Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, Sharon, but you may well be right! There are a few problems right now which have unfortunately caused not a perfect storm, but a pretty severe one. The volume of content and accounts that are either actual bots or humans churning out stories from ChatGPT etc is out of control, and so far the Medium tech team don't seem to have a solution - does anyone?

That seems to be messing up distribution via the algo - stuff is just getting swamped, I think - and so the Boost programme is the only way to get reads. But that is really hit and miss, with expectations and results shifting constantly.

2024 might be the year when it all slots into place, with the Boost treating everyone - and every type of content - more evenly and fairly, an improved distribution algo, and better bot protection.

Or it might not...

When someone follows you, if you click on their profile it is suspicious if they have joined recently, followed hundreds (or thousands!) of people. Or only a dozen. And have a bunch of stories all looking AI-generated on loads of different topics,all posted within a day or two. They are not for real.

Good luck with everything - there are still lots of great people and great writing here.