How Do YOU Decide How Many Claps to Give?

It’s an Important Question

This morning on Medium I read an excellent story about an app which, as the result of reading it, I decided to give the app another go. How’s that for a mouthful of an opening sentence? It’s probably scared off half my readers. But for those of you who managed to muddle through it, I promise I’ll try not to make it a habit.

It was a well-written article if quite long: the reading time was listed as 13 minutes. I found the investment of my time was well worth it.

But when I got to the end of the article, I saw that whoever had read it before me had only given it 4 claps. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. “Self,” I said to myself. Yes, I talk to myself. Don’t you? How else am I supposed to get excellent advice? “Self,” I continued. “Why on earth would anyone be so frugal with their praise?”

Those weren’t my exact words, but I’m trying to keep my story as family friendly as possible.

My clapping policy is simple: if your story holds my interest enough that I read it in its entirety, I give it 50 claps. But here’s the thing: even if I disagree with what you’re saying, at least you presented your ideas in a rational manner, and caused me to think about the issue.

50 points to Slytherin.

If your story is full of misspellings, typos, grammatical errors and the like, but still holds my interest, 25 claps. However, if I can tell that English…