I haven’t left Medium. I’m still here, and will be.

I left Illumination because I do not like the strongly encouraged mutual back patting among the members. At some writing sites, you could be banned for that.

The Medium rules plainly state that they do not allow:

• Repeatedly using responses or other interactions as a method of promotion
• Participating in bounty campaigns or brigades to artificially inflate rankings for posts, accounts, businesses, or products

Pumping up other writers simply because they are part of Illumination looks like that to me.