Okay… someone explain this to me because I'm seeing it more and more and I'm a skeptical person and am starting to find it all sorts of sketchy.

I do not use the word cringe. It's a dumb word. But if I ever was going to… it would be about this.

I've noticed people adding my pieces to lists. This in and of itself, I don't mind.

If you're a publication… makes total sense to add stories FROM your publication to specific lists for that publication. That I understand.

If you have lists of stories you really loved and you seek to help promote them and the list title reflects that… also makes total sense and is even a very nice compliment. That I understand (and appreciate).

If you want to read something but it's too long and you don't have time and want to remember to go back to it so you save it in a list titled "to be read" or something to that effect… makes total sense. That I understand.

What I do NOT understand are profiles that have NO WRITING OF THEIR OWN and NO ABOUT SECTION and NO PROFILE PHOTO and are nothing but a series of lists of other people's work.

That to me… makes NO sense unless you're plagiarizing or planning to under another profile. That's the only explanation my skeptical little self can think of as to why someone would have an entire profile on Medium that consists of nothing but OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK.

I have had to block people because back when I used to write a lot of true crime (I stopped doing that and deleted it off my profile, this is not a small part of why) because they would save every true crime piece I wrote under MULTIPLE lists.

I'm neither lying nor exaggerating when I say one such person elicited over 70 notifications on my page in less than 10 minutes saving my pieces to list after list after list. And they had no picture, no about section, no writing of their own. They saved EVERYTHING I wrote. I found this entirely too sketchy and blocked them.

Some of the pieces didn't even fit the titles of these lists. They'd save a piece about a serial killer that was caught and sentenced to death under "cold cases" for example. That made no sense. It was like they were doing it just to do it and for no other reason… at least no other good, valid, or legal reason.

I don't mind when people save my pieces because they're part of a pub, because they enjoy them, because they want to read them later or again… but when someone isn't also writing their own work and is hiding who they are… I do not understand who they are, what they're doing, why it's happening, and the block feature is there and I will use it.

Someone explain this to me because I would really like an explanation that might make sense and isn't negative.

Anyone?

Anything?

Please?