. I was able to quit my job, write full time, travel, pay off debts.

Oh for those golden years! I just missed that by a hairs breadth.

My posts earn very little now, I'm lucky to break $10 (author portion) on most of my posts. I'm not complaining.

It does wind me up that some authors here get double at least just for being part of some inner sanctum. There's certainly an argument for fairer reward distribution and I know a few people try to adjust that with DV but never on the inner circle. I try not to pay much attention to that and, like you, appreciate what we do get, with the (very) occasional better upvote (like this post). Remember this massive Curie upvote?

The problem with value s you say is so arbitrary. If the large account holders don't value literature, then every time we write fiction, we know we won't get rewarded as highly, even though it can be relatively more labour intensive. Back in the Natural Medicine days, we found we weren't as well supported because people thought it was woo hoo, though we were trying to support legit complementary medicine like meditation, yoga and herbalism. So yeah, what's valuable has always been problematic here.

About 25% of the comments I received on my posts are from people I can tell haven't even read my posts. This is partially my fault because, early on, I started upvoting comments but from here on out I think I'm going to not do that anymore if I can tell someone hasn't even read what I wrote.

Oh man I get SO assy with that, haha. A while ago someone said I didn't need to respond to every comment. Light bulb moment!! I just ignore them now unless I'm in a mood and then I give them a stern talking to hahaha.

it's up to each of us to enhance and maintain and protect the integrity of this platform. We can do this with our posts but we also do it with each vote and each comment.

Yes, yes, yes. I find that with real life too. You just gotta do the right thing in YOUR corner in the hope other people will do same. There's a solid bunch of people with integrity that keep me here. I'm glad you are one of them. 💖