This is, unfortunately, true. I say "unfortunately," because I believe it is the root cause for rampant copyright violations and useless, click-baity posts about Medium, itself. People who don't invest in a thing quickly learn to exploit a thing - until that thing no longer exists. It's just a matter of time, for Medium, and I'm frankly surprised that it has lasted this long.

Obviously, we're all still here. It's a point of pride, for me, NOT to write yet-another-guaranteed-profitable-piece-of-crap-post about making money in my sleep, getting paid for writing without really writing, getting paid for writing by churning out "content" like a robot, how much I did or did not get paid for writing on Medium or News Break or Vocal or Substack or [whatever new platform emerges tomorrow] - BTDT and wore out the fucking t-shirt.

But I will leave when I'm bored to death, and I can see that coffin on the horizon.