Medium Writers! I’m Here To Tidy Up Your Clap Total

“Evening Up” Your Clap Stats is My New Medium Hobby

I’m about to clap for your latest Medium masterpiece, when I realize that it has exactly 467 claps.

So naturally, I think

If I give this piece 33 claps, it will have a total of exactly 500 claps. How cool is that?

And even though I’d originally intended to give it around 20 claps, I am way too tempted to push your clap total to an even 500 claps to do anything but go ahead and give it 33.

This can work in the other direction too. I’m about to reward your outstanding prose with 50 claps, when I realize that giving it just 44 claps will bring its clap total to an even 1K.

How the hell am I going to resist that?

So it’s 44 claps for you.

Ever wonder about the oddball number of claps some of your Medium stories get? Clap Total Even-Uppers like me could be the reason.

Or maybe somebody had another — and possibly better — reason for giving you exactly 44 claps.

Life — especially Medium life — is full of mystery.

I’m not saying that I do this all the time. If giving you 45 claps will push your total to an even 100, but your poem is a turd, it’s not getting 45 claps from me.

But once I discovered that I could turn your clap count into a nice round number? I’ve found myself doing it a lot.

And the great thing about Medium? I know enough about this place to be 100% sure that I’m not the only one.

Writing Coach and editor-for-hire Roz Warren, who writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, can help you improve and publish your work. Drop her a line at [email protected]. (That’s Ros with an “s,” not a “z.”)