Hmmmm. I have some concerns with this article.

First these are technical issues I am facing.

1. I have been here almost two months. I have acquired 72 followers, mostly from comments (I believe) I make to other articles. But I’m not seeing much action from my followers for any articles I’m posting. It seems to me that I need to build that number up to several thousand and expect only a small percentage will actually read my articles.
2. I’m not really understanding “publications” with Medium. The instructions were not clear to me. I was asked to submit one article to “Dialog & Discourse”, which I did. And I started following this publication, but I’m not seeing much action from this group. In essence, the publications aspect of Medium is not all intuitive to me.
3. Coming from outside the US, there seems to be some issue with foreigners the American taxman. To get properly registered, I would need to set up some kind of account with the IRS, get a number, then submit it to Medium. All this work to maybe earn $100 a month → not worth it.

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I have an ulterior motive. I want to get my ideas of reforming democracy out into the world as I believe western democracy is no longer serving the world very well. I have invented a replacement system of governance, which I have called Tiered Democratic Governance. To be very brief, it is a system of democracy without political parties. But be assured that my motives are not to earn a little pocket change with my writing. I really want to change the world, and I haven’t encountered anyone — famous or otherwise — suggesting the same ideas I am.

Despite the apathy, cynicism, and distrust of current democratic institutions, no one really wants to spend the time investigating this new way. Medium is one of many internet forums I have been involved with the past few years. I have a few more things I want to try here in the next two months, but I suspect the result is going to be the same.

I do have a Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, but I keep these for people I have had some personal connection with. To me, accepting unknown friends and contacts just to get my “base” numbers up is a little disingenuous.

I have a twitter account, but I just don’t grok this concept. My twitter feed was just too wonky for me.

Unfortunately my SM contacts thinks I’m crazy for continuing with my democracy idea. They will not help. So I don’t bring it up anymore.

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On one hand, I’m really grateful for the new internet technology as it does give me access that I would have never had before. I can put my ideas out there and see where they go. If I have to put this project to rest, I can say that I introduced my ideas to many, many people, and they just do not want it.

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My niece attended a basketball camp last summer. She was given the pep talk that to further her basketball dreams, she just had to work hard and harder. But the truth is that maybe out of 10 high school basketball players who want to play basketball at the college level, maybe one will find that path open to them. There just isn’t enough spots to satisfy everyone who wants this career — regardless of how hard they work at their sport.

Writing is the same. All the pep talks in the world won’t change this dynamic. The few successful writers will find that right combination of skill and marketing — and get lucky break.

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I have noticed that most writers here have been here less than one year. So there is a big dropout here. I wouldn’t call these people losers. I think they have decided that the time and effort to build 2K followers on Medium is just not worth it.

This could be my Medium decision in a month or two.