Reader view
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Adding my grievances on the revised Reader. I have stopped using it on my iPad Air, and came here to see if others are also having problems.
1) The new lefthand side bar takes up far too much screen real estate not to be collapsible.
2) After clicking on an article, I cannot scroll it. I can see the right side scroller moving as normal, but the text body does not move at all . It is like looking at a screenshot of the top of the post.
3) Bring back the word count in place of estimated time-to-read. As others have noted it feels a bit insulting. Bloggers think in terms of word counts, not time-to-read, which can be highly relative when factoring in images and videos.
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The way I use the Reader is to scroll down my feed, opening blogs in new tabs as I go
Yes, this, exactly.
1) The new lefthand side bar takes up far too much screen real estate not to be collapsible.
Yes, this, exactly
Bring back wordcount because:
– it’s objective & makes no assumptions about how fast people read, which varies *wildly*
– bloggers, writers, students, academics all have a “feel” for wordcounts: those four categories taken together probably make up the majority of your users -
I would still like to have it explained exactly what this new version was supposed to be improving. More clicks, less visually attractive, less intuitive, more likely to stop people visiting blogs, jumpy on the scroll, and I haven’t seen a single person saying they like the time rather than word count thing. Give me some positives, otherwise I suggest a simple change back is the way to go. Then ask people what actual improvements they would like to see and perhaps run a poll to see whether the majority agree before making changes.
One change I would suggest, and like to hear other people’s views on, is to get rid of the ability to ‘like’ posts without visiting blogs. People use it as a way of advertising themselves rather than for the intended purpose. And it’s hard to tell who’s actually ‘liked’ your post and might be worth returning a visit and making a new ‘friend’, from the ones who run down a thousand posts in the Reader ‘liking’ them all unread in order to try to boost their own following.
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@levelwhimsicality, looking at the 2nd point in your list:
2) After clicking on an article, I cannot scroll it. I can see the right side scroller moving as normal, but the text body does not move at all . It is like looking at a screenshot of the top of the post.
That’s happening with your iPad? I tested it on my iPad and couldn’t get that to happen, but my iPad is an older one—it’s a couple years old and running iOS 8.4 on iPad 3rd Gen (Retina).
Is there any chance you can tell me your iPad specs? I think I may need to try to see if I can find someone with a newer one to help me test.
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I would still like to have it explained exactly what this new version was supposed to be improving.
Please see https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/reader-refresh/ for more detail about that.
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From the reader-refresh article linked above:
with shorter load times
The feed has effectively longer load times. It could be that the entire page is loading more quickly, but the problem is that the items on the top of the feed are loading slowly: a good 3 seconds before any of the preview text appears at all.
and smoother scrolling
Smoother scrolling actually makes me ill, which is why I disable it in my browser settings.
Our new cards — which preview each post’s content
Are too small, and don’t scale with font size. (It would be great if this was a <b>bug</b>, but I fear it’s a feature.) Because I use a large point font for accessibility reasons, I’m getting less of a preview than I got before: often only a sentence and a half, instead of a paragraph.
New typography has improved readability
Depends on the human reader, apparently; I find it less readable than before. It’s too thin.
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Does anyone know how I can add the link “There’s more,” in the reader that will allow users to directly access my blog site instead of just the reader view?
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I’m an extremely slow reader. So, for me, you’ve made reading blogs now a bit of a challenge If I read something that takes me 6 minutes, but you’ve labelled it 2 minutes, now I’m feeling bad “for not being like the other fast readers.” It’s grade school/high school all over again. Thanks.
I’m a bit perplexed by who decides how long it takes someone to read something. I know wordpress means to help it’s bloggers, but this “time frame” stamp is a horrible idea and more than just insulting, it really just bummed me out.
You should change it. Of all the things you’ve changed over the years I’ve been a member, even if I’ve hated it, I’ve adjusted and worked with it. But this is just wrong. It might have been well-intentioned, but honestly even if it wasn’t insulting to a slow reader like myself, it’s just bad to assume everyone reads at the same pace — and really, why are you adding to a culture that has to speed through everything? Why can’t reading blogs still be a thing we do in our own time without being rushed?
Personally I liked the word-count better — because based on my own personal reading skill, I knew how long it would take me to read it. And if it was too much to read on my phone or something, then I’d save it for later. But now…. well, I’m bummed I came online tonight to read some friends writing, hoping to be inspired or… whatever. But this just made me sad.
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I now have another problem with the reader. While browsing on my favourite topic – crochet – I discovered that one of the blogs I was following no longer appears in the ‘following’ reader. So I am wondering if this is happening to any others.
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I think you might have to accept that the whole new Reader thing is a mess and doesn’t work properly. My advice is go back to the previous version until you can get it right!
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Why are all of the posts now white when you click on them to read? What is the purpose of picking a theme, customizing widgets, & creating archives if the only thing a reader sees is white space when they open a post through reader?
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Does anyone know how I can add the link “There’s more,” in the reader that will allow users to directly access my blog site instead of just the reader view?
Yep! Go to WP Admin > Settings > Reader, switch the feed option from “Full Text” to “Summary,” and save changes.
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The read time is of course only an estimate. It was added to try to help readers get a feel for how long the content is before clicking through and without having to mentally calculate word count into time.
Some of the reaction to it here in the forums has been surprising to me. I can see that there is definitely a group that does not like it. It’s good to hear the reasons for why, so thank you for providing feedback about it. It may turn out that we will switch back—it is still under consideration though, and no final decision has been made just yet.
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Themes are still important because the Reader is just one possible way to view the content from a blog. There will still be visitors who reach blogs directly via other paths, search engines for example, before the Reader existed. Those other paths are still there.
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@levelwhimsicality, looking at the 2nd point in your list:
2) After clicking on an article, I cannot scroll it. I can see the right side scroller moving as normal, but the text body does not move at all . It is like looking at a screenshot of the top of the post.
That’s happening with your iPad? I tested it on my iPad and couldn’t get that to happen, but my iPad is an older one—it’s a couple years old and running iOS 8.4 on iPad 3rd Gen (Retina).
Is there any chance you can tell me your iPad specs? I think I may need to try to see if I can find someone with a newer one to help me test.
My iPad Air (original, not 2) is at iOS 7.1.1. Obviously that is kind of old and I wouldn’t expect a fix for it. I noticed that scrolling from Freshly Pressed is fine, it’s just directly from the Reader.
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Another update: I updated my iPad to whatever the latest iOS is, 8.x, and scrolling is fine now.
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Even though I’ve only been using wordpress for a little over a week, I see these changes as being detrimental to both readers and bloggers.
- For Readers it is:
1. Inconvenient because it requires more than one click-through.
2. Confusing because of the different page appearances and lack of visual consistency.
3. Confusing because I didn’t know how to get to the writer’s actual blog. I thought the author’s name at the top left was a byline. And, really, having to click on the same article heading on two different pages is super confusing. Seriously. I can’t think of any website that requires you to click on an article heading link, go to a different page to read that article, and then expects you to click on the same article heading a second time to go to yet another page with the same article. Also, if these were on actual paper, the tree huggers of the world would riot. It’s still a waste of digital data storage.
4. Harder to follow some blogs. There wasn’t a follow blog link on some of the transition pages and, because I also didn’t know how to get to the actual blog, I had to hit the back button to go back to the reader blog scroll to do it from there. More work, more confusion.
5. Time to read didn’t influence me at all in deciding whether or not to read something, though it did make me question how wordpress could come up with a figure and expect it to fit everyone. Is it personalized, based on general reading averages, based on wordpress reading averages, … ? Yes, my mind made me think about all those things and more before opening up the post. If the target market readership (meaning the actual users) are predominantly writers, then word count is definitely more appropriate. Not only is word count an industry standard, but it’s more accurate than unrealistic “one size fits all” reading time. How long it takes to read something is personal and, if I were a slow or poor reader, I wouldn’t want to be continously reminded of it. In addition to that, reading time can vary by subject matter, content depth, writing style, comprehension/ reflection time, etc.
6. More frustrating because, like many others, I scroll down the blog feed, opening up the posts I want to read in new tabs and then read them later. I do this because I WANT to go the writer’s actual blog, not a white-washed dummy version of it.
7. less user-friendly because the number of likes for each post don’t show in the feed. I am more inclined to read posts that are popular because it lets me know that others found it useful, and that I might, too. It’s not always a guarantee of quality content, but a lot of the time it is.
8. extremely annoying that after I started to follow blogs, the “explore topics” link doesn’t show up on my reader homepage. There’s a “follow a tag” box, but not the explore link. This incorrectly assumes I will want to (or *accidentally* forces me to) follow every tag that interests me instead of just occasionally looking them up. I have to click on “freshly pressed” so I can click on “explore topics” from that page. Again… more click-throughs, more confusion, less choices, more inconvenience, more opposite-of-intuitive.
9. truthfully, both the “before and after” are just not up to modern design and convenience. The choices and flexibility are extremely limited for readers and even the presentation of featured blogs is boring. Compare https://wordpress.com/recommendations/ with https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/recommendations
Recommendations for Reader Experience:
1. Don’t keep these changes.
2. Have only one click-through, feed to blog.
3. Use word count.
4. Show number of likesIf wordpress does keep the changes (please don’t), then:
1. Simple, clear call to action to visit the blog home. Have “Visit (blog name)” or something similar at the top left and at the end of the post next to sharing, liking, etc. and before comments.
2. Simple, clear call to action to follow the blog. Same as above. -
It is not a common practice to be warned of how long it would take to read something, so I am surprised that you are surprised at the reactions. The read time is rude and it trivializes the work and seriousness of many who write here on WordPress.
There are many more out there who feel the same way and have expressed their dislikes about the reader changes through posts and comments on posts. I am sure if you followed a tag for “reader changes” for example, you would see this. Not everyone is familiar with the forums. Again, a survey would be very helpful.
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- For Bloggers it is:
1. A conversion rate nightmare
a. it’s not user-friendly or intuitive
b. it’s not quick and easy
c. more than one click through is required
d. branding and visual appearance is not consistent
e. social marketing proof in the feed is reduced, showing number of comments but not number of likes for each post.
f. visiting/ following the blog from the transition page is difficult, confusing and/or not available2. Questionable if “time to read” targets the ideal reader personas
a. the market segment likely to benefit the most from this information are those who don’t have a lot of time to read, or who don’t like to read a lot.
b. Emphasizing the time factor can degrade the perceived value of and create inaccurate assumptions about the post’s content, quality and relevancy.I’ve been trying to figure out why wordpress would do almost the exact opposite of what all website marketing designers say are crucial elements for engaging visitors and converting them to regulars. I can’t. It just doesn’t make any sense.
I suggest either:
1. Getting rid of the reader (and refer people to other search directories like bloglovin) or
2. Do it right.I know that sounds harsh, but a modern reader make-over could really revolutionize our world by engaging readers more, increasing conversion rates for bloggers, and even make wordpress more money if done correctly. What you see when you click on one of the categories for recommended blogs is more ideal for all posts than the current reader page.
Click on one of the categories on this page to see what the reader page could look like with a more modern design:
https://wordpress.com/recommendations/
If wordpress gets rid of the infinite scrolling and replaces it with multiple pages, then they can have sponsored ads at the end of each page. Yeah? -
Thanks for taking the time to post your feedback.
#4 in your list sounds to me like it might be a bug or it might just have been too hard to find the “Follow” link so I’d like to help take a closer look at that in particular.
There wasn’t a follow blog link on some of the transition pages
I think by transition pages you mean the single -post view, like this one:
https://wordpress.com/read/post/feed/25823/753354442From a view like that, if you got to it from the main Reader page at https://wordpress.com/ then you were already following the blog and you would have the option to unfollow it from the “…” menu at the top right of that particular view.
However, since it sounds like from your feedback that you wanted to follow something new, you might be looking at one of the tag pages, like this one:
https://wordpress.com/tag/adirondacksFrom the tag page, and from the view you see after clicking on any of the posts, the way to follow would be to click the “…” icon and then click on the “Follow” link that appears. The “…” icon is at the very top right in the single-post view. If the “Follow” link is missing from that menu for any tag pages or blogs, then it’s a bug and I will make sure it gets reported. If the “Follow” link is there and you just weren’t able to find it, then I can add that to the feedback list that I am helping to keep track of. I haven’t seen any other comments so far about not being able to figure out how to follow a blog, so that’s why I’m interested in that part of your feedback. I did try testing a few different tag pages and clicked on the “…” menu for several posts and was always able to see the “Follow” link. If you can find an example where the follow link is missing, please let me know the blog address or a link to one of the posts from the blog and I will test it.
Regarding the other recommendations you mentioned, some of those things are under review to change back. However, before making a final decision we will also be watching metrics for a while first to see if anything changes negatively or positively across the board for them. Feedback will be one factor for decisions about whether to change anything back, but metrics and other things will be considered too.
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