Why Only 50 Claps?
Why only fifty claps per reader per article?
Some of the most wonderful Medium writers I have found consistently go above and beyond to craft the most amazing works. For most of their pieces I read, I find my mouse button clicking away to that 50 clap maximum! (This is, of course, while fully utilizing the other Medium features like highlighting, responding
Likewise, when I craft a piece many writers(including many of those same ones I’ve closely connected with on this amazing space), I receive numerous highlights, responses, and max claps. What such amazing reciprocity there is on this marvelous platform!
But why only 50 claps per viewer per article?
Claps are one of the only metrics to help Medium Partners to earn income. The old-formula used claps exclusively, but the new formula now includes total piece read time plus a form of Medium member referral payments.
So, maybe one reason for implementing the maximum number of claps is to put a cap on how much was paid out per piece? If the old formula allotted so much of a reader’s $5 per clap, then the reader could really only clap 500 times in total before their pay scale ran dry or the claps soon became super saturated.
Another reason, much less technical than above, is simply that excessive clicking on the claps can hurt readers’ clicking apparatuses! After all, other social media or internet platforms only allow for one click of appreciation. You can only post one like on Instagram, one emoji expression mark on Facebook, and one upvote on Quora. Compared to other sites, is the implementation of fifty claps itself excessive? Come to think of it, clicking on the clap icon fifty times is a little bit extra work. But please, Medium, don’t take this as criticism as I love the fifty clap limit! I think the extra clicking requirement is part of the general idea.
If you go to an art museum with hundreds of original, priceless works, is it not the case that you could spend hours and even days just perusing one work of art? And is that not the truth for any work of art, literature, music, and also the quintillions of works in Nature, the more you study or analyze it the more of its riches you find are there to uncover? So, having the point of offering more than just one or a few claps invites readers to spend more time engaging with writings beyond just absorbing their first few layers. Of course, there is always that challenge of finding balance when you only have so much time and energy to devote to perusing works. If viewers were to spend all of their available time and energy looking at just one priceless work at the art museum, then they would miss the countless other works present that are just as priceless. So, the same challenge is met at the Medium reader library (open 24 hours 7 days per week!). Allow for only fifty claps to help gently nudge readers currently enriched by one amazing piece away to other immeasurably rich pieces.
Another nice thing about a maximum number of claps is that it allows readers to have a decipherable metric to at least begin to express what pieces have more of an impact for them personally than others(on the side of the expression that can be scaled anyway). If a reader personally does not find a piece as influential or captivating as another one was, then they can give it fewer claps. Alternatively, if a reader just was so moved and inspired by a piece that it will just continue to stick with them long after they put away their laptop or smartphone, then the max of fifty claps says “wow, this was an amazing piece!”
One thing that can be easily forgotten with claps, likes, loves, or other types of digital expressions is the immeasurable aspect of any of these platforms. If we go just to claps, highlights, read times, or even total views alone we can get stuck only on the aspect of reading and writing that can be quantified or scaled. There is always always the immeasurable dimension as well that manifests in innumerable ways and can be hard to even begin capturing. No doubt, if a piece has tens of thousands of views and thousands of claps it has touched thousands of people in an unquantifiable way. But equally true is the piece that not very many have perused, but has left an imprint that will last forever.
So please, peruse the countless pieces available on Medium and highlight, read, respond, and then highlight some more. If you are especially enriched from the piece, or just want to help draw attention to it, then clap clap clap away to 50! But just like a physical clapping for a live performer, speaker, or award recipient, digital clapping on Medium can get tiring after awhile. So, take a breath, relish what you have received from the piece, and perhaps move on to the next reading or writing project. But just like after the in-person show or ceremony you can go and congratulate the cast or honorable mentions for additional regard, make sure to revisit the piece you have offered the max claps for to gain new insights, offer new responses, and just to interact with the writer and other Medium readers again. And there’s no limit to how many times you can revisit each piece in the future when you want to mine further riches. You just cannot clap anymore =0.
