I just found out that my account at Medium has been suspended/canceled for something I said about trans people. I don't know what it was because they don't tell you. Apart from some disappointment that I can't start writing there regularly (maybe Substack is a better place to try), I am not greatly put out by this. I read fewer and fewer…
I just found out that my account at Medium has been suspended/canceled for something I said about trans people. I don't know what it was because they don't tell you. Apart from some disappointment that I can't start writing there regularly (maybe Substack is a better place to try), I am not greatly put out by this. I read fewer and fewer people on Medium - and I can keep reading you on Substack. And if they are that reactionary and anti-free speech, they would be a dangerous place to start a writing career. Actually, I do regret losing all the followers and the smart people I have interacted with.
Ps. I was told that riddle about the doctor by the boy next door when I was six years old (in 1975) and to my great shame, I was stumped by it. I was being raised by a Second Wave
Feminist, so I felt like I had failed a pretty important test.
"And if they are that reactionary and anti-free speech, they would be a dangerous place to start a writing career"
That's exactly how I'm feeling right now. I'm so angry and disappointed. I've put a lot of time and effort into medium and the thought that it could all be wiped away by some indoctrinated puritan is infuriating.
And yeah, a few of my female friends were equally horrified that they didn't get it. It's amazing how subtle bias can be and how pervasive the societal influence is. What I find most frustrating is the ideologues who, when confronted with evidence of their anti-woman bias, don't care. And, in fact, just double down.
I put a lot of effort into writing there too. I had about a thousand followers, nothing like yours but there was a lot of mutual respect there, a lot of people who shared my frustration with the mediocrity and fads of the software industry, and the banning really shocked me. I had never paid attention to "trans" outside my disgust with the pronouns.
But from all evidence they are getting steadily worse. While they ban people for polite and inconsequential pushback on the most absurd parts of the ideology, they do nothing about writers like Queer Kari whose articles are raw and murderous hate from one end to the other.
Medium now makes Quora look good.
I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do but unless you want to start ranting about TERFs and "transphobia," I'd be ready to bail.
Steve, you've had lots of fair warning. Chris Fox & I have talked about how we got taken down and I told y'all about my convo with Tony Stubblefield a few months ago...I wrote him a polite email asking if they're allowing conversation about trans (I forget how exactly I put it) and he replied that transphobia had no place on Medium. So you should know by now that they're cracking down on free speech, unless it's woke enough. This should only be a semi-surprise. I saw the handwriting on the way when my second article got suspended which was when I moved to Substack, and also copied over what I thought were my best Medium articles (maybe half of what I published) on my Wix blog. Wix won't take me down unless I threaten to shoot someone or something. They, Wordpress and others are just hosters. I'm sure they have their limits. Not sure what would happen if NAMBLA tried to up a Wordpress website....
Actually, WordPress.com accounts are the WordPress CMS combined with hosting. Very limited customizations and plugins - compared to installing it yourself on an independent hosting account. Most WordPress sites are hosted on independent hosting providers. Content rules vary among hosting providers.
My hosting provider of choice for my clients (I'm a graphic designer, web dev) is Scala Hosting. They don't allow porn, torrents, proxies, download oriented sites, irc, hacking tools. I couldn't find anything on what types of content they allow. I don't think they have a content policy, per se. It's pretty simple to go independent if you are technical.
I don't think they do either, although I never tested it. Transgenderism is the real litmus test for woke censorship - you can get deplatformed & censored for other anti-woke sentiments but AFAIK it's by far mostly common for gender ideology critics. I was on WordPress for ten years and transgenderism wasn't even on my radar. I left because it's a pain in the ass to use, I've been on Wix for the last 2-3 years and it's much easier. So far, no problems with my gender-critical articles.
Many call WordPress a community, I don't know if I would call it that. Maybe I missed the community part. I consider it more of a content hosting platform and my experience with them for about 25 years is that they don't do censorship. Wix & WordPress & others don't get caught up in woke censorship scandals AFAIK. You pay them to host your website/blog and it's to their best interests to not bump you off until you offer kiddie porn, hack, express virulent racist opinions (probably beyond your typical MAGA crap) or threaten to kill the President. I remember NAMBLA was challenged back in the '90s finding someone to host them when they got kicked off whatever platform they were on due to community pressure.
Anyway, hosting sites are one thing, being able to promote your content is quite another, which is why we may find online neighbours we don't have much in common with politically if we join them. Still looking to explore Rumble, the right-wing alternative to YouTube now being infiltrated by non-woke lefties kicked off by fanatics.
Never really understood why Medium kicked off paying members for expressing seriously non-phobic opinions they don't like, when at the time Ev Williams was allegedly paying for Medium out of pocket.
Vocal kicking me off I get - I'd recently gone back to a free subscription so it was no skin off either of our noses for them to do it. I was already on the verge of leaving it anyway, it wasn't a great platform for me, so it was probably no-brainer for them.
Except they get a mention in my article. I'm sure they'll change the policy after it goes viral, lol
Like I keep saying. The narrative is god. They act more like a hive mind, than individuals. Like a cult.
Also, I'm sorry about Medium but I'm glad you wrote there. That's where I found you. After reading just one of your articles, I went "OMG. I'm sane!" It was like a breath of fresh air - someone using calm rationality to think through these claims and hyperbole. I was so grateful for your writing. Still am! ;-)
Yes, indeed. You have already created a fantastic body of work on both Medium and Substack. Although you have been careful and will likely be able to continue on there indefinitely, it must be unnerving to know there is this irrational factor hanging over you like the sword of Damocles. What percentage of your work is now on Substack? Are you able to republish your Medium articles there? Would that mean not getting as many reads and exposure? I really hope your work takes off and your audience grows on Substack as much as you deserve it to. When I start writing in earnest I am hoping I will gain access to an audience commensurate with Medium's, but without the outsize influence of the Puritan Fringe.
I've been trying to think what I said that they banned me for. Today I remembered that I commented on an anti-JK Rowling article. They were saying that JK Rowling promised to march with trans people three years ago and wondering why she hadn't done it yet. They were challenging her to finally show up to a march. I commented that with all the death and rape threats JKR had received, there wasn't enough security in the world to keep her safe at a march.
I also got suspended from medium for according to them not following their “rules” related some comment I made on what they call trans articles. Medium does not provide details.
Most platforms that take you down won't. They don't want to tell you what you said 'wrong' because they know their reasons are really lame and indefensible.
I just found out that my account at Medium has been suspended/canceled for something I said about trans people. I don't know what it was because they don't tell you. Apart from some disappointment that I can't start writing there regularly (maybe Substack is a better place to try), I am not greatly put out by this. I read fewer and fewer people on Medium - and I can keep reading you on Substack. And if they are that reactionary and anti-free speech, they would be a dangerous place to start a writing career. Actually, I do regret losing all the followers and the smart people I have interacted with.
Ps. I was told that riddle about the doctor by the boy next door when I was six years old (in 1975) and to my great shame, I was stumped by it. I was being raised by a Second Wave
Feminist, so I felt like I had failed a pretty important test.
"And if they are that reactionary and anti-free speech, they would be a dangerous place to start a writing career"
That's exactly how I'm feeling right now. I'm so angry and disappointed. I've put a lot of time and effort into medium and the thought that it could all be wiped away by some indoctrinated puritan is infuriating.
And yeah, a few of my female friends were equally horrified that they didn't get it. It's amazing how subtle bias can be and how pervasive the societal influence is. What I find most frustrating is the ideologues who, when confronted with evidence of their anti-woman bias, don't care. And, in fact, just double down.
Download your writing.
I put a lot of effort into writing there too. I had about a thousand followers, nothing like yours but there was a lot of mutual respect there, a lot of people who shared my frustration with the mediocrity and fads of the software industry, and the banning really shocked me. I had never paid attention to "trans" outside my disgust with the pronouns.
But from all evidence they are getting steadily worse. While they ban people for polite and inconsequential pushback on the most absurd parts of the ideology, they do nothing about writers like Queer Kari whose articles are raw and murderous hate from one end to the other.
Medium now makes Quora look good.
I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do but unless you want to start ranting about TERFs and "transphobia," I'd be ready to bail.
Steve, you've had lots of fair warning. Chris Fox & I have talked about how we got taken down and I told y'all about my convo with Tony Stubblefield a few months ago...I wrote him a polite email asking if they're allowing conversation about trans (I forget how exactly I put it) and he replied that transphobia had no place on Medium. So you should know by now that they're cracking down on free speech, unless it's woke enough. This should only be a semi-surprise. I saw the handwriting on the way when my second article got suspended which was when I moved to Substack, and also copied over what I thought were my best Medium articles (maybe half of what I published) on my Wix blog. Wix won't take me down unless I threaten to shoot someone or something. They, Wordpress and others are just hosters. I'm sure they have their limits. Not sure what would happen if NAMBLA tried to up a Wordpress website....
Actually, WordPress.com accounts are the WordPress CMS combined with hosting. Very limited customizations and plugins - compared to installing it yourself on an independent hosting account. Most WordPress sites are hosted on independent hosting providers. Content rules vary among hosting providers.
My hosting provider of choice for my clients (I'm a graphic designer, web dev) is Scala Hosting. They don't allow porn, torrents, proxies, download oriented sites, irc, hacking tools. I couldn't find anything on what types of content they allow. I don't think they have a content policy, per se. It's pretty simple to go independent if you are technical.
I don't think they do either, although I never tested it. Transgenderism is the real litmus test for woke censorship - you can get deplatformed & censored for other anti-woke sentiments but AFAIK it's by far mostly common for gender ideology critics. I was on WordPress for ten years and transgenderism wasn't even on my radar. I left because it's a pain in the ass to use, I've been on Wix for the last 2-3 years and it's much easier. So far, no problems with my gender-critical articles.
That's a relief. WordPress is definitely geared toward developers like myself and it's logic is non-intuitive.
Anyway, just pointing out there are alternatives for Steve if he wants to leave Medium and set up his own website.
Many call WordPress a community, I don't know if I would call it that. Maybe I missed the community part. I consider it more of a content hosting platform and my experience with them for about 25 years is that they don't do censorship. Wix & WordPress & others don't get caught up in woke censorship scandals AFAIK. You pay them to host your website/blog and it's to their best interests to not bump you off until you offer kiddie porn, hack, express virulent racist opinions (probably beyond your typical MAGA crap) or threaten to kill the President. I remember NAMBLA was challenged back in the '90s finding someone to host them when they got kicked off whatever platform they were on due to community pressure.
Anyway, hosting sites are one thing, being able to promote your content is quite another, which is why we may find online neighbours we don't have much in common with politically if we join them. Still looking to explore Rumble, the right-wing alternative to YouTube now being infiltrated by non-woke lefties kicked off by fanatics.
Never really understood why Medium kicked off paying members for expressing seriously non-phobic opinions they don't like, when at the time Ev Williams was allegedly paying for Medium out of pocket.
Vocal kicking me off I get - I'd recently gone back to a free subscription so it was no skin off either of our noses for them to do it. I was already on the verge of leaving it anyway, it wasn't a great platform for me, so it was probably no-brainer for them.
Except they get a mention in my article. I'm sure they'll change the policy after it goes viral, lol
Like I keep saying. The narrative is god. They act more like a hive mind, than individuals. Like a cult.
Also, I'm sorry about Medium but I'm glad you wrote there. That's where I found you. After reading just one of your articles, I went "OMG. I'm sane!" It was like a breath of fresh air - someone using calm rationality to think through these claims and hyperbole. I was so grateful for your writing. Still am! ;-)
Yes, indeed. You have already created a fantastic body of work on both Medium and Substack. Although you have been careful and will likely be able to continue on there indefinitely, it must be unnerving to know there is this irrational factor hanging over you like the sword of Damocles. What percentage of your work is now on Substack? Are you able to republish your Medium articles there? Would that mean not getting as many reads and exposure? I really hope your work takes off and your audience grows on Substack as much as you deserve it to. When I start writing in earnest I am hoping I will gain access to an audience commensurate with Medium's, but without the outsize influence of the Puritan Fringe.
Mine too, but that was my intent.
The email was signed by some moron with pronouns.
Perfect
I've been trying to think what I said that they banned me for. Today I remembered that I commented on an anti-JK Rowling article. They were saying that JK Rowling promised to march with trans people three years ago and wondering why she hadn't done it yet. They were challenging her to finally show up to a march. I commented that with all the death and rape threats JKR had received, there wasn't enough security in the world to keep her safe at a march.
I also got suspended from medium for according to them not following their “rules” related some comment I made on what they call trans articles. Medium does not provide details.
If they send you a "trans" article recommendation and you respond with "I don't want recommendations on this topic," a checkbox, you will be banned.
You don't even need to write anything.
Most platforms that take you down won't. They don't want to tell you what you said 'wrong' because they know their reasons are really lame and indefensible.
Was it recent?