I used to belong to another internet forum called "Writerbeat." The moderator had a rule that a members had to respond to other articles to get their own articles published. If I posted an article, it generated a thread at least 10 comments long, sometimes 100+. These threads were mostly civil, but sometimes a little rough. If too rough, the moderator tossed members out.

For sure, I do not get the same response on Medium as I would have got on Writerbeat. These days, I am more pressed for time and energy, so my own energy for responding is diminished.

And my take is that most Medium contributors prefer to be read than to read.

Can debate/dialogue/discussion lead to better understandings of issues? Yes, it can. But it takes energy. For example, I just spent four minutes crafting this piece. It is not likely to go very far. That four minutes could have gone to an original article of mine instead. That article might get 10 reads.