And hope for curation even after 14 days of hang tight.
· 6 min read
If you’ve been following me for any length of time or you know me, you know I try very hard to provide accurate information. I had a totally different post planned but a recent event made me realize this post was needed.
I also don’t often write about the Medium platform. I’m straying from that today because I think, like me, there are writers out there who need to know not to give up if you get the dreaded high volume message from curators.
My recent experience
What I’m about to share is my experience. I don’t have insider information so what I’m sharing is my interpretation and my theory only. I’m not a data analyst, so I don’t track every detail of my posts and stats on Medium.
But over the last month or so I’ve been watching my Medium posts more closely because to be honest, I’m a little afraid of being put into curation jail. It’s very difficult if not impossible to get out of once you are there. I know because my old account has been in curation jail, getting the high-volume message, since March of 2019.
On February 7th, I published What is a Blog on my new account and it went to the hang tight message and stayed there. On February 8th, I published How to Use a Blog to Sell Your Creative Work. It also immediately got the hang tight message. I kept checking for several days and both still had the hang tight message. On February 11th, I published When it Comes to SEO, It’s All About the User.
You guessed it. Straight to the hang tight messaging.
Over a week passed and still these two posts were getting the hang tight message. I was a bit afraid to post anything else, with three posts still processing.
What if all three of them went to high volume at once?
I could end up in curation jail in one fell swoop. No warning, no recourse. The members of the amazing Ninja Writers group and their fearless leader convinced me to remain calm and keep posting.
On the 17th of February I posted Where to Learn the Skills You Need to Become a Freelance Writer.
It was double-curated in Freelancing and Writing! Those previous three posts were all still processing with the hang tight message.
Bolstered by the double-curation, certainly there was no high volume message in my future now, I kept writing.
On February 20th, I posted A Distraction Filled Day in the Life of a Freelance Writer.
By the morning of the 21st, it was double-curated in Freelancing and Writing topics. Riding high on being double-curated twice in a row, I published My Grandpa Taught Me How to Turn Pennies Into Dollars that afternoon.
The high-volume message rears its head
On the 22nd of February, the 15th day of hang tight messaging, my post from February 7th changed from hang tight to the not distributed due to high volume message.
Needless to say I experienced a myriad of emotions upon this discovery. Disappointment, fear, anger, frustration were emotions that plagued me that day.
It must be a glitch
Finally, at the urging of several writer friends who I think were afraid I was going to implode due to anxiety, I emailed yourfriends@medium.com. I’d been told before they no longer could help with curation issues, but I was sure this must be some kind of technical hiccup in the curation system.
I gave them the links to the two remaining posts that were processing, one published on the 8th and the other on the 11th of February. I let them know that I’d been double-curated on two more recent posts and not selected for a third.
I politely asked them to consider the processing posts or check for a glitch of some kind. I got an automated response saying my message had been received.
A 2nd high-volume message
To my immense dismay, the next morning (February 23rd) my post from the 8th which had been hanging tight, was changed to the dreaded high volume message.
There was at that point no actual response from to my Medium support email.
My post from the 11th would hit 14 days of processing on the 23rd which meant I could wake up on the 24th with a third high volume message.
My hope for avoiding curation jail was fading fast.
On the 24th of February, almost afraid of what I’d find, I looked at my stats.
Not selected but will be shared with followers.
At least it wasn’t the high-volume message. But I was disappointed nonetheless.
No clear answer from the team behind the curtain
Two days later, I received a generic cut and paste response from the medium support team.
It basically said they no longer handle issues related to curation and referring me to the Medium curation guidelines.
Medium has a new message in town
By the morning of the 27th, I was hearing murmurings from other writers who were experiencing long processing times as well. My theory was that perhaps the high-volume message was only going to appear after 14 days of hang tight messaging. Several people posted about a new message seeming to replace the high volume message. After checking my previously non-curated posts, I found the message had change to this:
This new message now shows up on my posts which were previously labeled not curated due to high-volume. My hope upon finding this was that whatever change was occurring, it would eliminate the threat of curation jail.
Hope restored!
Lo and behold on the evening of February 27th, one of my posts which had been previously marked high volume, was curated in Marketing. I received the message below.
My theory for what it’s worth
As I said I don’t track all my stats. I’ve done my best to recall what has happened to me over the last several weeks.
I think that the team behind the curtain has heard and is responding to feedback from writers about the frustration of the high-volume messaging.
I believe they are doing what they can to ensure that as many posts as possible are actually reviewed by human eyes at some point in the process. I think we need to hang tight, have some patience, and let them work out the kinks.
In the meantime, focus on providing quality content for the reader. And enjoy the fact that you can write pretty much whatever you want and have the opportunity to earn a little bit in the process.
Very few writers will get rich quick. But those who work hard, show up consistently, and contribute to the quality reading experience Medium is trying to build, I believe will reap the benefits. It’s a fantastic community and it’s getting better every passing day.
Earning on Medium is a long game but there is hope. I used to fear the abyss of curation jail.
Today is different.