My Followers Were Bots!

Summary

The author, Roz Warren, discovered that a significant portion of their Medium followers were bots, reflecting on the evolution of writing and technology over their 50-year career.

Abstract

Roz Warren, a humorist and long-time writer, noticed a sudden drop in their Medium follower count from 7.8K to 6.8K. Initially perplexed by the potential offense caused by their recent dog-related post, Warren learned from fellow Medium writers that Medium had purged bot accounts. Despite the revelation that many followers were not genuine, Warren embraces the situation with humor and a sense of wonder at the changes technology has brought to writing. With a career spanning from the era of snail mail submissions to the age of bot readers, Warren remains undeterred, committed to writing regardless of the nature of their audience.

Opinions

Warren is amused rather than dismayed by the discovery that a thousand of their followers were bots, finding it a quintessentially 21st-century problem.
The author takes a philosophical stance on the changes in writing and readership, viewing the loss of bot followers as just another evolution in the industry.
Warren expresses pride in their adaptability and longevity in the writing profession, having navigated from pre-internet publishing to contemporary digital platforms.
The author maintains a positive outlook, emphasizing their intention to continue writing regardless of the audience's composition, be it humans, bots, or even bunny rabbits.
Warren finds it humorous and somewhat of an honor to have had bots like R2D2 and C3PO as part of their readership, showcasing their ability to find humor in the absurdities of modern technology.

My Posts Appeal if You Aren’t Real

I couldn’t help but notice the other day that a thousand of my Medium followers had vanished into thin air.

One day, I had 7.8K followers. The next? Only 6.8k.

Why had a thousand readers decided to unfollow me? Was it something I said? I’m a humorist, and we humorists can sometimes tread on toes. Had my latest essay managed to outrage 1000 readers?

That was unlikely. My last post was about my adorable Yorkie-poo. That’s about as inoffensive as you can get.

I hit the Facebook groups for Medium writers and learned that Medium had decided to do a little housekeeping and had eliminated all of the Medium accounts that were actually spammers and bots.

I wasn’t the only writer to learn that a significant number of their readers, as it turns out, weren’t actually readers at all.

Okay, so a thousand of my faithful followers were just robots. I could be troubled by this. But I’ve chosen to frame it another way.

This is such a 21st century problem! When I first started writing almost 50 years ago, I wrote science fiction. Personal computers and the internet and bots were the kind of amazing things that sci-fi writers were making up stories about. And now it’s real and I’m living it.

At 66, I get a kick out of the fact that somebody who began publishing stories way back in the “put-it-in-the-mailbox-and-don’t-forget-to-include-a-SASE” era has managed to keep a writing career going long enough to be faced with a 21st century problem like too many robot readers.

I’ve got fans like R2D2 and C3PO. How cool is that?

The world has totally changed and writing has totally changed — and I’m still here! So go ahead, Medium! Kill off my bot readers. Who cares?

I’ve been happily publishing stories since before most of the folks reading this particular one were born, and I plan to continue. Whatever happens, and however my readers continue to change and evolve— be they people or bots or bunny rabbits?

I’m going to keep writing.

MEDIUM

My Followers Were Bots!

My Posts Appeal if You Aren’t Real

An Old Dog Learns a New Trick

Our Yorkie-poo Discovers Geometry

Your Cat Does Not Belong On The Dining Room Table

But There He Is Anyway