Concerns about the new Medium earning model

Warning: this is not technical

Recently Medium announced the reading time based earning model. At first, I thought, LGTM.

As a tech blogger, I write tech-to-the-core posts, the ones that have more than 50% code (not this one tho). As a result, most of my readers are tech-to-the-core readers who comment on my GitHub repository but won’t clap (I love it tho). The new earning model is at least no worse than before for me.

You will be forced to tip even when you hate the post

However, later on, I realized that, as a reader, things are not so great with the new earning model.

Previously, it works like tipping. I have $5 in total in my wallet each month, and I tip (clap) the posts that help me learn something new.

With the new earning model, I am forced to tip the post whether I think it’s helpful or not unless I can smell the uselessness/stupidity the moment I click on the post and close it immediately (like accidentally clicking into porn in front of parents).

Note: I’m not referring to the posts that I disagree with. I believe all posts that have thoughts put in, present facts and make points deserve rewards, but the cheaply made ones that pretend to be useful in its…