I feel like I kicked off a movement to counteract the questionable behavior of some of the writers on this platform (with a very "popular" example taking the lead at more than 10K followers)

Though I'm not claiming to have been the first one. Maybe Medium's algorithm changed what it shows me when I published my rant articles and now I get to see more articles of people who think alike. I hardly saw any of those before.

I often use this as an example, a headline called "How I made $5000 in a week", which is of course a bit hyperbolic, but that's along the lines of what these writers produce.

Funnily enough, just yesterday an article got submitted to our pub using that very title. I looked through it, and it had all the "rules of going viral" stuck on it. This clickbaity headline. Using a sentence containing "how to" in the subheader.

And then putting out 8 minutes of content without any conclusion that brings you even close to the goal of getting $5000 a week.

It also lacked any proof of concept.

Other than in the title, those infamous $5000 were nowhere to be found. It was just a general article on where you could (not can) make money, like Youtube, Medium, eCommerce, and so on and so forth. But none of those points was explained with any insight surpassing a quick google terminology search.

It stood out as a real fake article. At least those big names on this platform who ride that train manage to make their article sound like it comes from actual experience.

I would never promise my reader an incredible sum in the title nor in the article itself. Success is subjective. Money fluctuates. Not everyone can head into the same gold mine and leave with the same amount of money.

We should gather people like you and me on a pub specifically to talk up against sell outs. I don't know, name it "The honest writer" or something.

I feel like selling real advice from really successful people is good. You know, if Elon Musk shares some business insights, that's actually valuable information.

But people claiming to make $5000 a day because they decided to write at least 10K words a day helps nobody. These words still don't sell themselves. It's only a single step in a chain of important events.

Ah, sorry. I'm ranting on again. Your article was spot on. And I enjoyed reading it, not only because I wholeheartedly agree. You pulled me across from start to end.

Sorry for this long-a** reply. It's just that I could talk for hours on end about this issue.

Have a great day