I have no idea how much is going to bots. Suspect it's much lower than 47% but it's presumably worth their while, or they wouldn't do it.

Sorry. I feel I touched a nerve and didn't intend to.

These are the only articles that get read, so that's why I write them. I've tried other avenues to getting my income up. I tried writing about copyright and it worked, until it didn't. I tried other subjects. I was focusing on health, travel and gardening for the first year and it wasn't until I wrote about an editor destroying a perfectly good article that I earned more than a dollar for anything - that one earned over $100 and that's why I started writing about Medium.

What you're doing is working for you. I would love to be able to write things that aren't discussing problems we are all aware of on Medium and get people to read them, but I end up earning cents.

I tried to join the boost program, and open publications as they said we should. I tried to jump through all the hoops and got rejected.

My freelance earnings are down and I think it's because I'm spending too much time on Medium. I can't blame the pandemic anymore. Although a shrinking publishing marketplace doesn't help.

The fact that some of our stories get more bot comments than real ones does suggest that a greying out for 30 seconds could be a decent idea, but I know they are working on it.

I don't know. Maybe I should just quit. I don't like quitting. I've invested too much in getting to where I'm at.

I appreciate your read and your thoughts anyway, and I'm sorry if I touched a nerve. I only think they could do more because other tech companies seem to manage it, but they are bigger.

Try leaving a comment on MSN. Sometimes, it's almost impossible, even when it's not spam, because their filters are like iron clad and so many words and phrases are prohibited. I'm not saying it should be like that, but a middle ground is obviously possible.