Reader view
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Note also:
… Views and likes made in the reader are not counted. Nor are views made by staff or users (admins and authors) on the site.
What is likely happening is that the visitors are visiting your site either in a feed reader or the WordPress.com Reader. As such, those views are not being counted or shown in the stats. From
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/country-of-origin-not-showing-correctly?replies=11#post-2425224 -
@roughseasinthemed, I meant the same number of clicks compared to before, I see now that you’re asking for a change to how it used to be too. It’s definitely one opinion to not like the single-post view, but there are different opinions about that. The Reader is purposely designed to be faster, have consistent readable typography, minimal design, and there are some big improvements to the codebase itself that will help us serve more content faster as the platform grows. A lot of thought did go into it, and it will continue to get updated as we learn and watch not only feedback but stats as well.
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@designsimply ~ I prefer seeing it gone entirely.
In fact, if you put a reading time on longform pieces but not on shorter ones, you actually are discriminating against writers who prefer to provide longer entries. You are encouraging people to think, however unconsciously, “Oh, that’s too long. I couldn’t read that.”
I see a basic conflict between WordPress’s encouragement of longform writing and publishing an arbitrary “reading time.” It’s an encouragement of reading as consumption rather than comprehension.
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@designsimply ~ I’d have to think about that. I do think word count would be better than reading time, though I would prefer to have neither.
And there’s this, about the reading time. I just had cataract surgery. Before the surgery, I read very slowly, because my eyesight was so poor. Something that took a normally-sighted person five minutes to read would have taken me ten, or longer.
Now, I’m up to speed, as they say, and back to reading quickly. But that’s part of the problem with reading time as a measure: it’s so arbitrary, and determined by so many different variables.
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designsimply- I always thought the word count was strange but to pick one or the other….definitely word count. The “reading time” is an insult to our intelligence and discourages us from reading, the opposite of the goals here, I would think.
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A summary of changes….
The posts in the reader are SO close to each other it is hard to distinguish them. How is this an improvement?
We now have an advertised “reading time” when we already had a more subtle and polite version via word count. It seems so juvenile, as though we would not have the attention span to read a longer post. It discourages reading. How is that an improvement?
There are blogs in the reader that I have clicked on every possible place, only to view them in an ugly white background. In order to get to their actual blog I have to click on a very small link to their blog….oh but no…that takes me to their posts lined up in the reader….so then I have to click on an very tiny link at the top to finally get to their blog! Improvement?? Really??
My blog was carefully created. It is MY creation. What gives WordPress the right to display my material in a different background that I did not choose? Clearly not an improvement if it has altered my own blog.
Due to these changes, stats are not counted as they were before. You give us the ability to follow stats and contribute to others stats, a very interesting part of the blogging experience for many…and then you make the stats inaccurate. What is the point?
Besides venting here which seems futile for the most part, why are we not given any opportunity to give our input as loyal WordPress writers and followers. How about a survey???
We need a voice! -
tl;dr: Give us back a way to click directly to the source blog & fix the accessibility problems.
OK, *now* how do we get to the actual blog that we actually want to read on the actual blogsite?
Last time y’all re-invented the Reader, you took away that feature; and eventually, after pages and pages of complaints, you gave us a Special Secret way to get there – we had to click on the wordcount, I think? or was it the timestamp? Now, neither of those things work. It keeps displaying the blog post in the read/post/feed page. By experimenting, I found that if I clicked again on the blog post title, it would take me to where I actually wanted to go.
Seriously. It should not take me two clicks, and an extra page load, in order for me to get to a blog post from the reader.
(Because I don’t actually use it as a reader. I use it as a feed, that I can use to skim & click through to the things I actually want to read.)
Please, don’t make us beg you for a month again before you put this feature back.
Also, I would *very* strongly prefer an actual word count to some arbitrary “reading time”. Very, very strongly. If you must support the “reading time” option, maybe this could be a “setting” for the reader so we could specify which we prefer.
In terms of load time:
– the reader now takes *noticeably* longer to load, as I stare at silly gray rectangles where there would be text while it does.In terms of design:
– the text fading off into invisible at the end of the snippet in the middle of a word is *intensely* annoying.
– the font looks crisp and pretty, but it’s actually harder to read. I *much* prefer the font I’m looking at right now as I type into this text box
– The dark blue font has less contrast against the light blue background than an actual black font wouldBug:
And finally, on the read/post/feed view, the page-down and page-up keys don’t work. (Firefox 39.0, Windows 7, laptop)Not that I want to read on that page anyway, but if I did, that would make it a non-starter.
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Since the new Reader came out a few years ago, I stopped using it for the blogs that I follow.
I also think that adding a time that one spends reading a post to be ridiculous. So on videos that are 20 minutes, will it show 20+ minutes to read that post or 15 seconds to read the short description of the video on the post? The Reader even shows the complete video so readers don’t even have to click to go to the post!
I’ve been here long enough (8 years) to know how it used to work so well and it’s gone downhill rapidly especially in the last 2 years. My blog used to receive many views from both WP bloggers and the public with the old version of tags, now rarely do any views come from Reader or tags.
The “like” button is worthless. Many people click “like” that never even read the blog post. They do so to get you to go to their blog. It’s a scam.
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Just want to add that I am disgusted that WP is telling me how long it takes to read a post…that is an idea of imbeciles. And now you’ve made it more difficult and time consuming to get to the actual blog site. Why would people go to the trouble of designing a site, choosing a theme, personalizing how they want it to look, if the stupid Reader pre-empts all of that? Stupid…stupid…stupid….
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Please try clicking on the post title two times in a row, once to get to the single post view and again to view the original post on the blog if you’d like. You shouldn’t have to go to the blog feed view and then click the card at the top if you don’t want to—that’s a different route but it sounds like clicking on the post title two times is probably what you want instead.
Clearly not an improvement if it has altered my own blog.
Your blog is not altered and still available at your blog URL just like before. The Reader is just an extra way to get there! In fact, the Reader probably brings in more visitors that you wouldn’t have otherwise. It is made to help connect more readers with bloggers.
Due to these changes, stats are not counted as they were before.
I don’t think this is correct. I will try to double check this to make sure though.
Besides venting here which seems futile for the most part, why are we not given any opportunity to give our input as loyal WordPress writers and followers.
Actually, I have some plans for this! :) Hopefully I will be able to do a lot more early testing in the coming year.
Also, you are giving your input here and the Reader is getting ongoing updates. A lot of people’s likes or dislikes about it are very opinionated, and that shows you are passionate about WordPress.com—and that’s really good in my opinion! We do try to make updates we think will help connect readers with bloggers in more ways. I’m glad you put your voice forward, and I also would love if you would please give the changes a chance to settle in if at all possible.
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I found that if I clicked again on the blog post title, it would take me to where I actually wanted to go.
You’ve got this correct. This is the way to get to the original post.
Bug:
And finally, on the read/post/feed view, the page-down and page-up keys don’t work. (Firefox 39.0, Windows 7, laptop)Thanks for reporting this! And thank you for including browser/OS details. I’ve filed a request to see if we can get it corrected.
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Why would people go to the trouble of designing a site, choosing a theme, personalizing how they want it to look, if the stupid Reader pre-empts all of that?
The design of a site is still very valuable. The Reader is just one extra way to connect readers with content. It’s, of course, not the only way people will find blogs. Back before the Reader existed, it all had to be done through search engines and tags pages and other methods. The Reader just adds one possible extra way to get more readers connected with more blogs, and the viewers can choose which way to view a blog they prefer. If you prefer to look at blogs in other ways, you still can do that! And, similarly, other people have the choice to use the Reader if they would like.
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Thanks for your reply, @designsimply.
> > I found that if I clicked again on the blog post title, it would take me to where I actually wanted to go.
> You’ve got this correct. This is the way to get to the original post.
OK, good to know; but that’s terrible. Please restore the functionality of getting to the original post directly from the feed. The current behavior creates a barrier rather than a connection.
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Designsimply…so thanks for the tip. I am now informed but what about the rest of the people who use the WordPress reader. Did they get the memo? How would anyone else know to click on the post title twice? For some reason, WordPress seems to want us to read posts on an ugly white generic background….and that is what will happen. People shouldn’t have to go on a journey to find the original blog. There are inconsistencies in the reader as some posts have the “There’s More” link and some do not. This is just unnecessary nonsense.
As far as the reader just adding “one possible extra way to get more readers connected with more blogs”…I rely on the reader for followers. As far as I can tell from my stats, almost ALL of my readers are from WordPress. If this is the case, then WordPress reader is a successful tool ….until they mess with it and make it so difficult to use.
“the Reader probably brings in more visitors that you wouldn’t have otherwise.It is made to help connect more readers with bloggers.”
I believe it was made to do just that. It should immediately take the reader to the blog….ONE click without guessing or experimenting…or giving up and just reading it in the boring white background that WordPress has now provided.
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I have to agree that what we have here is a change without improvement. In fact the changes make the reader less user friendly. From the reader I want to go directly to the post with one click, I certainly don’t want the half way stage that WP has now inserted into the process.
I also agree that the estimated reading time serves no useful purpose except to put people off visiting.
The left hand side bar is pointless and irritating.
The new format is wrong in many ways but surely the title of the blog should come before the header or the picture, I want to know what the post is about before opening but the new format makes me needlessly scroll up and down before making a decision.
It is nice of staff to respond to the comments being posted here but ultimately a waste of everyones time because once again I guess the changes are fait accompli! -
> > I found that if I clicked again on the blog post title, it would take me to where I actually wanted to go.
> You’ve got this correct. This is the way to get to the original post.
OK, good to know; but that’s terrible. Please restore the functionality of getting to the original post directly from the feed. The current behavior creates a barrier rather than a connection.
Agreed, for what it’s worth. Please bring back the single-click option to get to the actual blog, that used to work by clicking on the word count.
I also ask that the word count be returned. Reading time does not give a good idea of the length of a post. Word count gives that exactly.
Can the blog (as in site) name also be moved back to the top where it was? The first thing I do when deciding whether to read a post is check who wrote it, same as with a book. Now I have to search for that information in the small text under the post title, under the picture.
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Regarding short ways to klick through to the original blogs, I actually like that there is indeed a simple way in checking the three dots on the upper right corner of an entry in the reader. It would be even more helpful if potential visitors wouldn’t be misled by wrong labels ;)
I don’t know what the text says in english, but the german version says “Forum ansehen” (watch forum). It should be “Blog ansehen”, even better “Blog besuchen” (visit blog).
https://couchkartoffelchips.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/forum-blog.png
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How would anyone else know to click on the post title twice?
How did they know to what to click on before? People can usually find their way.
On WordPress itself, clicking the post title is a common way to click through to a post. For search engines, the post title is a better and more descriptive link.
It is nice of staff to respond to the comments being posted here but ultimately a waste of everyones time because once again I guess the changes are fait accompli!
This simply isn’t true.
Agreed, for what it’s worth. Please bring back the single-click option to get to the actual blog, that used to work by clicking on the word count.
@kokkieh, I can’t promise this will change but I will help keep track of the feedback. The more specific and including reasons why would be helpful.
@cosgroveloretta, that string translation does seem off. I will see about getting it fixed.
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The more specific and including reasons why would be helpful.
The way I use the Reader is to scroll down my feed, opening blogs in new tabs as I go, by clicking the scroll wheel on my mouse. Then they’re all loaded in the background and I can go read them at my leisure. Now, clicking the post (even while holding Ctrl as you indicated in an earlier post) “slides” to the single-post view and I have to click yet again to open the blog itself, and click once more to get back to the feed. That’s three clicks now versus one previously.
And in some cases when “sliding” back to the feed the Reader jumps back to the top, rather than the last post viewed, causing one to have to scroll all the way back down. I’ve not been able see any pattern to this yet, it appears random, but is very frustrating.
I’m not saying do away with the new interface – I can see why some people would prefer it – but please let us keep the option to reach blogs by one click directly from the feed. I never read posts inside the Reader, so for me this particular aspect is definitely not an improvement.
On another note, and I think someone already mentioned it, it would be nice if the break between posts can be made a little clearer. Every post appears to be flowing into the other now and it makes me actually scroll through the Reader more slowly as I find myself skipping posts. For me personally placing the blog title at the top again, as I mentioned above, would solve this. It’s a clear indication that it is now a new post on a new site.
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