Seriously, I say seriously more often than I should. But seriously, the 50 clap thing is an interesting, but failed experiment. When some readers give one clap like they’re shitting gold and others hand out 50 claps like candy on Halloween it is clear that the clapping system has failed to achieve a consensus of meaning.

Most music publications think five stars is all the range they need to convey the appropriate meaning. If anyone can articulate the difference between 42 and 43 claps, I’ll happily eat my hat.

We all know no one can without retreating into satire. That fact that there are so many articles about clapping proves the point.

So Medium, nice try, but it has failed. Five clap range max, or ten, if you still think variegated clapping has got some legs, but 50? Too much choice quickly becomes too much ambiguity which we know always leads to neurosis.