I responded and encouraged Medium to count the time spend reading responses in addition to the actual story. This would help short writing (haikus, poetry, comics, micro-fiction, short humor, etc.) if it was engaging enough for people to respond.

But let’s face it, Medium has never favored creative writing, so it probably won’t make that much difference. I was certainly not getting rich on my One Minute Wit humor stories or comics or poems or (sometimes long) fiction. So now I will get 1 cent for a 30 second read instead of 1 cent for 50 claps. It’s still a penny.