Another potential concern: most writers are *very* bad recruiters. Especially new writers have a tendency to spam other platforms. This has in fact already led Medium links to be banned in lots of Facebook groups and subreddits.

This new referral program might exacerbate the problem by encouraging Medium writers who are unskilled in marketing to become even more of a "spammer". I hope this won't happen, but there's the potential that writers too eager to get referrals might harm Medium's reputation to outsiders by plastering referral links everywhere.

Again, I applaud the intent to grow the pie and provide us with a more stable income, but I think there are some legitimate concerns and worries.