I replied an hour or so again but it's disappeared from your responses.

Let's try again. (And I've added some claps for the second time)

The "follow me and I'll follow back" concept seems to be the only way to get to the required number of followers.

I'd rather see more interesting content being posted which could result in real involvement wiith the growing audience. Everyone reading and responding as one community. But even in the group pages, the emphasis is on getting followers and not on content. Does Medium only want paying members. I'm not against that per se but I think all members would appreciate the platform stating what the rules are.