This is an excellent question.

This is different from a website like Hacker News or Reddit which aim to be social media websites and avenues to engage in discourse.

Applause, instead, is as you might say, a tech demo, but also aims to, through UX and feature, create a different kind of environment than general social media networks. Instead, when a user engages in the act of 'signing' something, people can either agree in whole or not. If they agree in whole, they actually sign the original message itself. It's closer to a "shouting out to the void in a certified manner, and others can join in the shout" versus "shouting out to the void and debating."