Why I don't blog on Medium anymore - and you shouldn't either

I've blogged on Medium in the past, and was at one point even paying them every month for their membership. They have a large network of high quality blogs, all in one place, and they have one of the best writing experiences on the web.

But I will not be writing on Medium anymore, and here's why you shouldn't either.

1. Medium has baited-and-switched its users many, many, many times.
2. Usually it has done this on a whim, with no advance notice or explanation to its users.
3. By publishing on Medium, you grant them a license to use your content and do almost anything with it. Yes, they say you still own it, but granting the license is still not something I want to do.
4. They will pester your readers to sign up for Medium before letting them read your article. Clearly they care more about their platform than about your audience.
5. I have no data to back this up - but it surely feels like since their membership program came out, they've reduced the reach of non-member content. Half my feed is filled with membership content (even though I no longer have a membership), and post reach on Medium is a zero-sum game. Paid content rises to the top by knocking free content down.
6. I want to emphasize the domain thing again. Even when they did allow custom domains, it was apparent that you're reading a Medium publication because their header always took you back to Medium.com. But it still let me have some semblence of a blog that I could link people to. Now that is no longer the case.
7. More than half the articles in my feed seem to have clickbait headlines. I orignally came to Medium to read quality content and good writing in peace, but it's less and less that as each day passes.
8. It is not an open platform. They may delete my blog or articles for any reason any time they wish. I want my content to be available for posterity, not at the whim of some random VC funded operation.

Yes, they do provide an audience, but it's mostly within their walled ecosystem. And ultimately for me all the negatives listed above far outweigh the positives.

So long, and thanks for all the fish, Medium.