Medium Stats
The Puzzle of the Lone Clapper
Applause without attendance
I have seen instances where a story received claps but no views or reads. I was curious how this could happen and, as fortune would have it, a single story proved a snapshot of the how and maybe even the why.
In my stats, I can see this story has one fan and no views or reads. I recalled seeing readers applauding while the read count remained lower than the read count. This early statistic would be reversed later with reads and views far above the number of fans.
Once the stats started showing multiple fans it was difficult to recall which story had the early “fan only” numbers. Then I self-published a real turkey. A complete flop. Closed on Broadway by the first intermission.
The story was just a photo I took along with some camera settings data. The story received one clap, no views, no reads. Can it get worse? Well, yes. Go ahead and put some pity claps on it, but be sure you follow the instructions below so the views and reads will continue as zero.
I did remember getting the alert on the clap and that alert was still in my alert history.
I had seen this clapper before. Now to be clear, I am not calling out any single person but simply working out a puzzle and deciphering the Medium UI. If recognize yourself as the lone clapper, thanks for reading and I applaud YOU!
The update made it difficult to decipher where this lone clap came from. Then I found where the clap details can be found. On the story, the hand icon will be greyed out as you cannot clap for yourself (at least on Medium). Next to that icon is the number of claps linked to the breakdown. Claps are displayed chronologically with the newest ones at the top.
The question remained how the claps could happen without a view. For this, I went to the list of stories listed on my profile. When viewing stories on the profile page, the story will have the kicker, title, subtitle, splash image, and a segment of the text with “read more…” at the bottom. If the story is short enough the splash image will be used as a background to the title and subtitle.
In all stories on this list, there is a set of icons for claps, comments, share, bookmark, and ellipsis. Here is where a reader can applaud without reading or even viewing.
Once there is a mix of views, reads, and claps it is difficult to discern who is clapping without opening the story, but with a piece that is box office poison you can tease that data point out. I don’t advise setting honey pot traps, but it did give me a look at user interactions with the Medium UI. In my opinion, the clap option should only be available after opening the full story, perhaps except for short-form material.
Should I block this reader? It appears they are clapping on as many stories as possible, perhaps to garner followers and/or reads. In this case, the reader is not a prolific writer but does promote a business in his bio. On the other hand, it does prime the pump for general applause, much like the lone slow clap that leads to a standing ovation.