That doesn't seem to reflect my experience. My writer-activism essays during the previous administration seem to have gotten more traction. But, I find it impossible to keep up that level of outrage formerly generated by the tangerine titan toddler. And, recently, I've posted far more often, but my reads are plummeting. I began sharing my poetry and can only presume it doesn't interest anyone. All this month, my reads have dropped and dropped. My notifictions have plummeted to less than 30. Today, it was 19 notifications. Sadly, those notifications are for interactions on my responses to someone else's writing.
Meanwhile, my followers are approaching 3K; when I signed up for a membership a year ago, I had around 830 followers. I've gained more than 1000 followers in the past couple of months. Yet, my reads continue to plummet. And, my payout has fallen just as precipitously. The amount of reading I do seem to have no impact on the reads I get – and I read 40 to 50 posts on Medium a day, probably the equivalent of 150 to 200 pages. That's in addition to my other reading (fellow writers, news, research, etc.).
I think there's something else going on with the algorithm that has nothing to do with promoting writers. My page is active, my reading is very high, I hope my engagement is meaningful, I do my utmost to be supportive of other writers… but it's not translating to support for my own writing.
I think the algorithms don't help you support those you like. Subscription may do that. At least half of the folks I read are people to whom I subscribe. However, I know a lot of folks eschew subscriptions because they inundate your email. I don't know how the algorithm works, but it's not working to support poets and creatives. On the platform homepage, the first 10 scrolls of the screen do NOT produce a single creative writing post. There's a lot of articles about AI and Blockchain, self-help and advice – but not a single poet or storyteller until the 11th scroll.
That is not an algorithm that looks anything like my interests. IDK about you, but I don't typically scroll that far to find what I'm looking for – I'll just move on to something more targeted. I rarely even go to the platform homepage any longer. What's the point?
