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  1. You must read the article before you can comment on it.
    • thorgalle
      Top reader this weekScoutScribe
      3 years ago

      Loundy believes that building a system to ensure readers read the article before commenting encourages time spent on the page and loyalty over time, both wins for publishers in need of ad-spend and reader revenue.

      I think Loundy has since stepped away from this thought :) I was just on time to experience a Readup without mandatory reader mode for some time. It had its perks as well, and I recall some also liked the "always on" mode. But seamless & distraction-free reading is so much nicer! The apps now beat the extension on that front. However, in some possible futures, there could be a return of this feature?!

      But Loundy isn’t deterred: “The longer-term vision for the company is that we want to be the reading certification of record across the web and we want our technology all over the place, and then all the comments always end up in a singular spot.” Also interesting!

      A commenting system that is all over the place. Yet another possible future. I see potential!

      He also suggests that reallyread.it could work in industries beyond journalism, like firms ensuring their employees have actually read compliance materials or doctors making sure their patients read health forms.

      Really interesting thoughts too!

      1. Update (2/23/2021):

        Ad-spend is so 2018.

      • jamie3 years ago

        Imagine the read up certification that teachers could have or any learning institution if they gave mandatory reading assignments… It does seem kind of like a nanny state but if properly used would be a fantastic tool for teachers… Especially elementary school teachers… Or junior high. To be sure your students have read the content is a very powerful tool… And beneficial to both student and teachers alike… Very exciting concept!

    • bartadamley3 years ago

      Here's a piece of Readup's history!

      Looking at the UX from way back then to now, makes me realize how fortunate we are with the current setup!

      “The longer-term vision for the company is that we want to be the reading certification of record across the web and we want our technology all over the place, and then all the comments always end up in a singular spot.”

      Having this certification of record for reading online is getting more and more critical to have. All across the web certification would really verify what content is actually worthwhile for our attention..

      • thorgalle
        Top reader this weekScoutScribe
        3 years ago

        Cool find! We should ask Christine to write a new piece for the subscriptions launch! Newsworthy stuff.

        For all curious minds, I suggest to browse around reallyread.it and readup.com on The Internet Archive. For example, start here. You might find 🍕 somewhere. I won't spoil where ;)

      • DellwoodBarker3 years ago

        Thanks for excavating this read for all us newbies.

        👍🏽

    • sjwoo5 years ago

      How fantastic! Just gotta get the word out...always easier said than done, unfortunately. Keep up the great work, guys.

    • jamie5 years ago

      There are so many uses for this....... I think teachers on all levels K-12 (and at the university level as well) would use this to make sure their students actually read required reading material. Remember when your 10th grade teacher would say " Your home work for today is to read the first 3 chapters of Moby Dick." Get out the cliff notes! Well not anymore, those poor little students actually must read the content. Brilliant! Good Luck on this new concept it will be so nice to have people actually read content in full.

    • carrie235 years ago

      Congratulations!

    • chronotope5 years ago

      Just read the article about reading articles using the reading platform. It was weirdly hard to get the bookmarklet to acknowledge I read the whole article about the tool itself though. Perhaps I read faster than the normal person? When I got to the bottom it was at a little over 70% and I had to scroll around the article in order to get it to 100%.

      • jeff5 years ago

        Perhaps I read faster than the normal person?

        Definitely possible! I'm sorry it didn't work properly for you on the first try. Choosing a speed that works for everyone is going to be difficult and eventually we may need to give users a way to calibrate and set their own individual reading rate. There are also some performance issues when reading complex articles on older computers so taking care of those should improve things as well.

        • chronotope5 years ago

          That sounds good! It would be cool if reading speed tracking was part of this. As long as it is within reasonable boundaries, the system could adjust to track for different speeds and users could compare reading speeds.

    • joanne5 years ago

      love it... you two are really on to something...

    • swizco5 years ago

      go bill and jeff!