Well Shannon, you just explained more to me than anyone at Medium is willing to explain! My monthly views started plummeting in July, after six months of solid momentum, which included getting featured twice in The Edition, three times in Staff Picks, and in GEN, Human Parts, The Index and other Medium-run publications. I thought I was finally "making it!" A few weeks ago, my stories stopped getting curated altogether (92 of my prior 93 stories had been curated, and the one that wasn't was about Medium). It's totally demoralizing. I feel so used. I can't even reach the 5,600 followers I worked so hard to accrue.