stories. How about something half way between that and the $5.00 membership? Maybe $2 or $3 dollars for people who only want to read and comment but not write paid stories? Maybe you’ve tried this before, but if not, it might work.

One more thing to consider

The next generation of writers probably will not own a desktop computer. Sooner or later, and hopefully sooner, you need to get everything into the phone and tablet apps/browsers.

How about you? What changes would help you?