As the person running the Boost Nomination Pilot program, I'm here to say that gaming the system is expected, and in fact, exactly what we're testing for!

I don't say this out of disrespect for anyone in the program, but out of a deep understanding of how monetized content works on the internet. We've all been online long enough to know how things work: if there's a monetization structure, people will be opportunistic. That's to be expected.

As the person running the program, the question for me from day 1 wasn't "Will people be self-serving?" but rather "How will they be self-serving, and what checks and balances can we build in to compensate for that?"

It's been fascinating, and we're learning so, SO much... not from a place of naivete, but from a place of assuming the worst and learning the best we can. That's why there are checks and balances built into the nomination system, and why we're building it slowly so we have the time to learn as much as we can.

Most of all, I just really appreciate that Medium is a place where users care so much about the platform. I love humans being human.