Reading through your post now. It is such a long read thought it best to comment first...
Sorry to hear of the reaction you have received on your content. My feeling is that getting one's following together is critical. Then we can grow together turning those penny paycheques into something more stubstantual. With that in mind, consider yourself followed. 😉
Thanks, that is one encouraging element, I have gone from 150 to 250 followers in the last month. But with no upvotes or actual reads I wonder what that even means.
People want quality, that means actual content. Despite engaging with about 20 people over the last day on this and other threads, not a single new upvote on my blog and most people didn't upvote my comments either. I don't get it.
There is very little organic, real engagement on the platform inside of posts themselves even on popular authors' posts, so don't be too surprised. And yes, most followers are going to be bots or some other non-person entity, and even if they are real people, 90% of them won't be active in a year, if past trends hold true.