Reader view
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Rubbish. Please put it back to how it was.
WP is worse now than when I joined.
The menus just seem to consist of icons, and I have to guess what they all mean. Jesus.
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Oh Happiness Engineers, where is the happiness? I’ve enjoyed WordPress for years, I have a very active blog here, and I highly recommend WordPress every week to authors inquiring about starting a website. But these recent changes to the WordPress reader seem to subtract more happiness than they add.
I wrote a short post on these changes, I’ve had discussions with fellow bloggers, and I’ve read other posts about the update… and not one person was a fan of the changes, whereas several were quite frustrated over them. To be fair, a few seemed neutral, mostly because they read their posts by email.
Are people really happy with the changes? Enough to offset the frustration from those who are complaining? I find it hard to believe.
Were these changes geared specifically toward mobile devices? If so, it really ruins the experience for everyone else. It seems like the reader could be mobile friendly without destroying the pc/laptop experience.
My pc has a huge monitor. I see a narrow reading strip with tons of wasted space on the sides. When I clicked on a post, the reader used to open a small window, and focusing on that window, there was no wasted space; now it opens up full-screen, but only showing the actual post in a narrow strip, so what’s the point of it being full-screen?
The full-screen is a problem for large screens. It’s harder to find options (Like, comment, exit the post—and these controls are in opposite corners!—it’s a pain).
Even worse, when I open the post in the reader, 70% of the time when I proceed to use the scrollbar, it accidentally closes the window instead of scrolling down. It’s a pain to leave a comment, and if it closes, I’m reluctant to do the extra work to reopen it.
I see that you are listening to comments, as the Gravatars have returned, and I can now see how old the post is. However, the Gravatars are very slow in loading (I have one of the fastest pc’s with the most RAM and a huge hard drive, and I just ran CC cleaner recently), such that most are empty until I’ve been reading for several minutes.
I’ve accidentally wound back up at the top of the page. I’m not really sure how, though it seems to have been trying to get back and forth between an open post and the main reader. But it’s a real pain to find my place again.
I can’t tell a reblog from an original post or figure out who originally posted it, and I’m not sure if I’m Liking the original post or the reblog of the post. Maybe there is a way to see and I’ll figure it out eventually, but it doesn’t seem self-evident (like it should).
I see that you’ve restored the word count. Thank you for doing that, adding the Gravatars, and showing how old the post is. Hopefully, you’ll continue to improve the reader (or just go back to the Happy way it was) and restore much of my happiness.
The new thing in marketing is “engagement.” WordPress had an opportunity to engage millions of bloggers. Where was the heads-up? Where was the chance to visit this forum with comments before it was implemented? Just imagine that you had engaged us for our opinions, implemented some of our suggestions. Less frustration, more happiness, good marketing—right?
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I see that some posts in the reader have a direct link to the writer’s blog (visit so and so for the full post). If they all had that, it would be awesome.
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Are people really happy with the changes? Enough to offset the frustration from those who are complaining? I find it hard to believe.
Complaints are concentrated in a forum like this one. Happy users don’t show up here as much because they are happy and don’t need to. :)
Were these changes geared specifically toward mobile devices? If so, it really ruins the experience for everyone else.
They weren’t exclusively, but they were optimized for speed and they have a responsive design which is mobile-friendly.
Faster loading pages are better for everyone, but they are especially good for mobile and also for other people who have slow internet connections.
when I open the post in the reader, 70% of the time when I proceed to use the scrollbar, it accidentally closes the window instead of scrolling down
This sounds like it may possibly be a bug specific to one browser or device. I tried testing using the scrollbar with Chrome 43 on Windows 7, and everything worked normally in my test. You mentioned you are using a PC. Can you please let me know your browser and OS version so I can keep track of it in case anyone else reports the same problem? If you have time to work with me and to give feedback (?) then I would also love to know if you could try to pay attention to exactly where the mouse is when the problem happens. Is it always some place similar, i.e. the problem always happens when your mouse is at the top or bottom of the scrollbar? Does it happen only when your mouse is realllllly far to the right? I will also keep an eye out for other similar reports, but this is the first time I’ve heard of this specific problem, so I don’t think it’s widespread and I’m not sure yet what is different in your case.
Gravatars are very slow in loading
The Reader did switch from using Gravatars to the site icon (or blavatars) in the main Reader list. So what might be happening on this one is that you’re just noticing that the blogs you are following have not set those up yet.
I can’t tell a reblog from an original post or figure out who originally posted it, and I’m not sure if I’m Liking the original post or the reblog of the post. Maybe there is a way to see and I’ll figure it out eventually, but it doesn’t seem self-evident (like it should).
Reblogs are going to be redesigned to work and look better in the future.
Hopefully, you’ll continue to improve the reader (or just go back to the Happy way it was) and restore much of my happiness.
I think you’re going to like it better and better going forward. :)
Where was the heads-up? Where was the chance to visit this forum with comments before it was implemented? Just imagine that you had engaged us for our opinions, implemented some of our suggestions. Less frustration, more happiness, good marketing—right?
WordPress.com works by making continuous updates all the time. We don’t post a heads up for every single change we make. We do testing before features are launched, but I would like to do more. :)
As I mentioned before, complaints are concentrated in forums because it’s a place people seek out when they have a problem. It’s not at all a good place to get an idea about whether ALL users are happy or not.
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I see that some posts in the reader have a direct link to the writer’s blog (visit so and so for the full post). If they all had that, it would be awesome.
They all have it!
Upon further review, I see that there is a link to the writer’s blog on each post. :)
aha :) :)
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Actually, I’ve been having the same problem with the reader closing out on me. A few times I didn’t even bother to re-open it. Scrolling back through it all just takes too much time and it strains my trigger finger for carpal tunnel. Weirdly enough, the reader feed then started to spontaneously close when I closed out a different tab in the same window. And now, I’ve been having my entire window (and all the tabs in it) spontaneously close (happened 3x today already).
I have/use a laptop, xp and google chrome. -
I’m not sure where my mouse has been (lol). I usually hover it on the right side while scrolling, but then towards the center when I want to open a post.
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Complaints are concentrated in a forum like this one. Happy users don’t show up here as much because they are happy and don’t need to. :)
However, I just visited this forum this evening. I heard all those complaints on my blog, at other blogs, and by interacting with several fellow bloggers. Unfortunately, none of the commenters of posts on this topic (not forum posts—blog posts) stood up for the changes.
The Reader did switch from using Gravatars to the site icon (or blavatars) in the main Reader list. So what might be happening on this one is that you’re just noticing that the blogs you are following have not set those up yet.
In some cases, I saw it empty and then I saw it change.
Can you please let me know your browser and OS version so I can keep track of it in case anyone else reports the same problem? If you have time to work with me and to give feedback (?) then I would also love to know if you could try to pay attention to exactly where the mouse is when the problem happens. Is it always some place similar, i.e. the problem always happens when your mouse is at the top or bottom of the scrollbar? Does it happen only when your mouse is realllllly far to the right?
Unfortunately, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, and after it does, I’m trying to piece together what happened, but I’m not quite sure. I might be missing the scrollbar slightly, but you know what, I use scrollbars all the time and usually this doesn’t happen. Maybe I do miss the scrollbar frequently, but when I do, I simply try again. The difference now is that if I miss the scrollbar, the penalty is that the window closes. If the area near the scrollbar didn’t have the effect of closing the window, maybe that would help.
Reblogs are going to be redesigned to work and look better in the future.
This does make me happier. :-)
I think you’re going to like it better and better going forward. :)
I’m skeptical. I wasn’t a fan of the last major updates to the reader (that was the last time I visited this forum), and I still like it the old way better. I finally got used to the current look, and I feel that the new change is several steps backward. Visually, it’s not at all appealing on a large screen, imho. Are you working on visual appeal? There is so much wasted space, and the controls are far apart when a post is open in the reader, so it’s not functional on a large screen. I’m not closing my mind to the possibility that a new change will wow me, but I’m going to hold off my celebration until I see it. :-)
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Complaints are concentrated in forums…yes…but the people here are definitely not the only ones unhappy. Many do not enjoy advocating, complaining or don’t have the time to use the forums.
There are quite a few posts written in regards to the reader as well. I have read many. 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.Those that hit the like button for these posts are also showing their unhappiness in a quieter way. Many unhappy people do not speak out…so it is important to consider these people as well.
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@mishunderstood, well stated. Those who do complain are representing hundreds or even thousands of other bloggers who don’t even know these forums exist. Many of us have stated the same thing when we were discussing the “new” Stats page, “new” editor, “new” notifications, etc. WP doesn’t understand this.
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@crystaltwilight, I believe the scrolling issue chrismcmullenwas talking about was for the full post view, so the issue you described sounds different to me. May I please ask what browser version you are using?
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pictures were removed from summary feeds based on complaints from other blog owners. You can see some of the complaints here in the forums or in the comments at https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2015/07/13/reader-refresh/
Currently, you can get images back by going to WP Admin > Settings > Reading and changing the feed option from “Summary” to “Full text.”
If enough people complain about missing images for summary feeds and want them added back, we may consider another change! (Maybe there’s some better middle ground?) It will depend on how much feedback we get as well as using metrics and trying to make a balanced decision with readers’ best interests at heart.
So, can you please tell me where are the posts with complaints about header images for summaries (and only summaries!)? I can’t find any, not here nor at the Reader Refresh blogpost. But it surely makes the summary users posts look less attractive/interesting in the reader, and I see that as pressure to make us put it back to “full text”.
Not a happy blogger :(
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Just gone to use the reader today to catchup with posts as I’ve been away with work all week and found a right mess.
I want to read posts in the actual blog not some sanitised ‘one size fits all’ bland page.
I detest the fact that WP thinks it knows how long a post takes to read and it shows utter contempt for WP bloggers.
There are now so many extra key presses compared to before and the whole thing simply doesn’t flow properly. I want to go directly into a blog to read a post from the reader. Thankfully those of us that have forced a blog visit to read whole post still get a link direct to blog but many of the blogs I follow don’t do that and I now can’t visit their blogs as easily.
I like reading posts in the environment, theme and styles that the blogger intended not what WP thinks looks good.
Possibly the worst change since the last major reader redesign which itself was a disaster compared with its previous version.
WP once again showing that it doesn’t really care about its bloggers and the fact that some have paid lots of money for themes and style upgrades that are now totally irrelevent for most people using the reader.
Disgusted!!!
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@cosgroveloretta, the complaints were about images in general, not featured images specifically. Now the complains are from readers who miss images from summary feeds. I am not sure if that is going to be changed or not. It is under review.
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@mud4fun, make sure you test instead of just reading comments in the forums because I think what you’re complaining about was changed back. Try clicking the visit link at the bottom right of cards or in the “…” menu. Also, read time estimate was removed for short times and word count was added back for all posts.
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@designsimply
So if the complaints were about images in general, why are images in summaries are the only ones not showing in the reader? Makes no sense at all. And gives me even more reason to believe WordPress doesn’t really like those of us who use summaries :/ -
read time estimate was removed for short times and word count was added back for all posts.
Thanks for that change, by the way. Noticed it this morning. And obviously with the Visit Site link having been added the Ctrl-click not working is no longer an issue :)
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@designsimply
Version 43.0.2357.134 m
Here are some specific details I remember about the Reader tab spontaneously closing, but it’s not all of them. The frequency of it closing has gotten progressively worse over the past few days.It started closing while I was on the Reader page.
1. The page wouldn’t let me mouse scroll any further down the page. It would show a little bit of the next articles then jump back up. So I tried to scroll down using the scroll button on the right side. The page jumped back up just like when using my mouse. I kept trying and suddenly the whole page just winked out of existence from my browser window.
2. The Reader has also disappeared when I’ve been “in the middle” of it. I don’t know where my mouse was at those times. I usually hover it on the right side while scrolling on the Reader.Then the Reader started closing when I was on one of the interim post pages.
1. Clicking the back-button from an interim post page (to go back to the Reader feed) caused it to disappear.
2. Closing out an interim post (opened in a new tab) also caused the reader tab to close out.Now my whole browser window has been spontaneously closing out.
1. I think this is happening when I move from one tab to another. I usually have at least 10 tabs open in my browser at any given time.
2. It has also happened when I switched to/ from or closed out my free cell game or a word document from the tabs at the bottom of my computer screen.
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