Thanks for the feedback, White Feather. I am particularly distressed about people like you who are on fixed incomes and those who depended on their Medium earnings to get by or to at least pay their internet access bill.

I think people are clapping less because they know claps don’t mean much anymore. In spite of their inability to translate to money, I still think claps are an appreciated response. I know I gauge the popularity of my posts by the number of claps, regardless of whether or not I make money from the applause.

I’ve noticed that the claps for others that I follow are also down drastically. It’s disheartening. If claps don’t mean much now, why not return to the old one-clap system?

I, like you and many others, will not change my style of writing to please Medium. But, sadly, some of my favorite writers, particularly poets, have gone in search of other income streams and are not participating here as much as they used to.

As for curation, after the changes, I first noticed a definite decrease in my curated pieces. Used to be that I rarely went a week without being curated and often two or three times. Then, suddenly, I went three weeks without one of those special emails. Last week, with four curations, was an anomaly under the new system but it got me thinking, which led to this piece.