Reader view
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I also agree with the reading time and what has been said about it here.
Also, I’d like to add that I wish that once I’ve commented and/or liked a post, that post should drop off the reader stream. The reason this is beneficial is that sometimes the window closes in the middle of the stream and then I have to go back to the beginning of the stream and scroll and scroll and scroll until I get to the spot where I was. It’s such a huge problem and when that happens, I’ve given up on scrolling and I just exit word press and chalk it up to “oh well.”
It’s been my experience though that once changes are implemented here that they are not changed no matter what customers request. :(
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Yes, I’m referring to transition pages as these:
https://wordpress.com/read/post/id/2598284/24964
https://wordpress.com/read/post/id/55892908/5289Those are two posts I opened up from a tag feed. I do not follow those blogs and I don’t subscribe to any tags. Those pages do not have “follow” links. At least, none that were clear to me.
I was not aware that the “…” on the top right was a menu. Nothing happens when I hover my mouse over it. Clicking on 3 dots is not a common practice (if at all) for links or menus on other websites.
The “call to action” should be simple, easy to find and act on, and convey a benefit to the reader.
“….” doesn’t look like a link or menu, doesn’t inspire action, is not obvious, doesn’t tell me what it does or what it’s for, and so on. Using the word “menu”, “options” or “more” in a contrasting color would increase click-throughs and conversion rates.
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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.
But what exactly is the point of this interim screen? It serves no purpose. I suspect most if not all bloggers want to go directly to the themed blog page not to some pointless and irritating half way house stage!
This from crystaltwilight (above) sums it up brilliantly!
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.
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One purpose is speed—for people with slow internet connections for example.
Two clicks is not required, it’s just one possible route. It sounds like you have not been reading all of the comments because we are also going to consider changing that back. However, we will review both feedback and metrics before making a final decision.
The Reader is an extra way to bring together people and content and it is made especially for the reading experience—it is not the only way to see a blog. If you prefer to concentrate on getting readers in other ways that were there before the Reader existed, for example through search engines or links from other places, that still happens and you can still use those routes to find readers for your blog just as you did before the Reader existed. People who like the Reader are now allowed another option to choose how they want to see content. If that person doesn’t like it, they can choose the other ways to find blogs or they can choose to click on “Visit Link” to reach a blog directly from the Reader.
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I’m also very sensitive to the number of clicks. Physically I have nerve issues in my hands and need less clicks an more. Web design should never increase thr number of clicks especially in this day and age when we are on devices more and more. It’s an unnatural things for humans to do so all here clicks add up”
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@lauramacky, thank you for your feedback. We are reviewing that request and will make a decision about it after a little more time passes.
In the mean time, and in case it helps you, there’s a keyboard trick that you might like which is to press command or control while clicking on a title to open it in a new tab directly. Maybe try that out to see if you like it as a workaround in your case. The command or control click option itself is a common function in most browsers, but not everyone knows about it.
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@designsimply…Are you referring to the suggestion about once the post is liked/commented on it drop from the reader? That would be GREAT!!! Thanks for forwarding it on. :)
I do know that keyboard trick. The issue is it is another click or hold or press or whatever you what to call it. I deal with horrible nerve damage and am dictating this right now. It becomes a real pain when I have to click even one more click or press because they add up. :(
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@designsimply…by the way one of the challenges to drop the post from the reader after a like and/or comment is just that. If I like it and then I want to comment, it has to stay there long enough for me to do both. I think it can still be done though. It would be SO helpful. This feature is implemented in *cough* G+ but it really helps to eliminate scrolling through the stream again which would be cumbersome as we’ve all experienced here with the reader. Thanks and have a great day!
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I was referring to an option for a single-click for one of the elements on the cards in the main list instead of the “Visit Site” link under the “…” menu that’s there now.
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@designsimply….please pass along dropping previously liked/commented posts dropping from the reader. If WP wants us to interact, they have to make it easy not hard. Once a window closes by accident (which happens a LOT), I will not go back through that stream. It is way too much effort.
Also, the default should ALWAYS be to open a tab in a new window when interacting with the WP interface. You want to KEEP readers interacting, not lose them.
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@designsimply…one more question…In the reader…what happened to seeing the gravatars of the people who’ve previously liked the blog post? And I agree with others here about eliminating that 20 second read thing. It’s not as friendly as saying how many words. Sad that this day and age we have not enough time to read a 2 minute post but we can a 20 second post. :(
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@designsimply…I’ve got an idea! Regarding dropping posts from the stream that we’ve already liked or commented on. On a refresh or reopen of the page, that’s when the posts can drop off. Not right when you click like and/or comment. Just fyi lol.
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@designsimply…one more question…In the reader…what happened to seeing the gravatars of the people who’ve previously liked the blog post?
Aha, good question. The site icon (or blavatar) is now shown in the main list. If one is not there, it can be updated it from the WP Admin > Settings page in the blog’s dashboard.
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@designsimply
Sorry but I just don’t think that you are listening.
The extra click to move through the new viewing screen is annoying and pointless.
Like so many others I want to go directly to the blog. I follow them because I like their style and content and the new arrangement simply hijacks that option.
Surely no one could have really thought that this was a good idea?
The reading time is an insult to serious bloggers. It belongs on Facebook! -
I’m not talking about the site icon @designsimply. I’m talking about the people who have liked the blog I’m looking at in the reader.
Also, can you please acknowledge my suggestion of the posts dropping from the reader after we’ve liked/commented on them?
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I’m not talking about the site icon @designsimply. I’m talking about the people who have liked the blog I’m looking at in the reader.
Oh! Sorry I misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying. Those were never in the Reader and there aren’t any plans to add them.
Also, can you please acknowledge my suggestion of the posts dropping from the reader after we’ve liked/commented on them?
That change will probably not be made. Sorry!
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The likes have disappeared from the the blank white version of our blogs in the reader. The comments are there, but no likes with gravatars. These gravatars often lead me to new blogs to check out. It is all about connecting with other writers with similar ideas and interests. However, I refuse to view anyone’s blog in the white background version anyways, so it doesn’t matter for me.
This white transition version needs to disappear anyway. It has no benefit whatsoever except to be annoying, just another step to go where you REALLY want to. I still believe it is very unfair to take material from someone’s blog and place it on your own background when they didn’t approve that. Many will never get to the original…too much clicking.
Thank you for changing the read time back to word count. There is nothing more to say about this except….wow, that was the weirdest thing ever.
designsimply…you keep talking about other paths that people can take to get to blogs. I am pretty sure that most of my followers come from the reader. Perhaps another question for a survey….where do you find the blogs that you now follow? I have found ALL of the blogs I follow by using the reader. Why would I take extra time to do searches outside of WordPress to find blogs when I can find anything I want in the reader. Also… of almost 1,000 followers, I only know of a few that are not from WordPress. So I would assume that they found me in the reader. Searches online have not brought me many new followers at all. This would take a pretty good ranking in Google, etc. WordPress is a wonderful community. The set up here was so attractive, easy to read, easy to use. That is why people use it. It is always mind boggling when changes are made that only make things more difficult. Extra clicking, hidden menus, wasted space, new stats pages that can’t even compare to the original….these are all changes that only drive people away. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
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I’ll add my voice to those believe that there should be a direct, obvious, one-click access from the reader to a blog.
As a blogger, I want readers to visit my actual blog. As a reader, I want to visit bloggers’ sites. When visiting an actual blog site, I tend to explore and read other posts, and I’m sure others do the same. The way things stand now is that most people will go the interim page and no further, especially since there’s absolutely no indication how to access the blog from that page.
The interim page acts as a barrier between readers and bloggers. It’s simply a bad idea, and bad design.
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I’ll add my voice to those believe that there should be a direct, obvious, one-click access from the reader to a blog. … The interim page acts as a barrier between readers and bloggers. It’s simply a bad idea, and bad design.
Agreed.
If the WordPress.COM Reader is being designed to drive traffic to our blog posts, then any feature in the WordPress.COM Reader that does not operate as a direct, obvious, one-click access from it to the blog post exactly where it has been published is bad design.
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