How many claps did you say?

Multiple claps equal quality… Really??

I’m pretty new to Medium, and I don’t quite understand this “claps” thing. Are you telling us that lots of claps from individual readers indicate a quality story?

Are you saying 50 claps from each of four readers is equal to one clap from each of two hundred readers? After all, with the two hundred readers fifty times as many readers like it. Is there some sort of logic to this?

I say that this could be either an opportunity for a writer to promote his own stories by urging acquaintances to give them multiple claps, or a splashy kind of self-promotion by Medium itself.

If I read a story because a reader or two gave it fifty claps each and it sucks, I’m left to wonder why it got so many claps, and if the number of claps has any meaning at all.

The quality of a story can’t be judged on an objective basis, so we’re left with only subjective bases by which to judge it. I might wish to buy a particular book if it has sold say, a million copies, because that many readers liked it well enough to buy it.

Nobody buys fifty copies of the same book. On Medium, affording readers the opportunity to give up to fifty claps dilutes the value of stories to the extent that there are no longer either objective or subjective methods to judge a story’s quality.

So, if you write a really, really good story and I give only one clap, don’t get all butt-hurt.