@numericcitizen I have some ideas about this, based on my perspective as community manager, which I probably need to refine into a proper post. But in a nutshell: there appears to be more interest and engagement with a short posts that can be read in the timeline without clicking away. If your primary presence here is linked titles from your blog, those interested might prefer to subscribe in RSS. Lately you've posted some microposts of general interest to the community (the evergreen question of why are we here), so that's prompted responses from folks who are interested in this topic.