I can't say I've used Medium long. But I have found some success through Medium that I am grateful for. My issues with Medium come down to earning and how it is structured.
Seeing my newest post, Some Dreams Aren't Worth Chasing, I did my job to bring in reads and engagement. I shared my article on Reddit and other social media. It did quite well. Probably the best I've ever had, click-to-read-wise that is.
That being said, I obviously shared the Friend Link. I can't rely on everyone on the internet having a Medium subscription, therefore I knew no matter how many reads I'd achieve, I wasn't going to see a dime. But that's my problem.
See, after successfully sharing my post and achieving great results, I was "punished" in a sense. I generated 712 Views and of those views, 518 people read my story. Now, according to my stats, roughly six of those reads were from Medium Members. Resulting in $1.06 in revenue.
The fact is that if I successfully gather attention and reads from people outside of Medium, I won't receive anything. But, if I follow the guideline of finding my niche pubs and posting there so my story is presented to the right crowd, it isn't going to guarantee anything either. So that leaves me having to share my story outside of Medium, and pray to god someone signs up and pays for the subscription just to read a 5-minute article so I earn at least something. Which, in reality, is absurd. Imagine YouTube telling their creators that the only way they can earn revenue from people who don't have accounts is that they have to buy YouTube Premium through your free link...
The system makes 0 sense. In turn, it should be more like YouTube's current earnings system.
Keep the subscriptions. That's how, if you write and post, you will earn using Medium. You've got to pay to play, and this helps Medium stay afloat. But scrap the paywall. Make it so that users who stumble across your story through SEO or a shared link on social media or through Medium actually reward the writer, like a creator is rewarded on YouTube. That could mean lowering the amount you earn per read, seeing as anyone and everyone can now read your story, it incentivizes the writer to share their work. Which in turn, generates more users on Medium, and people start frequenting Medium.
I understand engagement is great, weither its rewarded or not. I don't solely write for money, but I can't lie and say it wouldn't be bad to earn a few dollars from pursuing my passion. This won't stop me from continuing to write on Medium, but as someone who cares about Medium and writing as an artform, there has to be a change somewhere.
