We agree! I put forth my prediction about what qualities the winner would have and wrote again at how well I did. I got six out of eight. I didn’t address the quality of the writing, but I agree that the winning entry was far from the best on the topic. (One of the non-winner’s essays had me in tears off and on for an afternoon. This contest was a subscription drive.

The winning essay wasn’t even given the basic review a Medium publication editor would do. There was no subtitle and the image had no attribution, a clear violation of platform standards. A number of us reported it and Medium quietly changed the image and added attribution. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they recruited the winner in advance.