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Dear Writers, Please Cut the Crap
I spend a lot more time reading on Medium than writing. I read all kinds of articles to both broaden my perspective and deepen my knowledge in certain areas. As you might have guessed, I’ve had mixed experiences. There are some great writers here and you can find thoroughly researched and well-written articles on a variety of subjects. This is the bright side of Medium. But there’s also the dark side: writers who are a lot more interested in clicks than in contributing something useful, posting articles which are useless, full of nonsense, or even dangerous (e.g., spreading misinformation).
The dark side comes in several flavors. I have identified ten categories of bad articles (not saying that there aren’t more) and will introduce them to you in a second. As far as reading is concerned, it’s not my intention to discourage you from having a look at such articles. But I want you recognize their problematic aspects when you do. If you’re a writer or aspiring to be one, I highly encourage you to stay away from the patterns discussed below. At least if your reputation means anything to you. All right, that’s enough announcement — let’s have a look at the ten types of articles nobody needs.
Don’t Become a [Insert Job Title]
This is one of my favorites: people in a certain field of work telling others not to follow…
