I'm staying. I saw the zero earnings for engagements two weeks ago and opened a support ticket before I saw the articles about it and the articles about Scott Lamb's deaf public relations blog, and then the ones about Tony's poor communication. I considered pausing publishing or leaving. I decided to do neither. I decided to start publishing not paywalled stories, as with no expectation of earning, I couldn't get aggravated. I remembered that when I came here I hadn't heard of MPP, and that I had lost sight of why I did come here. If they rectify the payment issues I will probably start paywalling again because unfortunately the average aggregate $120 a month I had been earning in 2024 does make a difference to my current finances, but in writing my first not paywalled essay I reminded myself of why I ended up writing here in the first place, and that I don't identify as a writer, nor as a hobbyist, but as someone who thinks and feels and happens to write well and wants to share, and of the thrill of the one comment that says I touched or helped someone. I talk about all that, and how I reached my decision, and more in that first not paywalled essay if anyone wants to read it, https://medium.com/write-under-the-moon/navigating-towards-acceptance-of-and-coping-with-the-unacceptable-in-the-mediumverse-fe62c96e7061 subtitled "Together with thoughts on time, the dual nature of humans as material and spirit, and reincarnation."

Then the other day I had soooo much fun writing my second not paywalled post, https://medium.com/catharsis-chronicles/restoring-sanity-individually-and-collectively-2a9b67ee83c3 subtitled "Everyone has the freedom and the power to exercise their free will and make beneficial ripples in the fabric of our lives"

I thought about Substack, but I hate their paid model, I can't wrap my head around competing for individual paid subscribers, and I don't have the bandwidth to post free in two places. I'll continue to make my ripples here. Nor do I have bandwidth to add another place to read content. I have heard the quality of writing is better there, but I get that from reading great works of literature (Hesse, Hemingway, Maugham, Bradbury, etc)