I have a lot of questions around this system of getting paid for claps. One is this, I have not read anywhere that Medium actually states that it uses the entire $5.00 fee to redistribute to authors you clap for. I think it is likely a portion of that $5.00 goes to cover other expenses. So, I don’t believe you can actually control how much authors get paid by limiting your claps to 5 for a month and thinking they would each get a $1.00.

Also, I don’t see how clapping less would strengthen payment received. Medium can see how much you clap, and sure, it has to spread that money around, however much of your fee they actually redistribute. But that does not mean an author is going to get less because you clap 50 times instead of once. If you enjoy a post less, give fewer claps, but why should we hoard them?

I really don’t see any rational or data backing up your claim that less clapping would equal more pay. If we clap for those same 5 articles, 50 times each, are you suggesting they would not get the same $1.00 that you think they would get for one clap each?

And if we clap for a lot of articles, because we read a lot, and enjoy many of them, yes, each author will get less from us, but why would deprive the other authors we read of claps, just so each clap can be worth more?

In the end, I think everyone is overthinking the whole clap thing, it shouldn’t be some formula we are trying to hack, we should just clap however much we want for whatever we are reading here on Medium.