That creates the obvious problem that Facebook would then own it, and use it to feed its own gaping personal behavioural tracking maw.

No. Fucking. Thanks.

I like the clap feature. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it at the start but it definitely better than a binary 'like'.

It gives me the ability to drop 'claps' as I'm scrolling through an article and liking certain parts. I get to the end and there's a total of however-many claps I've clapped.

I hope medium are tracking the position each clap was made, along with certain things like if a user genuinely read the article - opposed to those who just clapped from the front page or at the top of the article without scrolling.

Do you really want a writer to wright for claps or to say what she has to say ?

One problem with that is Facebook is likely to hide all content behind a login wall. At least now the text is accessible.