Chapter 1: The Engagement Dilemma

As many are aware, Medium's CEO Tony Stubblebine and Product Manager Buster Benson have a strong aversion to tactics such as "manufactured engagement" and "growth hacking." There's a prevailing theory—perhaps even a conspiracy theory—circulating among Medium's community spaces that the recent significant removal of writers was largely due to these growth hacking strategies.

What exactly is growth hacking? It can be characterized as either mass reciprocal reading or indiscriminate reading of various accounts, typically with the expectation of reciprocation. More accurately, however, it refers to reciprocal or extensive engagement. It's important to note that silent reading, which doesn't involve any interaction, does not offer any rewards to the writers whose content is consumed. This lack of engagement is why Tony uses the term "manufactured engagement" instead of "manufactured reading."

Silent reads provide minimal rewards to the authors, as they cannot be reciprocated unless you show some form of acknowledgment, like clapping, to indicate you've engaged with the content.

With these considerations in mind, around mid-March, after a five-month hiatus, I decided to explore a hypothesis inspired by a comment from Tony in October 2023. As noted in his comment, he didn’t reference pure reading, since it’s silent and thus cannot be reciprocated.

How did I conduct this exploration? It wasn’t a deliberate experiment at first; rather, I recognized it as such in hindsight. Since the steep drop in my earnings in late September, I had been pondering the implications of Tony's remarks and others like them.

He mentioned that if you send numerous comments, it signals to them that your reads carry less weight. However, he didn’t clarify the time frame for those comments, leaving the engagement threshold ambiguous. If there were a defined daily engagement limit, many might try to stay just under it, potentially making reciprocal engagement feel even less authentic.

To investigate the potential effects of massive engagement on my own account, I engaged with more writers than ever in a short span, reading extensively, providing feedback, and interacting with their content without the usual shortcuts. I also upgraded to the FoM tier to see if there would be any noticeable impact on my earnings.

The outcome? While my views and reads surged, the average rewards per read declined significantly, and none of my pieces received boosts, including my last two short stories that I felt were particularly strong.

This suggests a possible penalty for extensive engagement, resulting in lower rewards per read—not necessarily for the authors whose work I consumed, but almost certainly for my own stories. The authors I read are likely not penalized for their most ardent readers, yet it seems my rewards diminished with increased engagement.

This forms a sort of negative feedback loop regarding engagement: as you engage with more readers, your average rewards per read may decrease. It’s a clever, albeit subtle, system.

How will I address this? Simply put, I won’t. There’s nothing to counteract; I’ll just reduce my reading and engagement. I may limit myself to ten reads a day or focus solely on the writers I truly admire. Additionally, I might experiment with silent reading, which, regrettably, may affect your earnings.

I believe Medium's algorithm is sophisticated enough to distinguish between reciprocal and non-reciprocal reads, so we shouldn’t be penalized for silent engagement. I also intend to write more, and importantly, to write better.

Section 1.1: Engaging in Silence

The concept of silent reading and its impact on engagement metrics is critical. With the increasing focus on meaningful interactions, it raises questions about how we can engage genuinely without the pressure of reciprocation.

Subsection 1.1.1: Understanding the Algorithm

Chapter 2: Videos to Enhance Understanding

In the video titled "If They Don't Reciprocate Your Effort, Leave 'Em Behind," the discussion revolves around the importance of mutual engagement in relationships and how unreciprocated efforts can affect your overall experience.

The video "How to Handle Someone Not Reciprocating Your Feelings" offers insights into managing situations where your feelings are not reciprocated, providing practical tips for maintaining emotional well-being.