You make some valid points about me taking away stuff in some of your writing that you don't intend to put in. At the same time you are doing the same with my comments, saying that I am calling your writing "nothing but self hate and complaints" when actually that's not what I said. As you clearly remember other comments I write , you will likely remember then that I've been a fan of other articles you've written. Quite a few actually. I feel like that's what most of your followers are like, that they love some of your writing, and some of the other pieces don't relate to them (as opposed to your core audience who loves every single thing you write). And I was making the point that perhaps some of the content in the recent posts is what's not appealing to as wide an audience and in my opinion is contributing to your decline in clicks because as a reader, seeing the change in content style and seeing headlines about Medium app makes me less likely to want to click. (Which let me repeat, is not a judgement on your writing or the validity of your story - it's a comment on how it's not necessarily as appealing to the mass market, and not everything has to be, but if you are wanting to appeal to the mass market maybe the opinions of people who aren't wanting to read your stuff as much anymore could be helpful - most of them are going to just avoid and not say anything, or they're going to be trolls, so I thought an opinion from outside the fan club as someone who does still like your work in other ways, could be useful).

Me saying "a lot of your recent content doesn't appeal to me because of XYZ" isn't saying "your content is shit" even if you're interpreting it as such.

This goes to my other comment which you did clap, which was that increasingly when you write you are denigrating yourself heavily (calling yourself stupid, a failure, a fuckup etc) to the point it comes across as a form of emotional self harm.

As for Medium showing stories - I don't know what other people are seeing but I get your articles recommended every day. In the prime place, like number one on the feed, even if I already read the article. So while Medium issues may indeed be part of the picture, I think it's a mistake to think that the type of content doesn't play a part.

This is true for all Medium influencers btw not just you, I feel this way about Yael, Tim Denning (who I unfollowed because I felt I'd learned everything I could from him), Umair (there's only so many ways you can write about the apocalypse before people tune out), Indi.ca etc.

I think your article about burnout and needing a creative reset is spot on, and I also think it's a great idea for you to create a Patreon and an email list for your core audience, because it's THEM who will love everything you do, and who will not need you to be constantly churning out content, and even if it's a smaller number if they all pay you a few dollars a month it's still quite a lot. I can tell that your core audience relates heavily with you as a person, and so having that closer connection with you will be something they will love.

Best of luck with it all!