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The Medium Trend Nobody Wants to Experience

It’s not a writing challenge—it’s an experience no writer hopes to have.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

No, I'm not talking about the weekly challenges or the "About Me" trend.

Time and again, I’ve come across articles from writers sharing a particular experience. I always thought I would never have to write one myself because I was extremely cautious. Recently, one of my friends went through the same thing. He shared why his account was suspended and, after successfully getting it reinstated, what changes he noticed. You can check out his story here. kevin Asuquo

Yes, I'm talking about account suspension.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but sometime within the last two weeks, my account was suspended.

Lately, I've been busy working on a project and haven't been active on Medium. Every now and then, though, I would doom-scroll my feed just to see what my favourite publications and friends had been posting. Last night, when I finally had some time to myself, I suddenly realized I hadn't been tagged by any publications for recent challenges. I also noticed there were no emails from Medium. That's when it hit me that something was wrong.

I immediately opened Medium, and there it was—my account had been suspended.

Without wasting any time, I filled out the appeal form and reported the issue. For those who are new to Medium or haven't experienced this before, when your account is suspended, a notice appears on your homepage with a link that takes you to the appeal form and Medium's guidelines.

I'm not as upset about the suspension as I am shocked by the email I received from the Medium team this morning. They simply said my account had been mistakenly caught by their filter.

Seriously?

Image from Author’s gallery

I'm grateful that my followers and subscribers were barely affected by my suspension, except for one. They stayed by my side despite my absence. But I can't help wondering what would have happened if their filter had mistakenly suspended a new writer—someone who had worked so hard to earn even a handful of followers. Many of those followers might have unfollowed them simply because they disappeared without explanation.

It didn't affect me as much because I've been on this platform for more than two years now. Over that time, I've built a community that feels more like friends than readers. We encourage one another, support each other, laugh together, and grow together through writing.

Among my community of more than 1,000 followers are a few people who have become much more than followers or readers to me. I'll be tagging them below.

Manya Sachdeva, Arshi Naaz, Annaya Mahale, Pari Sharma, Tilak Sharma, Sriram Yaladandi, kevin Asuquo.

Thank you for standing by my side, even when I couldn't always be there for yours.

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