Today I got a year-end email from Medium, informing me that I’m in the top 10% of readers and writers (whatever that means) on their website. That surprised me, since I’d hardly consider myself a power user. Most of the attention I get seems to be for non-fiction, and more specifically, for responses to other peoples’ writing. Oh, I export some of my stories from here to there, but in general, the response isn’t all that much.

Top 10%?

I can’t decide if that means I’m making progress. It might just mean the platform is dying, and I’m the only one left. Or it might mean the platform is still growing, and that I have a chance of growing with it.

The email broke down the more flattering statistics on my “stories” which means fiction and non-fiction. Not everything I’ve put there. 4 out of 8 pieces I think; possibly not including responses. 184 people have read things I wrote on Medium. Huh. Just guessing I’m more on the top reader end of things, with 1,034 minutes spent reading. 3 minutes a day? No, that seems wrong, too.

Super-secret algorithm, I guess. I’m winning. Why would I doubt it?

Medium hasn’t sent any readers to ReprobateTypewriter.com. (I checked.) And the link from ReprobateTypewriter.com has sent two whole readers Medium-ward. It’s not a frenzy of activity. But then, again, I haven’t really focused on Medium the way I have on Twitter, or on my own website.

Part of it is that my relationship to Medium just hasn’t clicked, yet. I don’t know where it fits into the rest of what I’m doing online. I don’t know whether I should just import stories, and basically turn it into a mirror of Reprobate Typewriter, or if I should use it as a more specialized off-shoot. Somewhere to put the political rants, and the over-sexed pieces that might stir up more debate than I want to bring home.

I envision it as being–in a way–a much broader audience than I have here. A place for my thoughts on education, and presumptive paternity, and communication in general. Did you really want to hear a rant on paternity being contractual? What about sex-ed and consent? You know. That kind of thing… Over there.

I have a few drafts. Most of them are responses to other people. The others are a little more soap-boxy than I’d usually put here on Reprobate Typewriter. I’ve written a few things… and then my self-censoring mechanism kicks in. Most of the time. And I don’t push the publish button.

I haven’t spent much time on Medium. Not working on my own things. Not promoting them. Almost all of the time is reading time.

Four stories, and ten or fifteen minutes reading over my lunch hour a couple of times a week. I’m really not sure what to do with that information, either.

I really like Medium. I like reading on it. I like the things I find there. I just… haven’t gotten to the point where I completely see it as a place to be a writer. I talk to people there… but if I want to tell a story about dragons, I usually put it here.

What about you? Do you ever use Medium? Tips? Hints? And if you do… have you ever thought about starting a publication?