I also think that it's a mistake to conflate public sharing with engagement, but the renumeration model is sound. Hopefully they'll roll out another redesign that manages to keep the economic mechanics intact.
While the idea of showing extent of engagement is great, I can't help but notice that articles which would only have 10-12 recommends have 200-300 claps mostly bc those claps come from friends of the author trying to promote the story. It makes it incredibly difficult as a reader to objectively ascertain what is actually more recommended by people. Additionally, as a reader, I have no idea what amount of claps is appropriate (eg is 10 claps excessive for a good article or is it not enough?). The recommend model was excellent, don't fix it if it aint broke.
I couldn't agree with this more. And from many other services that have since simplified their ratings, Medium should already know that people are going to give articles either one "clap" or all the "claps" they can, making the additional feedback precision mostly pointless.
I actually find myself using Medium less recently, I think because of this (perceived, at least) additional complexity.
I highlight text as I'm reading too, clicking very fast as I do. Every time one of those share boxes pops up and because of my fast clicking I accidentally click some 'tweet highlighted text' button I almost have an aneurysm.
BTW: A branding statement from Medium shared with Poynter says the new wordmark and branding system "reflects the unique and dynamic nature of the ideas you can find on Medium without compromising the voices and stories shared."
It always amazes me that people can come up with this stuff with a straight face.
Absolutely. Similar things happen in other fields from engineering to showbiz. (aka brainstorming) What amazes me is that people have a different "mode" in publicity/advertising that allows them to consume this stuff seriously.
I like the clap feature. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it at the start but it definitely better than a binary 'like'.
It gives me the ability to drop 'claps' as I'm scrolling through an article and liking certain parts. I get to the end and there's a total of however-many claps I've clapped.
I hope medium are tracking the position each clap was made, along with certain things like if a user genuinely read the article - opposed to those who just clapped from the front page or at the top of the article without scrolling.
"Medium pays authors by dividing up every individual subscriber’s fee between the different articles they’ve read that month."
So if you read one article during a month , your entire fee would go to one source even if you are subscribed to many sources ? Not sure how to feel about this.
That sorta makes sense. If you were the one article that brought a user online that month, and the user is a full paying user, perhaps you earned it.
Really though I think you should give articles a weight that's got a six month half-life or so. Users who read articles 6 months ago are still paying out to those authors, but not as much as they are paying out to the recent articles.
But it's in the writer's best interest that I only read 1 article, theirs. Also, it's probably best for Medium that I read fewer articles- at least then some writers earn a reasonable amount of money and stick around instead of everybody earning a pittance.
Readit News
I read quite a lot of articles that are well written, but that I don't agree with. So, I'm engaged, but I likely won't "clap".
Wouldn't this drive writers to just pander to the majority opinion?
(does medium call likes claps? is that what a clap is?)
Apparently yes, with the additional twist that one can give multiple claps to a story.
I actually find myself using Medium less recently, I think because of this (perceived, at least) additional complexity.
Medium with dickbars? = No claps.
Dead Comment
It always amazes me that people can come up with this stuff with a straight face.
With the extra action required, you reward agreeable content, not necessarily interesting content.
LinkedIn/Microsoft acquiring them would also be interesting since writing on LI is absolutely horrible.
Seems medium is lost product wise. It is getting progressively worse and the new "clap" feature is hilariously bad.
No. Fucking. Thanks.
It gives me the ability to drop 'claps' as I'm scrolling through an article and liking certain parts. I get to the end and there's a total of however-many claps I've clapped.
I hope medium are tracking the position each clap was made, along with certain things like if a user genuinely read the article - opposed to those who just clapped from the front page or at the top of the article without scrolling.
So if you read one article during a month , your entire fee would go to one source even if you are subscribed to many sources ? Not sure how to feel about this.
Really though I think you should give articles a weight that's got a six month half-life or so. Users who read articles 6 months ago are still paying out to those authors, but not as much as they are paying out to the recent articles.
Plus, is this going to be transparent to the readers? Will I know how my 5$ were split among sources?