I, Too, am Tired of Claps
Claps don’t tell the truth
We’ve gotten too cozy again with the ways of how things work on the platform — specifically, the clapping economy and the ego boost of writers. Let’s be honest for a minute; claps tell us something about the way a piece performs. Please allow me to retract that, and say we make judgments about the performance of a piece based on the amount of applause it receives.
To be clear, Ev Williams wasn’t in favor of claps, as we affectionately call them. He was in favor of the idea of applause, as when you attend a performance. You get to clap once, and up to 50 times, depending on how the piece moves you.
Full disclosure: I’ve clapped a full 50 for pieces I wholeheartedly disagree with because the author presented subject matter well, usually in a non-offensive manner, and because they made me think in a special way.
It’s more like this: If one of my kiddos was up on stage and performed awfully, I’d still applaud the full 50 because, well, that’s my kiddo. Whew! Got the parenting tag on this one. And I love my kids.
But, I think we’re too attached to applause, “claps” as we’ve affectionately come to call them. I think claps have become too attached to a writer’s ego. And the issue of judgment is another matter entirely.
When you enter a piece as a reader, you make a judgment about it based on the number of claps it has received. If it has received a high number of claps, perhaps you read a little more slowly, and if it has a low number of claps, you breeze through as if the piece isn’t worth your time.
The number of claps doesn’t always represent the way you judge a piece. I’ve had pieces that look like they receive little to no engagement perform exceptionally well, and pieces that have a lot of claps perform really poorly, of course, the converse has also been true. Claps don’t tell the truth. Claps lie.
What if we did away with claps? Well, then we couldn’t see who was clapping up our piece. They might have to actually take the time to leave a comment. If they like the piece well enough they may leave a value comment. You know, one that shares how the piece connected with them as a reader. But, that takes time and claps are easy.
