What Is The Evergreen Directory? (And some FAQs)

      Hi there! I'm The Accidental Monster, TAM for short (you can call me Monster, too, but for legal purposes I won't introduce myself that way). You probably know me from my Follower To Follower (F2F) series on Medium, but feel free to check it out it you haven't. The idea for The Evergreen Directory came from F2F, so it might help to see it in action!

      The point of F2F was -and still IS- to help connect Medium users to other ACTIVE users that are likely to participate in follow-for-follow (f4f). Yeah, there's a lot of acronyms here! The idea seems really well received so far, and has helped uplift many people in the Medium community past that 100 follower goal post.

      However, the more articles I post, the more time passes since the first one. In another month, some of the people on those lists might not be active anymore.

      That happens, you know. Sometimes it's sad because a writer gave up, but other times they just found something else and moved on. And that's ok! No one should feel obligated to be on Medium!

      That's when I realized there's a huge problem with connecting with people that are active- even the search function pulls up articles and people that haven't been updated since 2018! With that kind of system, it's a wonder anyone finds anybody on the platform!

That's when I realized what F2F has been building up to all this time! A directory for Medium users!

      The idea hit me like a phonebook to the face. That's what we need here- something that organizes people in a phonebook sort of way! That's why there's two sections: Commercial and Community. It's completely free to request a Community listing- but because there's no guarantee you'll be active month to month, the request must be updated for every single month.

Why can't you just...
      There's a lot of rules tying my hands in a lot of places. First, did you know I can't collect personal information? So all the F2F lists I've made can't be used in this directory. I need permission. Whereas on Medium, tagging people is completely allowed, taken off the platform that's a breach of personal data.

      I'm not messing with that. Waaaay too many laws there.

      Once I've got your permission, technically that's all I need legally. But as I stated above, I want to make sure the people in these lists are current and active on Medium (it's in the name-Evergreen). I don't care if you're a member, if you're in MPP, if you have 1 follower or 10,000. If you aren't active on the platform, you can't be on the list.

      I can't promise that 100%, because some people will request a listing without being active (it's possible, right?). But I'm taking it on faith that if you went to all the trouble to request a listing, you're interested in the Medium experience- maybe you're just not feeling the inspiration to write. 🤷‍♂️

What if I don't have that kind of time?
      When the Commerce side is functioning, there will be a $1 recurring option for Community listings. That way, I can assume you're still active because you're paying for it.

      In my experience, people don't often pay for things they aren't using anymore.

      While there will still be some exceptions to that, it's pretty safe to say most people that leave Medium will cancel the subscription to the Directory.

Why isn't the Commerce side up yet?
      First, that part takes more time to set up, and I figured letting the Directory run for free while things get settled was better than waiting for it all to be ready at the same time. Why keep people from benefitting from it just because there's some extra red tape to figure out? It's so much easier to give things away, you know?

      Who knows, maybe by the time Commerce side is functional, some of you might have bumped up in earnings and be more likely to consider it!

      Also, to be completely honest, I'm still a little concerned that this might be a silly idea. So leaving it run on Community to gauge how receptive people are to it will give me a better handle on that. Let me know if you have any suggestions via email- you all are kind of my alpha testers in that sense!

What if I want to change something?
      The short answer- I don't know. I'm one person trying to fill a gap that hopefully will help a lot of people, but I don't really know the best ways to do any of this. For now, use the form again and leave whatever info you want to change from and to, and let me know in the comment section of the form that it's a change. If I come up with a better way to do it, I'll change this answer to something a LOT better.