Why I Follow You on Medium

It is not follow for follow

Cat photo for you. Franny is a delight. And she has caught three mice in 24 hours!

1. If you clap or respond to one of my essays, I will check out your page. I usually scroll past the pinned essays and see when you last posted. Then I check out one of your titles that grabs my attention. If I read the whole thing, then you get 50 claps and a follow. Full disclosure — any time I read to the end of an essay I give 50 claps — both for you writing it and for me reading it.
2. If you clap or respond to any of my essays, and I see you have posted fewer than 5 essays in a year or even none at all, I will likely follow you. This is because I can tell that your interaction with my post was genuine and not out of self-interest (because you don’t have any recent content to push). This means you are a READER! Wow. I want to see more of you. Hopefully, my follow will let you know I see you and appreciate you. Please, read more!
3. If your story randomly shows up in my feed and I read it to the end, you get 50 claps and a follow. You need a good title and photo to catch my attention, and then the essay needs to deliver, too. But if you can do that, I want to see more of you. I like personal stories and well-developed opinions and I can’t be bothered with self-help or impersonal information (unless it is really well done and in a topic that interests me).
4. If you just randomly follow me, without…