My Turn At Bot
The more I look into this, the more I tend to agree that something fishy is going on.
I write poetry, and not always the most accessible. Poetry always has a relatively small market.
Yet I have 4,000 followers. No matter what or how much I post, I seem to add about 50 followers per day. Many of them have no profile pictures or profile information, and have written very little of their own. A disproportionate number of them come from the Indian subcontinent or North Africa.
When I look at my stats, it appears that perhaps 200 of them actually view or read my poems. Where are the other 3,800? Why did they bother to follow me? Who the hell are they?
Of course, I like to think that I’m just a brilliant, magnetic writer and people flock to read me, but I doubt it.
I don’t know for sure what is going on, but it is important to remember that Medium collects, distributes and controls this data. Remember, too, that having huge numbers of readers is in Medium’s best interest going forward.
I have only a vague notion of how bots work. I was an English major. :) But bots or not, the numbers indicate one plus one equals far too many. Something doesn’t add up.
Mike
