there are many one-clap readers, and I would really like to know why is that so

I think some of us who were here when we hearted stories instead of clapping have just continued using the little clapping hands the way we used the heart — click it (once), or don’t click it at all. That’s a long established habit. I started out that way, and only in the last couple of weeks have branched out a bit. I have yet to clap 50 times for any story, though. I generally clap 1 to 5 times, ten if a story really knocks my socks off.

An important point to consider here is that Medium’s algorithm, if I understand it correctly, measures each user’s activity separately, so one clap from a member who always only claps once has exactly the same weight as 50 claps from a member who always claps 50 times. One clap and 50 claps (and everywhere in between) mean completely different things for different readers. Plus, “engagement” in the Medium algorithm means more than simply claps. I don’t know what they are measuring exactly, but I suspect time spent on the page is one thing, and number (and probably length) of responses is another. So a reader who stays on your story long enough to have read it in full (as measured by how long Medium thinks it will take to read your story — “5 minute read”), who then claps once, AND leaves a response, will count significantly higher on the engagement scale (and thus the payout if it is a locked story) than a reader who clicks on your story, claps 50 times, then leaves the page before the clock runs out (say 4.5 minutes into a “5 minute read”).