(Warning: Math involved)

Three things:

(1.) For newbies out there consider the clap system like the grading system we were all inculcated to way back in school:

01–10 claps: F
11–20 claps: D
21–30 claps: C
31–40 claps: B
41–50 claps: A

(2.) Here comes the math part. Let’s say you spend 3 hours and 20 minutes writing, editing and preparing for publishing a short story. At the end of the month you realize that you garnered a total of 618 claps for the story and you made a total of $3.28. Figure out how much money you made PER HOUR for your work. Then figure out how much less that is than your state’s minimum wage.

Then again, let’s say you spend 7 or 8 minutes writing a haiku. At the end of the month you see that you garnered 517 claps and earned $2.92. Once again, figure out how much money you earned PER HOUR for your work. Did you make minimum wage?

(Can you see how the clap system is encouraging extreme brevity — how it is Twitterizing Medium?)

(3.) In response to P.G. Barnett ‘s brave clapping rant I left a response that offered a suggestion to Medium on how to enhance Medium’s broken system. You can read it here .

The problem with claps is that we see it as money (as well as validation). But we can clap 50 times for a story that really moved us and we are only awarding that author a penny or two or maybe three (or only a fraction of a penny if we’re a maxi-clapper). Medium will not allow us to show true appreciation beyond a few pennies. I can award someone 50 claps and feel bad about that because it only amounts to a few pennies for the author. (Even if I only clap one time a month that doesn’t amount to more than about 4 bucks.)

Meanwhile, claps are all we’ve got and we should use them like we mean it. The best way to support an author is to follow them and read all their stuff and give them the clap.