Ev, I’m excited to see how this experiment turns out. I’m actually enjoying the multiple claps, and I’m sure many Medium users have had the experience of wanting to give 2 thumbs up (or more) on Facebook, or liking an Instagram photo more than once. Clapping offers that flexibility.
However, what’s the difference between 2 claps and 3? 6 or 8?
It seems to me that people will skip numbers that don’t offer a sufficient degree of meaning, and will jump to some (mentally) predefined numbers, while ignoring the in-betweeners (I’m going with 1, 3, 10, if my memory serves me correctly).
Maybe replacing the claps with a sequence of emojis would be a better alternative:
- Thumbs Up (good read — private acknowledgement)
- Heart (loved it — recommending it to others)
- Clapping (highly recommended)
- Standing O (one of the best reads this week)
OK, I’ve not fully thought this through (especially in terms of payments and how an article rating is displayed), but thought I’d point out the need to associate greater meaning to the claps.
A simpler alternative might be to associate a word to different ranges of claps (and it can float up in the same way claps do): Like, Love, Amazing, etc.
