Since 2006 I have written 4993 blogs, a custom Blogger blog ancillary to my web page. Until the bottom fell out of the magazine and newspaper market in my Vancouver and Canada I was a gainfully employed writer and photographer. To publish meant that a magazine or newspaper would pay me to put my photographs or my essay on paper. These publications would send me around the world to take pictures and to write stories. That is gone. I am now 77. Some years ago (7 or 8) I read in my hard copy NY Times (I pay $1800 Canadian for daily delivery at my door) about Medium. I joined and it was very easy then to make your own publications. I have a Latin American Lit, a Photography, a Borges and a few more. People would send me stuff to put in or I would place my essays into Film as an example. That has all but disappeared. Medium has a neat blog importing tool (it does not work well all the time). This means that I may have over 1000 of my modified blogs here in Medium.

I must be clear. I do not need the money and I don’t care who reads what I write here. But I have noticed too many 5 Ways to… 10 Things You should… and stuff like that. If you read a good book or a good newspaper would there be time to read this? Is it worth paying those $5?

Just to be able to write here, now, I have only one of my three free essays left per whatever barrier Medium imposes on me. I do believe that some of my essays are well written and beyond the norm. But I have no idea what you mean about being or not being curated. I do know that none of what I write ever appears anywhere else. Would that happen if I paid to upgrade?

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

Vancouver BC