ZEN INFORMATION

Medium’s Black Box Algorithm

Can we get a little light in here?

Photo by Kamil Feczko on Unsplash

A new year and the mystery of Medium’s calculator continues.

All that hoo-ha last year, around the new algorithm how it’s supposed to work. Millions of words written in explanations and speculations. Then it got gamed so things went seriously haywire for a while.

Still, nobody seems to have a clear idea or simple statement for Members and Partners about how it works.

My crappy stats… (so embarrassing)

On 1 January, I published a new story and posted a Friend Link on Facebook. Here are the stats a day later:

• 6 total views (all non-members)
• 0 reads (…at least one non-member did read it and posted a comment on Facebook about the content)
• 1 clapper (…a member, who apparently didn’t view or read? But surely they had to view??)
• 6 views via Facebook (traffic source)
• 4 views via the Friend Link (…where did the other 2 Facebook views come from?)

…🤔…

If the goal is to drive disengagement from the notion of writing as a career (or even as a hobby) — then, mission accomplished.