I'd really love to see a return of the three free reads. I don't think it's a feature that should be behind the Friend of Medium payment tier, but even if it were I think that would be an improvement from where we currently stand. I still can't see any way around the idea that the only way for an article to go truly viral is to turn off our ability to be paid for it. If people outside of Medium can't read even one free article without stumbling onto one of these friend links, how will they know the value of the platform?

I'm certain I wouldn't have joined Medium if I'd been roadblocked by a paywall in my attempt to read my very first article. If Medium gave writers the ability to allow their articles to be read three times for free, I think it could not only improve the authentic discovery of the platform and give authors an important freedom, but give readers and writers an additional incentive to upgrade to the friend tier.