Musings on Social Nudity

Let’s Have a Big Round of Applause for Naturism!

How “clapping” or responding to a MEDIUM story helps perpetuate the naturist (or any) cause.

How can YOU help promote naturism on MEDIUM? Take a moment to show your appreciation for an article by clicking the little “CLAP” button at the bottom of the page. Do your part and “give it up” for thoughtful writing about nudity!

If you’re happy and you know it, CLAP YOUR HANDS!

While this piece it targeted at my naturist readers who’ve drifted over from other platforms, the concept applies to all writers on all topics on MEDIUM. If you take time to respond to what you read, you not only reward the writer, but you also promote the cause!

I’ve been blogging about naturism since 2004 on various platforms. I began my WordPress blog, The Meandering Naturist, in 2012 just before we moved to France for a year. Frustrated by my inability to attract new readers after my Instagram and Twitter accounts were disabled due to subtle images of non-sexual nudity, I came to MEDIUM in hopes of finding a new path to advocate for family-oriented naturism.

So far, that’s been very successful! with loads of responses from readers who don’t consider themselves naturists at all, but have reconsidered the virtues of social nudity after reading a few of my stories. Are they about to go out and drop trou at local nude beach? Most of them, probably not, but comments like “I had no idea there was an entire culture around clothes-free recreation” have been very affirming!

My goal has always been to help people tolerate — if not outright understand — social nudity. If I make a few new naturist friends along the way, all the better!

To date, I’ve posted 48 stories on MEDIUM. Most of those share a common thread related to my passion for naturism, others are more focused on clothed travel, while some of my top performers specifically offer tips for naturist travel. MEDIUM provides an impressive dashboard so I can measure which stories are getting the most “reads,” along with the corresponding earnings that reflect how long people spend reading my articles. To date, my top earner — if you will — is a piece I wrote in response to another story on MEDIUM about the casual attitudes toward nudity in Spain.

That story has had nearly 2000 views with over 450 people who have taken the time to actually read the story, and a whopping 38 fans!

What is a fan you might ask?

Someone who actually takes a moment to show their appreciation for your writing by clicking the little “CLAP” button at the bottom of the page.

When an article receives claps from 10 unique readers, MEDIUM sends me a message that my piece is performing well, while at the same time, bumping my article up in the rankings so it will appear more frequently on other people’s reading lists.

Should my article receive claps from 50 unique fans, it gets bumped way up the grid to reach even more people. And if it clears 100, MEDIUM apparently deems you some kind of god-like authority on your topic, and really moves you into the mainstream. (At least, this is what I’ve heard. I’ve yet to clear 38 fans, but the Barcelona article continues to perpetuate itself despite the fact that I wrote it nearly a month ago!)

So HOW can YOU promote naturism by reading stuff on MEDIUM?

That’s an excellent question!

First, if you haven’t already subscribed, you should do that. It’s only $5 a month for access to everything published on MEDIUM. Growing the Medium membership base helps support all the writers who contribute to this platform

Secondly, if you enjoy what you read, take the time to CLAP! That designates you as a fan, which elevates the story in the rankings so it will ultimately be seen by more people who didn’t even know naturism was a thing! And if you take time to COMMENT, that helps even more.

Full disclosure: That also has the added benefit of generating more profit for the author since they earn a few cents every time a unique reader reads their stuff.

But if I’m being honest, that also incentivizes writers to write more, in this case, getting more thoughtful information out there about social nudity and nude recreation. That was the goal, right?

All that said, it’s been very interesting to me to observe which of my stories are getting read, and which ones are not. In general, those directly related to naturism are getting the most traction, due in large part to the fact that I frequently promote those in various Facebook groups.

My second most read story is a redux of our favorite nude beaches, with over 2000 views and 21 fans.

Readers also really liked this piece about misconceptions people have about nudists, with over 1000 views, but only 7 fans. Maybe they read it, but didn’t actually like it! LOL

Sometimes I write about travel experiences that are memorable, despite the fact that I kept my clothes on, like this one where I was hijacked into the red light district by a taxi driver during a layover in Manila.

I guess that must be a common occurrence as only 80 people bothered to even look at it, and only 20 of those stayed long enough to read the story.

Readers seemed intrigued by my story about the big windows without coverings in Amsterdam where you can see people living their lives right there! Only 69 people stayed long enough to read it, but 16 of those became fans! That’s a nice ratio.

And I’ve been whining for weeks about the poor performance of this story about my daughter who moved to Paris last summer where she is studying education while meeting some of the most fascinating people on the planet. That one garnered a mere 101 views, with 27 reads, but an impressive turnout of 11 fans. That is — nearly half the people who read the story took the time to CLAP for it! Wow!

And here’s one more thing MEDIUM people love to kvetch about.

For the first month or two, I didn’t realize that you could offer more than one clap! But if you hold the clap button down, the counter will run all the way up to 50 claps! (It takes about 7 seconds to run the clap count up to 50!)

What does that mean, exactly? Nobody seems to know! I think MEDIUM counts you as a fan whether you clap once or fifty times, but there are loads of writers out there who are genuinely butt-hurt when you don’t give them a full dose of 50 claps!

I, for one, am happy if I get any claps at all, though I would be lying if I said there was no gratification in watching that clap counter creep up into the hundreds or thousands.

But let me reiterate! The math here is simple.

I WANT TO PROMOTE NON-SEXUAL, SOCIAL NUDITY

I WRITE ON WORDPRESS AND MEDIUM IN AN EFFORT TO FURTHER THAT CAUSE

YOU CAN SUPPORT THAT CAUSE BY SUBSCRIBING TO MEDIUM, READING ARTICLES ABOUT SOCIAL NUDITY, (mine or anyone else’s!) AND SHOWING YOUR APPRECIATION BY CLAPPING AT THE END OF THE STORY!

DONE!

To that end, you many also want to take a look at another one of my recent stories about women who write on the topic of social nudity. Really great articles that I did not write, given the fact that I am not a woman. (But you’ll need to have an active MEDIUM account to read them all.)

There are more women out there writing about nudity than you might think, as I could generate two more top ten lists in that category with the archives I’m currently curating. If that’s not good news for the future of naturism — or at least for the acceptance of social nudity — I don’t know what is.

Do your part and give it up for thoughtful writing about nudity! A small price to pay with the potential of big returns.

Enjoy this story? Please take a moment to clap! You can clap up to 50 times, and each time you do that, it helps move naturist stories up the queue in the MEDIUM algorithm.

I write about naturism, travel, and other parts of the human experience simply for the joy of writing. Totally worth it. But every time somebody spends time reading one of my stories, I earn a few cents to help pay the overhead costs of being a blogger.

It’s only a few dollars a month to subscribe to Medium, which gives you access to thousands of authors and their work. And if you subscribe by clicking through the link below, I receive an incentive for that as well. Support naturism and thoughtful writing. Subscribe to MEDIUM… below…

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