Interesting post, and you actually made me think a little more about the underlying mechanism instead of being annoyed at the twee functionality, so kudos to you for that!
The biggest issue I have is that Medium was (emphasis on “was”) the thoughtful writing platform. Over the last several years, we’ve seen a decline in the quality of the content here as listicles and the like gained prominence, proving once again that any content platform on the web will eventually sink to the least common denominator.
For Medium to now introduce a UI feature that feels more at home on BoredPanda or Buzzfeed seems to signal a corporate level acceptance of the slide into mediocrity. The juvenile nature of the clap feature seems to dovetail perfectly with the increasingly juvenile writing we see on the site.
I understand perfectly that they’re experimenting with a business model, but does the world need another UpWorthy? It needed a Medium, back when Medium meant a platform for thoughtful content.
