Are Claps Really That Important?

Summary

The article explores the significance of claps on Medium, questioning whether they are merely a form of compliment or have a substantial impact on an article's reach and earnings, and invites readers to participate in an experiment by not clapping but commenting to understand the algorithm's behavior better.

Abstract

The author of the article discusses the importance of claps on the Medium platform, reflecting on the excitement of receiving a large number of claps for a popular article. The piece raises questions about the role of claps in Medium's algorithm and their effect on an article's visibility and the author's earnings. The author hypothesizes that while claps may contribute to total read time, their impact might be negligible compared to leaving meaningful comments or highlights. The article also touches on the common practice of Medium sending congratulatory emails upon reaching 10 fans (individuals who have clapped for an article), yet it remains unclear whether this metric influences the platform's algorithm or future earnings. To gain insight into these questions, the author proposes an experiment, asking readers to refrain from clapping but to comment on the article instead, with the intention of analyzing the results in a follow-up piece.

Opinions

The author values claps as a form of compliment and acknowledgment but questions their practical significance beyond the psychological boost they provide.
It is suggested that the time spent clapping is minimal compared to other forms of engagement like commenting or highlighting, and thus its contribution to earnings may not be substantial.
The author notes a trend of articles complaining about the number of claps received, speculating that this may be more about the writer's ego than actual impact on earnings or the algorithm.
There is skepticism about the importance of reaching 10 fans as a benchmark for increased article promotion by Medium's algorithm.
The author encourages readers to participate in an experiment to understand the algorithm better, emphasizing that insights gained from this experiment could be valuable despite the ever-changing nature of algorithms.
The article implies that the number of claps should not be a primary concern for writers, especially when considering the various reasons why readers may choose to clap a certain number of times.

Or is it simply just a compliment?

What would happen if I wrote an article that got tons of engagement such as people highlighting and leaving comments but no one left a single clap? Would it matter? Would the Medium algorithm continue to push it out or would fewer people see it because it has no claps?

All good questions that I don’t have an answer for at the moment, but I would really appreciate your help trying to figure it out. Do me a favor and do not clap for this article. Highlight something if you want to but I do encourage you to please leave a comment. All you have to do is say Hi 😄 or you can tell me what you think will happen with this article that has no claps. Really you can say anything you want just please keep it respectful.

When my most popular article, entitled I finally figured out the actual difference between a read and a view hit over 1K claps I was beyond excited. It was my first article to reach 1K claps (or 1K anything for that matter) and it felt like such a big deal. It was an exciting milestone in my Medium writing career. We all love recieving claps because it’s a compliment, it’s a sign that people like what we wrote, but are claps really that significant beyond making us feel good?

I was able to find the answer to the views vs reads question within Medium’s own resources and all I did was share that information. This time around it’s a bit more tricky to find the answer to this particular question. There are no articles from Medium answering the significance of claps when it comes to earnings. Yet a lot of people seem to take claps very seriously.

By now most of us know that the more time people spend reading an article the more money it will earn. So in essence the higher your total read time is on an article, the more money you’ll make from it. But let’s be honest clapping only adds a few extra seconds to the total time someone spends on an article. Of course, those few seconds could add up but is it really that significant? It takes longer to leave a meaningful comment than it does to clap. Even taking the time to stop and highlight could take longer than the time it takes to leave a few claps.

Yet I’ve seen quite a few articles that complain about people only clapping once versus the 50 they could give. Is that their ego speaking? Or does it actually affect their earnings or the algorithm? I for one try not to think too much about the number of claps each person gives me. There are still newbies on this site that don’t know you can clap 50x but there are also 100 reasons people give a limited number of claps and really I don’t have the energy to try to figure it out.

What I do know is that once you reach 10 fans aka 10 different people who have clapped for your article at least once Medium sends an email congratulating you on reaching 10 fans. But the question is does it really mean anything in terms of the algorithm and future earnings? Is 10 fans the benchmark for when they start to push your article out more? Or is it just simply nice to know that 10 people liked your article enough to clap for it?

Let’s find out once and for all! Leave me a comment but don't clap for this article. Algorithms are very tricky to understand. Things are forever changing so we’ll never understand it perfectly, but this experiment can give us some really great insight.

I’ll write a follow-up article in a month discussing the results! Thank you to everyone who participates in this experiment.

Also note: If you happen to accidentally hit that clap button out of habit don’t worry you can undo claps as well.

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