So, Customer support says that they will not credit me for the post but I am welcome to create more topics. On the plus side, I submitted the earnings request and my account is now eligible for payment. I now have $1.21.
Three things to note:
1. I can only cashout once I reach $15
2. Payments are no longer dependent on word counts, because people kept abusing the system by only writing 150 word comments.
3. There are now hidden rules to consider and it says that I have only written 121 words, despite having written more than that on separate occasions.
So, looks like 1 word = about $0.01 right now. Every week the word count has some sort of a cap, whatever that entails.
I guess I'll just make comments and write arguments. It doesn't seem worth it to make new topics only to get paid crap or nothing at all.