The Mystery of Medium Deepens

What is the sound of one bot clapping?

Do you think that you can’t unsee something? Then join Medium. My views have been decreasing for several days now. How is that possible?

I’m not talking about views per day. I’m talking about the cumulative number of views for this month.

My number of views was over 1100 and now it’s down to 967. (I know it’s not much, but, I’m new here.) (And, yes, I check my stats every day, sometimes more!) How can you unsee something?

And then I saw that someone had “unclapped” for me. Yes, there were minus 50 claps for three of my stories!

At first, I thought someone had disliked my recent story so much that they went back and removed their claps for my last three stories! But, then I tried to clap and unclap on someone else’s story and I couldn’t take back my claps.

Here’s my recent story that I thought might have caused someone to “unlike” the last three stories before it.

This brings us to the matter of bots on Medium. I wrote about “losing” a story that I read and a fabulous search party led by Lion~came to my rescue and “found” it! This brilliant story by Quy Ma explains how some bots are putting food on the table for people in countries with very low incomes.

There’s also been a lot of discussion about the purging of fake accounts on Medium. Maybe this accounts for some of my “lost” views? If an account is deleted does this mean it takes the views and claps along with it?

And if Medium is governed by an algorithm doesn’t this mean I’m already writing for a bot? And what if a bot likes my story? And claps 50 times! Shouldn’t bot views and claps count?

I’m so confused. If you are not a bot or maybe better, if you are, then please let me know your thoughts!

If you’re a bot and you buy me a coffee, I will write a story about you! https://ko-fi.com/susanbostian#linkModal

And if you would like to join the club to support everyone here and become someone who can “unsee” and “unclap” click here. https://medium.com/@susanbostian/membership