Reader view
-
@chrismcmullen, Glad to have helped. I use http://www.g2reader.com/ for the RSS feed reader. It works a lot better that WP’s Reader; also I subscribe to receive email notices from the blogs that I follow.
@mishunderstood, I understand exactly. We are forced to change the setting to “full text” in order to compete with other blogs that are reblogging and have “full text” with pictures showing. Hope you receive enough views to justify the change for your blog.
-
I have also come across those who say that WordPress does not listen or care when complaints are made. They have lost faith in having their opinions count
The way @designsimply has been responding to posts here, add to it the fact that many changes were either modified or reverted based on complaints, I’d say this is simply not true.
Having experienced some ‘design changes’ on other web platforms, I’m actually quite impressed from the quick response both on this thread and the blog post here!
-
@ehtis
I agree. While I’m personally frustrated with the Reader changes on my pc (checking them out on my iPhone today, I concede that it looks better there), I visited this forum because (A) I’ve received excellent service from the Happiness Engineers in the past and (B) I had hope that they could either do something (and they have implemented a few changes), offer a solution (@designsimply has made some helpful productive solutions on this forum, and even fellow bloggers have provided a couple of nice tips), would have a good explanation for why the changes were made (might make me feel somewhat better), and I might feel that my opinions and suggestions at least received some consideration.
In my experience, Happiness Engineers are very good at providing technical solutions (at least the ones I’ve needed). Dealing with a swarm of frustrated customers is a problem of a totally different nature. -
@ethis
I think that designsimply has responded promptly and politely to the complaints in this thread. That does not mean, however, that the problems have been resolved. It is great to see the word count back. Great!
A “one click” using the “Visit” button is helpful unless people click on other options and end up in the generic, white version.I write poetry and to see it displayed in a jumbled mess in the reader is like a slap in the face when you work so hard to create each line. I thought this would be resolved if I changed to “full text”. It has not.
I cannot display a photo in the reader without using the full text. Again, that means my post can be read in a format that is not my real blog.
-
I’ll say right hear that I am NOT going to read through 7 pages of posts to see if my problems are listed because I don’t have time – life is too short! I have read the first page and so know that many of my complaints have already been covered and, judging by the hastily re-updating of the reader, some have even been acted upon.
First of all can I please say to WP that there is a really good adage which you really should familiarise yourselves with: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Take it as read that I really don’t like the changes you have made to the new reader. It was working perfectly well as it was. I am glad to see that you have reinstated the word count and installed a ‘visit’ button, no doubt as a direct response to the complaints received.
So my queries are:
Why add a ‘view gallery’ option to those posts special enough to have a header picture, if you can’t actually view the gallery (the link doesn’t appear to work)!
Why ISN’T my blog special enough to have a header picture in the reader or ‘view gallery’ option (for when you eventually get that fixed)?
Why IS my blog special enough to still display the pointless (and insulting to blog readers) minute count – I don’t want it; and
Why has my avatar disappeared in the reader?
I notice that these last three points only affect those of us who have been naughty and selfish enough, to set our blogs so that only a small section of each post displays in the reader, forcing the reader to come into the post to read the whole thing.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course!
Regards
thelandroverownerswife -
@designsimply
I asked earlier in this thread if there’s a reason why only posts with summary settings are stripped of their featured images, even though complaints were made about images in the reader in general, full text AND summary. I’d really like to know why one powerful tool to get attention to blog posts is taken away from one specific group of bloggers. -
I have just tried to use the reader again this morning and I am still experiencing issues.
The gallery function doesn’t work in firefox on my PC, it just hangs or results in a page not found error.
I don’t like the gallery link being on the reader anyway. It is yet another dumbing down of quality blog content to suit those lazy individuals that can’t be bothered reading anything. I’ve seen travel blogs with delightful stories of travel and adventure and lovely images to match the text. This feature allows people to view the pictures without even entering the blog let alone reading the story.
I’m also not sure why WP thinks that blogs in their natural theme don’t work on mobile devices. I have had no issue viewing them on my mobile device. I suggest WP developers need to get new devices and stop concentrating on iPaidTooMuch devices as they have actually made the mobile experience worse not better for me. I don’t need a generic white page to read a blog.
The new reader is also now very slow to load and use on my Nokia windows phone to the point it is not really usable at all. I’ve had to revert to the PC. So despite claiming to be making these changes to make mobile experience better, congratulations you’ve made it worse for me and my wife.
Sadly the reader on the PC is also woefully slow to load compared to previous version and that was slower than the version before that. It is now so slow that I can see it rendering one control at a time on each post.
On a PC the reader is also badly laid out. The most important content (the blog post itself) is only taking up about 40-50% of the screen. The rest is either white space or options that I hardly ever use and would be better hidden away. Why are the blog posts not using more of the available real estate?
There is still inconsistency in the results shown. Some have header pictures and some don’t. Please put back the old system that took the first picture in a post as the header picture. That is the one the blogger themselves chose to use to advertise their post and put it at its most prominent position, I suggest it is therefore the most logical choice to use on the reader.
-
-
I agree please bring back the old reader, I really do not like this, I feel like it is easy to miss posts and I hate that the photos do not always show, it seems to random, sometimes it has happened to my post sometimes not. If there is a book review and I cannot see the book cover how do I know I want to read the review or not? May not seem like a big deal but it seems to be affecting my views, and affecting me viewing other peoples sites.
It is also a lot harder to find the blogs I visit a lot. And if I want to view a page its now very easy to unfollow the person instead.
The viewing part was good at the bottom, now it’s at the top, means I have to scroll back up and then view, little annoying on a slow computer.
I do like how it doesn’t automatically update all the new posts, means I can take my time and view the old ones I may have missed but that is the only good thing.
There are plenty of people who have not posted on the forum that do not like this, or are tolerating it because they think there is nothing they can do about it. -
Since most of my complaints were made in this thread, and not always in the politest way, I’d like to thank @designsimply for her patience and WordPress for bringing back the featured images for summary posts. If the new reader stays like that, I’ll have no further complaints ;)
-
Still no image OR avatar on my post summaries in the reader. So excuse me if I’m not appreciative of any changes made to the select few posts since I posted my comment (to which, I might add, I have yet to receive either acknowledgment or a response)!
-
@thelandroverownerswife, the gallery issue you wrote about sounds like a bug, and I will look into it. May I please ask what browser version you are using exactly so I know for my testing?
For the avatar, the main page in the Reader now displays the site icon, which you can set on your WP Admin > Settings > General page. Look for the “Blog Picture / Icon” heading at the top right.
Aside: I do want to say that the points you mentioned are not all issues just with summary feeds, and that we tend to stick around and work together with after a launch and so some of the points are still being sorted. WordPress.com is updated continuously, that’s how it’s setup to work and that is because things are always being improved for a number of reasons, including server side and also to hopefully build a better experience for the majority of readers after all the changes are in. There are always a few dislikes before and after a change. Finding the right set of updates is a balance and something we work with everyone before and after the changes go live—the forums are just one place where these issues are discussed, and you don’t have to read all the comments and feedback if you’re not interested (there are a lot of them!).
@cosgroveloretta, featured images are back! (as you noticed), but just featured images if they are manually set (for now). The Reader is continuing to get updates.
@macjam47 and @bookgeeking, we don’t plan to bring back the old version of the Reader, we have chosen to move forward instead of back. I’ll do my best to help work through issues and provide information about the updates as I get them.
-
It’s getting so hard for readers to reach the actual blogs from the Reader that one wonders if it’s even worth paying for a theme? If everything is going to be read on a bland white background (curiously like Medium, wouldn’t you say?), may as well not bother with our own fancy formatting. WordPress is starting to feel like Orwell’s 1984!
-
Every card in the Reader currently has a direct link to the post on the blog itself in more than one link labeled “visit” (one at the bottom right and one in the more menu). Even without that though, the Reader is one channel of many out there. It is not at all the only way to read and find blogs on WordPress.com, but we do hope that it’s a good choice for the readers who do want to use it. Hopefully it can be a good alternative for some people who are currently using other feed readers instead of this one and also just an overall good reading experience. Being a part of it gives your readers one more channel for finding your content compared to before but it also doesn’t diminish the experience for readers who visit your blog directly. Take a look at your stats and find out where your readers are coming from. If traffic is increasing from the Reader, that’s great and maybe you can focus on finding ways to develop good relationships with those readers from that point. If not, then consider concentrating on the channels you personally prefer to try to get more readers following you.
-
@designsimply
As you’re here anyway… ;-)I noticed something yesterday: I often use the Reader to go back to posts I’ve commented on to just quickly read any new comments that might have been made after mine – subscribing to comment feeds just clutters up my inbox. In these cases I don’t open the blogs themselves, but just click the comment icon in the Reader.
I want to remember that in the previous version that icon linked directly to the comments in the old pop-up, but now with the slide-out it goes to the top of the posts, same as clicking the title, and one has to scroll down the whole length of the post to find the comments. Do you think it’s possible that the comment icon can link directly to the post comments again? Thanks :)
-
- The topic ‘Reader view’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 