I have my issues with Medium, too, but nothing compares to the crap treatment writers on Vocal+ receive. Read all you like for free, but if you want a chance at the big bucks as a writer, they charge you twice what Medium does for the privilege. The only people buying subscriptions are the writers.

In the meantime, you need to rack up 1,000 reads (not clicks, mind you, reads) to earn $6, which won’t even pay your monthly membership fee. Oh, and you get to hold your hand out for tips, too, like you’re a valet parking attendant. Who tips for reading a story? No comments either, so no community.

Then you see badly formatted, badly written stories beat yours out time and again in the challenges. One first place winner contained the phrase “the rain went pitter-pat" in the first sentence. I kid you not.