Hi Edward,

You made an excellent effort to make some sense of publications on Medium.

However, your analysis is flawed and does not reflect reality, primarily for Illumination based on my experience and perspectives.

I agree that extensive publications do not bring perceived value. Therefore, I stopped publishing my stories with them.

Firstly, what is ridiculous about publishing 170 stories for a publication supporting 15,000 writers on Medium?

Illumination gives voice to all levels of writers, from beginners to accomplished. I don't see any "ridiculousness" in diversity and inclusion. We are not elitists serving only experienced writers.

Secondly, claps and responses are not as critical as reading times for writers' income. The gold standard on Medium is reading times. Do you have sufficient evidence on this?

Illumination gets consistent high reading times. Over the last three months, we had more than eight million minutes of reading time.

Besides, in 2021 more than 100 stories went viral. For example, a single story earned $19,000 in a few months.

Medium superstars like Tim Denning are writing for Illumination because they get value.

Thirdly, Illumination editors do not change content per my direction. If it happened, it must be an exception beyond my knowledge. So generalizing like the worst publication is unfair. You need to correct your defamation.

I read numerous stories from you, never changing a single work.

In addition, I nominated your great stories to be featured in our curated collections.

Thus, I am surprised by your negative review of Illumination despite the excellent support we provided you to grow as a writer on Medium

Thank you for your contribution to Illumination.

I wish you the best in your writing career.