Agree! I also block people who don't allow comments on Medium. There is one in particular. She likes to leave disparaging comments on other people's articles but no-one can comment on hers. Grossly unfair. I tried private messaging her to ask why. Guess what? No response.
Hi Steff, I just threw a bit of a wobbly the other night and deactivated Medium and Twitter. I will probably return to both in a week or so, but I need to focus and I felt they were pulling me in different directions, as well as Medium not being my favourite place a lot of the time. It's too easy to just click the link if I still have the accounts active, and I wanted to give my brain a break from them both. Thank you for noticing I had upped stakes and coming looking :)
I pay to support writers work that I enjoy or otherwise find worthwhile. I'm not attached enough to the idea that my thoughts about an article are important enough to pay to make them.
I can't read minds but it seems possible that pay to comment is about limiting comments to people who generally agree with you (subscribers) rather than marketing.
It's often difficult to discern the difference in trolls and honest disagreement in hopes of honest discussion. I won't name the tribes or individuals, but we know the ones where disagreement is automatically treated as troll and hidden.
Yes, it could also be about limiting dissent, but since writers don't make much money from writing, I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt :)
I do not agree that it is difficult to discern trolls. I pretty much always know instantly if they are sealioning or otherwise arguing in bad faith - and just one response from me and their response to that will seal it.
I use the true definition of trolling, and do not consider those who disagree with me - even robustly - to be necessarily trolling. In a piece I wrote about how parents having input into the school curriculum is not book banning, I fielded a lot of comments from people who were - simply - completely incorrect. They kept repeating the same claims and putting words in my my mouth. But I knew they were arguing in good faith, and were well meaning, so I just kept presenting my points for clarification. I hid one commenter, but later went back and unhid her because again, I realised that though wrong, and repetitive, she was sincere.
In short, I can tell a troll from a mile away, like every other danger or nuisance in life, we evolve to spot them.
I don't check to see if only "paid" peeps can comment before I read and to get around that I post on Notes with the @ for the person that wrote the post. They still block unless paid and I feel that I made a comment whether they see it or not. I can't afford all the ones I subscribe to on Substack. Many good and great writers there.
You said "But actually physically hiding all comments from those who don’t pay? Ensuring that unless you cough up cold hard cash you cannot even read what other people have to say?
That strikes me as elitist as well as petty, punitive and controlling. And I won’t reward those traits with my time either."
Do I understand correctly that you're OK with the marketing tactic of allowing only paid subs to comment, but not with the marketing tactic of allowing only paid subs to read the comments?
I would think it can be a good tactic if your subscriber base is big enough. Comments are often very interesting. On Medium, I have seen many articles where the comments were more interesting than the article.
Yep, that's my take. Writers have to make money somehow, if you can convince people to pay for the right to write a comment, more power to you! And yes, often the comments are fascinating and add to the article.
I think Substack doesn't offer the possibility to make the post for paid subscribers and the comments for everybody. It's either free everything or paid everything.
Well, I recently saw a writer here who had hidden comments but not the article, but on another article you could read the comments, but not comment unless you were a paid subscriber. Don't want to point any fingers :) It seemed strange to me, perhaps it was a glitch.
For the article, I know a way, because you can start the paywall where you want. But I don’t know how to make comments read and not write. Curious about this!
I never hide comments on a public forum. If I didnt like the comments, then I shouldn't be throwing opinions out in public.
However, if I made my substack a paid subscription only then those who pay have the rights to comment and they are the only ones who have the rights to full access to read including all comments.
On Medium it's different because it's a paid subscription to read the whole of Medium and therefore no comments should be out of bounds. Maybe those without a subscription on Medium shouldn't be allowed to comment let alone write an article and make money.
Under the new rules, you have to pay the $5/month to be eligible for the Medium Partner Program (MPP). Unless you created your account before August 1st.
Medium didn't change the requirements for accounts that were already part of the MPP. They said they might in the future.
They definitely shouldn't be able to make money on Medium without paying the tiny monthly fee - but I think they may have changed that lately? Thanks for your input, appreciated.
Agree! I also block people who don't allow comments on Medium. There is one in particular. She likes to leave disparaging comments on other people's articles but no-one can comment on hers. Grossly unfair. I tried private messaging her to ask why. Guess what? No response.
Colour me shocked :) There are a few really nasty trolls on there, including a couple of women who are honestly not right in the head.
I am just here to say I am happy to find you, your Twitter and Medium are gone? -Steff x
Hi Steff, I just threw a bit of a wobbly the other night and deactivated Medium and Twitter. I will probably return to both in a week or so, but I need to focus and I felt they were pulling me in different directions, as well as Medium not being my favourite place a lot of the time. It's too easy to just click the link if I still have the accounts active, and I wanted to give my brain a break from them both. Thank you for noticing I had upped stakes and coming looking :)
I pay to support writers work that I enjoy or otherwise find worthwhile. I'm not attached enough to the idea that my thoughts about an article are important enough to pay to make them.
I can't read minds but it seems possible that pay to comment is about limiting comments to people who generally agree with you (subscribers) rather than marketing.
It's often difficult to discern the difference in trolls and honest disagreement in hopes of honest discussion. I won't name the tribes or individuals, but we know the ones where disagreement is automatically treated as troll and hidden.
Yes, it could also be about limiting dissent, but since writers don't make much money from writing, I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt :)
I do not agree that it is difficult to discern trolls. I pretty much always know instantly if they are sealioning or otherwise arguing in bad faith - and just one response from me and their response to that will seal it.
I use the true definition of trolling, and do not consider those who disagree with me - even robustly - to be necessarily trolling. In a piece I wrote about how parents having input into the school curriculum is not book banning, I fielded a lot of comments from people who were - simply - completely incorrect. They kept repeating the same claims and putting words in my my mouth. But I knew they were arguing in good faith, and were well meaning, so I just kept presenting my points for clarification. I hid one commenter, but later went back and unhid her because again, I realised that though wrong, and repetitive, she was sincere.
In short, I can tell a troll from a mile away, like every other danger or nuisance in life, we evolve to spot them.
I don't check to see if only "paid" peeps can comment before I read and to get around that I post on Notes with the @ for the person that wrote the post. They still block unless paid and I feel that I made a comment whether they see it or not. I can't afford all the ones I subscribe to on Substack. Many good and great writers there.
That's fair, thank you.
You said "But actually physically hiding all comments from those who don’t pay? Ensuring that unless you cough up cold hard cash you cannot even read what other people have to say?
That strikes me as elitist as well as petty, punitive and controlling. And I won’t reward those traits with my time either."
Do I understand correctly that you're OK with the marketing tactic of allowing only paid subs to comment, but not with the marketing tactic of allowing only paid subs to read the comments?
I would think it can be a good tactic if your subscriber base is big enough. Comments are often very interesting. On Medium, I have seen many articles where the comments were more interesting than the article.
Yep, that's my take. Writers have to make money somehow, if you can convince people to pay for the right to write a comment, more power to you! And yes, often the comments are fascinating and add to the article.
I think Substack doesn't offer the possibility to make the post for paid subscribers and the comments for everybody. It's either free everything or paid everything.
Well, I recently saw a writer here who had hidden comments but not the article, but on another article you could read the comments, but not comment unless you were a paid subscriber. Don't want to point any fingers :) It seemed strange to me, perhaps it was a glitch.
For the article, I know a way, because you can start the paywall where you want. But I don’t know how to make comments read and not write. Curious about this!
You can click the "Allow comments from Paid subscribers only" and I think that let's you read them but not comment yourself.
I never hide comments on a public forum. If I didnt like the comments, then I shouldn't be throwing opinions out in public.
However, if I made my substack a paid subscription only then those who pay have the rights to comment and they are the only ones who have the rights to full access to read including all comments.
On Medium it's different because it's a paid subscription to read the whole of Medium and therefore no comments should be out of bounds. Maybe those without a subscription on Medium shouldn't be allowed to comment let alone write an article and make money.
Under the new rules, you have to pay the $5/month to be eligible for the Medium Partner Program (MPP). Unless you created your account before August 1st.
Medium didn't change the requirements for accounts that were already part of the MPP. They said they might in the future.
They definitely shouldn't be able to make money on Medium without paying the tiny monthly fee - but I think they may have changed that lately? Thanks for your input, appreciated.
Be careful when you vote to click the one you really want, it doesn't allow you to change it - as I just discovered :)
Heheh, thanks Baird. It is, indeed, odd to my way of thinking.