I treat clapping like applauding at a concert. If I really enjoyed a story, I give it 50 claps (standing ovation.) But I don’t like having to judge and rate stories with claps, so I usually just give whatever I feel like at the moment. On my own stories, I feel any number of claps is good. New readers usually give 1 clap until they realize they can give more. Clapping on Medium is very arbitrary.