Well, two things:

1) This hit me like a bucket of cold water. At home, we were all super excited sharing how nice people were and how grateful they seemed. And now it turns out they were spammers. We saw it coming, but we hoped for the best.

2) I understand this happens because the Partner Program was giving more weight to comments and claps than to simple reads. In other words, people were able to divert money from other Medium members for their own profit. You pay for your membership, but instead of benefiting the authors you enjoy, it benefits others. It's really disappointing :(

So, is there any way to ensure that membership earnings go to the writers that readers truly support, and that these contributions can't be "stolen" from them?

Thank you for taking action on this issue,

David