Are Your Stories Still Clap Cows?
My 3–13–22 views on clapping have evolved a little.
It is with a modicum of remorse I remind you of what I said a bit more than a year ago.
Not views nor reads nor comments, but fans mean money. They are defined, of course, as a clap each made by an individual reader.
An article with 50 claps could be the result of 50 readers clapping once, or one reader clapping 50 times. If the story had 50 individual claps by 50 different, unique readers, it earns 50 fans. That’s better than just having 50 claps that could have been earned in different ways.
Here is where my wealth of knowledge starts to trail off.
Ten fans get you a note from Medium, as do 50 and 100, and I understand that coincides with amounts of money earned. Exactly how, has not come into my focus yet, but even though the formula is elusive, it does exist.
Now, in my youthful medium experience, I have written some stories that have gotten several hundred views and only 10 or 15 fans. But I have had a profile page that has received fewer views but with many times the number of fans than those with higher views.
At this point, as far as I can determine, the difference between the best earner and all the rest is the picture of me.
So to complete my research and be earning a little extra cash, I will soon make available at the end of my articles a link to a high-definition jpeg of me for sale through PayPal. You have my permission to use it (in a tasteful way) in your own stories.
Clap on, and thank you for your time!
Since that time, I have come to learn that the applause makes no money, but there are some clap manners involved.
In a way, it’s as though your story is a lamp, connected to a clap sensor. Clap on - clap off… The Clapper. But it still only represents a blue-sky, feel-good type of currency.
If you approve of some story, you clap. One is the minimum to constitute clapping, and the system regulates the maximum at 50 claps, no matter how much you liked the tale.
Therefore, the number of claps a reader gives n story, designates your appreciation or your disguised disdain. The clap button continues to press itself if you hold it down, so you can’t accuse a low clapper of being lazy.
You can only realize that a low clap number represents faint praise, one hand clapping, and a definite notation of the reader being somewhat less than enthusiastic about a story.
I must say, at this point, that I am still appreciative of every clap I receive, and I only write this for the general body of knowledge.
I have dealt with this subject previously a time or two, and I am sure of two things, especially the first.
1. I overthink everything.
2. Some people underthink everything.
Perhaps it’s just someone’s way of making a snide comment to an author without obviously trying to hurt feelings, but your cat is officially out of the rucksack and out of the gate, so now everybody knows what you underclappers are up to.
But nobody’s reading this story anyway. Let’s check the clap count.
Thanks for reading!
Don’s a keen observer and prolific reporter of truth, common sense, humor, & life. He’s a WRITER|HUMORIST, sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek. He lives in Nashville, Tn.