Good Question Lynne.

Thanks for the mention, by the way.

I have never signed up to their pay thing, I just write for the love of, so I don't care.

HOWEVER, checking my stats I have noticed the interesting outside reads thing and the sometimes huge number of views, which are ALWAYS from outside.

I can understand why the outside reads thing is not interesting to Medium. I am not sure that it benefits them because it comes from google searches. those searches are based on tags, and while it would be great if you got paid for those views/reads those searches are not looking to join Medium to get interesting stuff. Anyway, that is my theory. I find that my Caturday posts usually get very good views - from outside. I looked at the tags I used and the that seems to ties it in.