Yup!
My snailing growth on this platform (under 1000 followers after publishing 365+ stories in 2 years) speaks for itself. 😅
Tl;dr — I'll engage on small levels of reciprocation. I have to value the writing itself on some level. And to anyone who reads me for reciprocation alone, thank you, but please stop. Now that I know you exist, it won't change how I engage with your articles.
All said and done, I love reading other writers on Medium, and some of my favourite friendships were formed by the process of reciprocation.
Writers who follow in masses alone tend to grow more quickly on the platform than writers who don't.
Highlighting (and the grand engager, commenting) add a bonus effect.
Low reciprocation is likely not the only reason I'm growing so slowly, there's also the general unhelpfulness of many of my works, but it definitely plays a part.
I only have so many followers as I do because of my original article outing Diana Meresc as a bot.
It was a fantastic boost. 🙏✨
Which didn't last.
