For me, it has been disheartening to see someone spend 1 to 3 minutes whipping out an haiku and then get as many (or more) claps and therefore money as someone who spends 2 to 5 days working on an intricate short story or detailed, well-researched article. Perhaps this new system will help remedy that gross imbalance.

Of course I’m cautiously optimistic. This article did not make it clear whether ‘total reading time’ meant ‘total percentage of reading time of the posted minute read’ or actual reading time. If it’s the former the haiku writers will still make out fine since it’s fairly easy to devote one whole minute to a one minute read. If it’s the latter then serious writers who write more in-depth stories and articles may start doing better. (And haiku writers will have to churn out far more haikus to maintain their earnings.)

Up until now brevity has been the number one consideration for success on Medium. It has been more important than anything else! In a recent response to an article about Medium I stated that Medium needed to make a decision. Are they a serious writing platform or are they just another version of Twitter? With these new changes I am hoping that Medium is finally answering that question.

As for how things turn out we writers will not know until December 8th.

One more question: Since claps no longer figure into payment and read time is the number one consideration does this mean that highlighting and responses no longer matter? Or matter less? I think this is an important question that still remains unanswered.