That is a good question. Here is my recent hypothesis as to how the Medium algorithms work:

https://davevolek.medium.com/top-writers-lurkers-and-the-algorithms-68a29119f86b

I posted this eight days ago. It has 16 views. I suspect my lurker-to-subscriber ratio is very low to have the algorithms rate me highly.

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If we do not click on the top writers, we get a more realistic perspective of Medium. While there are many writers getting five to 10 times the traction as I, this is still not enough to justify the time putting the time into their writing (financially speaking).

And the recognition is still quite low.