Hi, Trisha.Here are another couple of factors to take into account when comparing the two reads:

Read time was brought back in or tuned up a couple of months after the new formula came in last year. So you could register 2 FoM reads of a 3-minute article, but one of them spent 1 minute reading it, and the other 4, for example. Commenting also means spending quite a lot longer on an article, though I imagine the clock stops - basketball-style - while the comment bar is open. Even so, commenting implies more time spent looking at and thinking about the article, rather than just skimming through, so it's increasing the engagement factor, and probably also the read time.

Then there is the issue of diminishing returns. The amount each writer receives from our reads depends not only on how many articles we read in a month (though how they anticipate that for daily updates I don't know - I guess they use a rolling average of past activity), and also how many of a particular writer's stories we read. This isn't declared by Medium, but has been observed by others in their experimentation.

So FoM 1 who reads 50 articles a month, and is reading one of yours for the first time, is worth much more to you than FoM 2 who reads 250 a month, and has already read 10 of your pieces that month.

All FoMs are equal, but some are more equal than others.

My record for a single read is something like $7: an FoM who had not read my work before, clapped, highlighted, commented and followed (another big factor which maybe doesn't apply to the two you are comparing). That's half their sub for the month, so it clearly can't happen that often that all the stars align.

Another regular reader FoM with all the same engagement except the follow might clock up $0.50.

It's all in the multipliers and how they interact, I think.

Hope this helps.