Tom Harrison
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Several quick points.

Time read can be a strong signal as long as the denominator accounts for length (and perhaps density).

Facebook dumbed down more nuanced measures of quality as being attempts at greater precision than is warranted. They gave us the binary Like, which was brilliant. This was probably correct as the best proxy for quality in most cases on Facebook, a decidedly less meaty source than Medium. And of course Like’s brilliance wasn’t its ability to measure preference as much as it was to gather unrelated data, in an evil way, no less.

So a question is: for people wishing to express an opinion of quality, what’s a good UI for receiving the intended signal? It would be quite difficult to argue that claps provide greater precision unless the data proves otherwise. Having spent a substantial part of my career evaluating online feedback mechanisms, I am dubious. I think Facebook is getting about as much signal as there is.

Above all, discoverability is by far the most significant factor in getting the clap. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself). And even in the mostly closed-loop system of Medium, there are numerous positive-feedback loops that undermine the value of feedback. That is, feedback creates visibility that creates feedback.

I write a blog here. It’s not very well read. Not long ago I wrote a post on a particularly dry topic. Someone, a single individual, posted it on hacker news and I subsequently got hundreds of thousands of views and reads compared to my usually 10s to 100s. It’s now a top 3 article on the topic on google search. I got hearts (now the clap!) when people read. Discoverability is by far the most important factor.

Similarly, it’s concerning that the clap seems to be encouraging clickbait on Medium. This is a fact-free observation.

That said, I do fully support the idea that we need to find better ways to support writers and do so using meaningful methods of signaling. So tests and experiments are the only way. This, in the form of PageRank, was indeed the core innovation of Google search in the late 90s. As Matt Cutts, former Googler, knows very well there is no system that cannot be gamed. While I think the clap is simplistic, the only way to find something new is to try, try, and try again.

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    Tom Harrison

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    30 Years of Developing Software, 20 Years of Being a Parent, 10 Years of Being Old. (Effective: 2019)

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