My understanding is that 50 claps – as opposed to any other number – along with highlighting and responses is calculated into how the algorithm gets your writing in front of eyes. But, I think the actual read time on a page plus any number of claps – from paid members – is how the payout is calculated.

The full read time is calculated by how long it takes the robowhine to read out the entire article. You can turn the volume off and let the robowhine run silent. Then, just follow along as it reads down the page. I let the robowhine run while I read for this reason.

But, I read rather faster than it does. Sometimes – particularly on longer articles, I get a bit frustrated with how the robowhine keeps making the page pop back to where it's still reading. For example, the average article expected to take 7 minutes, will take me maybe 5 or 5 1/2 minutes to read.