This was the way it used to be - but the engagement was measured in claps. If you clapped once for one story in a month, they'd probably get about $3.50 for your read. If you went around clapping fifty times like a wide-eyed seal at every piece of linguistic detritus you found, you'd give people $0.0003 pence per clap. The algorithm is going back to a more fair metric - meaning those people who have got large regular audiences who read lots of things aren't going to be earning as much as they once did. See the abandoning ship of Jessica Wildfire and Umair Haque as an example of this in action. New readers and occasional readers who are prompted to change their behaviour and engage (when they don't usually do so) will give you more money. It's a smart move - that Tony knows what he's doing. :o)