Now that X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has managed to repeatedly send out its ad revenue sharing payments on time without any last-minute delays, engineer Eric Farraro is answering questions from users who still aren’t getting the payments they expect. Reasons include: 1) X users only earn ad revenue from other paying X users, 2) advertisers aren’t paying much to reach the demographic that the creator attracts, 3) the posts didn’t get a lot of replies, or 4) their content is not suitable for ads.

That first reason is one that X hasn’t exactly hidden. Here’s how Farraro puts it in his new explanation:

X only issues payments to people who pay for a subscription via X Premium or Verified Organizations (and have a large enough audience to qualify). But also, any money paid to those people (from the money that advertisers pay X to show their ads) is based only on views from other people who also pay for a premium or verified account.

For a creator who posts on X, it takes three separate incoming payments, including the money a creator pays for their own verified account, to create the potential for one outgoing payment from X back to the creator. What those funding sources might look like when laid out as a polygonal shape is between you and your relationship with geometry.

You can purchase a Premium X subscription for as low as $7.99 per month if you’re still interested, and payouts are promised to arrive at a regular cadence if you can generate more than $10.