The sheer variety of metrics can be overwhelming, and it would be much easier if we simply substitute a single number for them all. Such economy – though perhaps convenient – is not feasible if we are to preserve the breadth of information that these metrics offer as well as maintain felicity to their different natures. We will discuss how individual article-level metrics (ALMs) in the PLOS suite measure different things: Different audiences: public vs. scholarly interest Different dimensions: attention, self-promotion, or impact Different timepoints after publication: days, months, or years