Hi Phyllis! On the surface, it sounds really workable. I think human nature is the flaw, though, and here’s why.

Did you ever use (or know of) a site called Open.Salon a few years back? The brainchild of Salon, it was very (VERY!) much like Medium. Salon had this idea that they could start a free open blogging platform, and maybe find a handful of really good writers, that they’d edit/work with and bring over to Salon. Basically, writing on the site was the criteria for possible inclusion. People wrote, editors picked the ones with promise and/or skill.

I’d say talent, but it’s rarely that. Whenever you find someone really, really good at what they do — it’s usually skill. Hours and hours of working the craft. But a lot of people don’t see it that way.

It got to be pretty ugly in the comments. And ugly posts directed to the editors. And “open letters” calling out how unfair the whole thing was.

Add to that the bickering, followed by a deluge of spam accounts and eventually the entire platform was scrapped. I hung in there quite some time and it was sad to see it spiral downwards. I thought it started with a great concept. As is often the case, theory and application aren’t always the same. You know?

P.S. Thanks for your reply — it’s great to find little pockets of real conversation happening here. Have a great day! ❤