Thanks very much for your detailed comment Christala.

Firstly, it’s because if you have a higher audience level then you have higher chances of earning money. I get it’s not guaranteed, but for the cost of membership and the earning reductions, it should really be as valuable as possible. Plus, some people do follow and make contacts, but others (like me) don’t usually tend to, as they prefer it organic.

Secondly, I do agree - follower count isn’t really valuable, at least for me. At the end of the day, not everything means cash, even views and reads. Although they are the most superior, and better than claps, followers etc. which are all meaningless, there are still more efficient ways to make money.

Thirdly, I know, it honestly sounds unfair. When I did the Review, all the posts that had the highest claps, comments etc. were all paywalled. When I investigated non-member posts, they never usually had anything more than a few claps; and the ones that were living better a life were still rarely appearing in the for you or topic pages, only usually in publication pages.

Oh, that’s interesting, I didn’t know that. I honestly couldn’t tell you, however, I have (or had) knew another writer here, and he never published for a while after a break for a couple of months. And the minute he came back, all his stats crashed. He never appeared on my pages anymore, so I didn’t even know he came back until I searched him up. He hasn’t uploaded posts in a while, so I don’t know what’s happened. So maybe you’re right.

Hope this helps.