Thanks for commenting, Edward. Yes, I know that would make sense, but as it happens several of the pubs that I like in terms of style are also nommers, so I can't help but buy the lottery ticket by default. And The Chosen Ones also tend to have good, reliable readerships - even more so now. In fact, I suspect that is part of Medium's aim - to artificially push writers and readers towards certain 'super-pubs' to give more reliable branding and quality control to their product. Partly, perhaps, to say to potential buyers (if the rumours are true) "Hey - this is the kind of stuff we publish, look at these 5 titles" without being embarrassed by 'dubious' content.

As for external validation, I agree. But it's always nice when a piece earns $70 rather than $1.70.

I suspect that the nominator expansion has hit the brick wall of mathematics. They can't keep up the 20 per month @ 45 bucks a pop, and they probably can't make the algorithm work if the total number being boosted increases hugely. But if they cut the nommers' 900 bucks a month, there will be some very unhappy campers who were meant to be inside the tent pissing out.

So what the hell do they do?

Press this button to stall and obfuscate until everyone forgets about it...