Reader Refresh
Reading the blogs and sites you follow just got smoother and faster.
Today, we’re proud to present an improved version of the WordPress.com Reader. We’ve made the Reader faster, with shorter load times and smoother scrolling. We’ve also improved the way we display posts, so you can now see the highlights of each story at a glance.
The new interface works just as well on a mobile device as it does on your computer, so it’s simpler and faster for you to catch up on blogs while on the go.
Keeping track of recent posts from the blogs and sites you follow is now both easier and more fun. Our new cards — which preview each post’s content — highlight great photography and make it easy to scan for something that looks interesting. New typography has improved readability, while the new Full Post View pushes the interface to the background, allowing you to focus on the story, whether it’s composed of text, pictures, or video (or any combination of these).
All these improvements work for nearly any site on the web, not just those hosted on WordPress.com: if it has an RSS feed, you can follow it. If the site happens to be a WordPress.com site, though, just look for the Follow button at the bottom of the page — click it, and you’re done.
We hope you enjoy the improved Reader!
Please note: these changes currently affect the web Reader only; we’re working on bringing these improvements to our iOS and Android apps soon.
- July 13, 2015
- Features, Reading, WordPress.com
WordPress.com News 
I am really enjoying the new interface. However I would be more glad if navigation links are provided for previous and next blog posts so that we don’t need to go back to reader to read next blog post.
LikeLiked by 15 people
Somehow, I prefer the previous one. But, thanks for the improvement. 🙂
LikeLiked by 19 people
Looks attractive and everything looks good so far (saying how long the blog is, that is cool). I was hoping you would get rid of the ‘like’ button in the Reader Feed but oh well.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Likes are here to stay.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Many people click the Like in the Reader without actually visiting the site to Read the Entry and the Views in the Reader even with Likes do not show in the Stats, often having No Views but 5 Likes. Only in Photography this is justified if only 1 Photo displayed and No other Text but where an Entry gets a Like with only three lines read, that …can we call …
What is the point then having a Blog – we can all post directly in the Reader…
LikeLiked by 3 people
Keep in mind that the Reader is just one possible way to bring new visitors to your blog. Many people will still visit blogs directly and may never even see the Reader, i.e. traffic coming from search engines. Hopefully one thing the Reader does is bring you extra traffic you may not have had otherwise.
On likes, I know that some people use them as a way to bookmark something to read later. There are probably other reasons people like something quickly, maybe they agree with the title or did like the excerpt or they have another reason. People have been given the freedom to use likes how they like—you cannot force other people to use them exactly the same way you use them.
LikeLiked by 7 people
Sheri, Thanks for your reply.
I do understand all this and a lot more…
I like the Look of the New Reader, the Fond and the Speed compared to the Previous.
Naturally with changes Readers appreciate some of the New elements and some they prefer they would have remained the Same but one cannot please them all. I APPRECIATE the Free accommodation that allows me to provide the service I believe i do with my Main Blogs that I care not about Likes or Followers -as I consider them ‘Cinderella’ Blogs that one wants to visit but privately and unnoticed- and they are getting a lot of external connections and a reasonable number of views which seem to have been increasing but Not due to the Reader. So for this accommodation and all…liked improvements I feel Grateful – THANKS!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Great! Thanks.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ok, and where can I adjust the settings so my blog posts DO NOT show up in full in the reader? I had it set this way with the old reader since I want my posts presented in its natural habitat, which is my blog with the theme I paid for. And ta daaaaa, i just checked and now my posts are available in full in the reader. I really do not like this.
LikeLiked by 12 people
Using the “Summary” setting on the WP Admin > Settings > Reading page will limit the amount of content you offer in your feed. That limited content will still show up in the Reader’s main stream
and the single-post view the same way it has in the past. [Update: the summary card view has been updated: the single post view was removed, a visit icon was added, the cards are now simpler, and it’s a single click to get to the original post.]LikeLiked by 5 people
I had a good first impression of it, can definitely notice it’s faster, I like the new typography (love the snazzy question mark 😉 ), and one thing not mentionned in the announcement, it also indicates the reading time! (Out of curiosity, do you have a quick explanation for how the reading time is estimated?)
LikeLiked by 6 people
I’m still playing with it a bit. I like that by clicking on the “visit “xbloggersitex” for more…. but I don’t like that just above it is another link that makes my reading process a three step process of clicks to get to the actually full posting. I’m lazy… too much clicking and too easy to accidentally click the top one instead of the bottom one and so I frustrate myself. 😉 I like that having to click through to a blog in order to read will let the blogger know I was there that day instead of having just read it from my feed. It would be fun to have a “mark as read” feature to mark the posts I read already since I’m in and out all the time and that way only the ones I haven’t read yet would be on my feed…. Ya’ll have a very nice site with lots of great stuff so this is not complaining, just sharing experience. I appreciate all you guys do to make the site better and I know that change is never easy for anyone but without it we all get a little bit stale.
LikeLiked by 9 people
Thanks for the feedback! About the clicking, you should only have to click the post title twice (not three times) to get to the full post, another option is to click the “Visit Site” link, or you can Cmd + Click on Mac, or Ctrl + Click on Window to quickly open the original post in a new tab our window if your browser supports that.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks for the advice, I like keyboard shortcuts.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Preferred it as it was. Sorry.
LikeLiked by 15 people
Give it a little more time!
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s not intuitive to get to the actual blog that I love and follow. Header’s are stripped off, widgets are missing, and the posts appear quite generic. I appreciate the speed but I miss seeing the blogs I love and the individuality that each brought to my browser. At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, I am not really impressed.
LikeLiked by 23 people
You can still get to the individual blogs you love. Tap the “Visit Site” link, or tap the post title twice in a row to open the original post, or you can also try Cmd + Click (Mac) or Ctrl + Click (Windows) to open the original post in a new tab.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Sheri – thanks for getting back so quickly. I’m either doing something wrong or don’t understand. When I use the Ctrl + Click option or the double tap option I can see the entire post but I am still in the reader. Not in the blog. What am I doing wrong?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sorry for not being more clear before. It’s not a double tap, it’s two separate ones. Click or tap the title once to open the single-post view in the Reader, and then click or tap the title again to open the original post. The Ctrl + Click route should be a single click and it will probably make the post open in a new tab or window, but exactly how that works may depend on your local browser settings. Try experimenting to see what works best for your setup.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Agree with all points raised by tnkerr. You need cleaner separation between blog posts and Headers used to accomplish that. I like that it is speedier but it has come at a cost. Please bring the Headers back.
LikeLiked by 8 people
Where are the suggested sites from people who follow sites I follow?
LikeLiked by 6 people
The “You May Like” section wasn’t included in this update, but it may come back in a future update! Did you use those follow suggestions often?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Every day – I found some terrific friends that way!
LikeLiked by 7 people
I did use them.
LikeLiked by 9 people
I did use the suggested site often, yes.
LikeLiked by 8 people
Yes I did use them picked a day once a month to try out new things 🙂
LikeLiked by 6 people
Whoa this looks supremely cool! ^_^
LikeLiked by 3 people
Is there a way to get to the actual blog directly from the initial page of the reader? If I’m going to leave a comment, I’d sooner be taken directly to the blog itself and see the post as the blogger intended it to be.
LikeLiked by 14 people
Yup, there’s a couple ways to do it. First, try clicking on the “…” button and pick “Visit Site”. That will open the original post in a new window.
You can also right-click or (or option-click on a Mac) on the title and then pick “Open in a New Tab” from the context menu. On mobile devices, you can usually long-press on the title and get a similar menu.
LikeLiked by 4 people
That’s great news! Another question – what is the reason for showing how long it takes to read an article?
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was to try to help people set an expectation for how long it might take to read, even if it’s just an estimate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Improvement? Really? It doesn’t seem any use anymore to personalize my blog or design my post when everything you get looks the same now. I can no longer go directly to the original post, going to the blog takes me additional clicks. Navigation on WP gets more and more time consuming. And time is the most precious thing we bloggers have.
To me, the ideal reader would consist of a preview picture (if any) and a link that leads me directly to the blog and entry. That’s all I want. Make me happy.
LikeLiked by 6 people
There are a few different ways to get to the original post. One is to use the “…” menu and then click “Visit Site” and you can do that from the main Reader page. Another is to use two successive links on the post title, which you mentioned has additional clicks. And another is to command-click (Mac) or control-click (Windows) using a browser that supports that action. Regarding the single-click option that used to be there for the timestamp, we’re looking at ways to add something back that’s easy to find!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Is it possible to make the gravatars and the name of the blog a bit larger? The title is not that important – I will read it when I open the post.
LikeLiked by 8 people
And you left out the reblog button?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, we did leave out the reblog button for now. It will probably come back in the future after being redesigned to work and look better.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good improvements there. One thing I miss is being able to mark blogs I’ve already viewed in some way so that they don’t keep coming up in my reader.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Why don’t any of the links in the reader actually lead to my blog? There are too many things for readers and potential readers to click to find my blog now.
LikeLiked by 4 people
The new reader does not allow me to scroll through a blog using the keyboard. I have long term hand and wrist pain which is aggravated by scrolling with a mouse, and so reading long posts is going to be problematic for me. Previously I had to click on the blog text and then the arrow or page down keys would work. Also, when entering this comment, I can only see one and a half lines of text by default, and have again been forced to use a mouse to make the comment box bigger.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This is a really good point. Keyboard shortcuts are going to be added.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s very clear that images take center stage in the revamped Reader. Can we get an idea of how a post’s images are handled? It’s a very popular question in the Community Forums. TIA
My 2¢ is that posts tend to bleed together because there’s not enough differentiation between the Post background and the Reader background, i.e. Not enough “white space”.
LikeLiked by 12 people
Currently, all of the images are pulled down and it takes the first one that is at least 150 x 150 px. If a featured image is present, it should always take that one first.
[UPDATE: this may be changing. I will reply back here as soon as I know more.]
LikeLiked by 3 people
So now no images show at all in the Reader, not even the featured image, unless you’ve set your site feed to “full text”? Why?!
LikeLiked by 4 people
This was changed based on feedback from blog owners. If we receive a ton of feedback from readers who miss the images, we may update again. The Reader is still under active development right now and things will keep shifting a little until everything is sorted out.
It would be great if readers who miss the images could comment to let us know.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Sorry but I don’t like it. There’s less information and I enjoy sharing others blogs by reblogging with their permission. I can’t do that now. Please go back to the old version!
LikeLiked by 23 people
Is there a way to set up my blog so readers can be taken to my actual site vs. just the Reader? Automatically? They now can’t see my Twitter feed, top posts, links to follow on social media, etc.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Your readers can still view your site directly through your blog address just like they always could in the past. The WordPress.com Reader is just another extra way people can find and view it. Its main purpose is to connect more readers to more blogs.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I preferred how clicking on the “xxx more words” link in the previous reader took you direct to the original blog. It appears you now have to click on the title or headline to read the article on its actual blog home. I prefer to read posts as the authors intended them to be viewed and would also prefer those reading my posts to visit my actual blog, rather than read them in the reader.
LikeLiked by 4 people
You can still read posts on the blog directly if you prefer. To get to the original post, click or tap the “…” menu and then choose “Visit Site,” or tap the post title to open the Reader single-post view and tap the post title a second time, or you can also command-click (Mac) or control-click (Windows) using a browser that supports that action.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“…..whether it’s composed of text, pictures, or video (or any combination of these).” and still the reader don’t show the structure how the blog was written.
If there is a video at the end of the post, the reader shows it on it’s top. Not the best solution.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Setting a featured image will override that, and we also may update so that images are used before videos when no featured image is set. The Reader is still being updated as we go, and it’s good to hear feedback about specifics like you have posted.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Hmmmm. I’m not a great fan I have to say! I’m clearly missing something obvious, but I can’t even see how I reblog a post in this “improved” interface?
Help!?
LikeLike
You can still reblog from the original post if the author has not disabled reblogs on their blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi. Ok, i couldn’t see that on any of the original blogs i looked at. Thankfully i managed to do what i wanted from the app version on my android phone! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Please remove the “X minutes read” feature. Everyone reads at a different pace, so this number is meaningless. What I can read in one minute, someone else may read in 30 seconds or two minutes. If we want to know if a post is short or long, we can tell that by looking at it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The read time is indeed an estimate. For many, time is a more intuitive measure than word count—especially for a very high number of words. 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. Still, it may turn out that we will switch back.
LikeLike
Why would time be a more “intuitive measure” if we have no idea what reading rate was used to calculate reading time? If that reading rate isn’t the same as my own, the measure is useless. Most people have a pretty good sense of how fast they read, so word count is a much more useful and universal metric to estimate reading time.
And I would guess that there are also many readers who will look at a post title or opening and, if if it’s interesting, read it regardless of how long it might take. So for many any estimate of reading time is an irrelevant statistic to begin with.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Change is always good and this is brilliant. It’s easy to navigate and I’m really enjoying it 🙂
Need to ask a question that what is meant by 40 sec read or 1min read displaying with posts on my reader?
LikeLike
That is an estimated read time based on the number of words in the post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is there a way you can add “view original” with all the blogs that show up in the reader? Otherwise, I have to click on the title to open the post (displayed with a stark white, impersonal background), then click on the title again to take me to the original blog. It was by accident that I discovered I could navigate to the original blog by clicking on the title in the generic post.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Never mind, I see the question was already answered. Click the dots. Will take some time to get used to this, and there’s more and more guess work with every change, but I do appreciate your efforts towards streamlining it for mobile phone users. 🙂
LikeLike
I much prefer the previous version. I am not at all happy with this new format.
LikeLiked by 15 people
Can you give it more time? You might end up liking the changes more the more you use it, especially for photography blogs. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Too much hassle, I liked it better the old way. Please give us an option to load the old Reader instead like you did with the improvement in Stats page, just until we can fully get integrated with the new interface.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you for the suggestion, however, we are planning to keep only one version of the Reader and continue to update it so it’s always improving.
LikeLike
You know how highways have blinking signs warning about construction ahead?
Anyway WP could post a note: “We will be working on something amazing on this date, so if things are a bit quirky, please hang in there! You’ll love the new feature – give us a bit of time.” A heads up would be greatly appreciated.
The new Reader isn’t totally up to speed yet, so still working with/deciding about it. But fewer clicks to get to a full post on the actual blog is always preferable.
I prefer the picture gallery not be posted in Reader’s first look at a post – if you are writing something with a surprise ending using the final image as part of the reveal, a gallery of images spoils that.
LikeLiked by 4 people
This is something I’m working on! Would you be interested in participating?
Regarding the gallery, we may update so that the summary feed option available on the WP Admin > Settings > Reading page will make it so a gallery is not included in the Reader. A decision will be made in the near future. Thanks for your feedback about it!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Not sure how I can help, but count me in if you need it.
The gallery info is welcomed. I think we had gallery images at one time in the past, then they disappeared. If necessary, I figured I could just start another blog and park fiction/O Henry style writing there without images…but that would take a lot of fun out of it.
You guys work hard and despite the temporary quirks things run awfully smoothly. (and it’s fun to try and guess what the newest update will bring….you can tell just before a reveal…a ripple in The Force…)
LikeLike
The comments window display is quite economically sized, so you can’t see more than a single line of the response you are typing… is there a need for it to be so small?
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’re going to see if we can update it to auto-expand.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think this is great improvement and I’m really enjoying the new reader
The Science Geek
LikeLiked by 4 people
Just noticed this. Looks really nice, a good revamp for the reader. It makes everything a lot easier to see and read, I like the streamlined design, and I’m sure I will find this feature really helpful.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Maybe I’m just conservative … but I liked both the Stats and the Reader the way they were before. 😦
LikeLiked by 6 people
One more comment/feedback. It seems, unlike a typical RSS reader, the WordPress Reader is for light readers. There are no keyboard short cuts. Scrolling down may be convenient, but there is no convenient scrolling up (the left pane does not stay static). The List feature is not really suitable because it absorbs multiple feeds into itself and does not give a choice to select one feed. Overall, the Reader is probably good for following a few blogs, but it isn’t a comparable feed reader (though it could potentially be one).
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂 It takes a little getting used to, but now I’m quite happy!
I moved to a Sitegroud Site a few weeks ago and my blog posts where hardly visible on the reader – the picture and the “like” button were missing. So a lot of readers didn’t click my page.
Now that the reader was improved – tadaaaa…pictures are visible, people can “like” my blog post and suddenly I am seeing action on my page.
THANKS a lot for the improvement!!! 😀 😀 😀
LikeLiked by 3 people
I agree with Margie; I’d rather have a quick way to get to the blog directly if I’m going to make comments. I have arthritis in my hand and doing multiple clicks to get to someones blog (the way it was paid to be seen or, at least, meant to be seen) is hard on my hands. Additionally, the theme that I paid for had shown photos in a larger format initially. Now, with this new format, they are (in the reader section, and even when you click to make comments) small photos that one could easily make and show with a mere iPhone! I may not blog as much any longer with this new format; I really do not like it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you for your feedback. We’re going to add keyboard shortcuts, and that should help for part of this. We’re looking at ways to possibly add a single-click back that’s easy to find. Regarding the theme, people of course still have the option to see your photos on your blog directly—they can still find your site in ways they did before the Reader existed. Hopefully though, the Reader will connect you with more visitors than you would have had otherwise and the a featured image will hopefully pique their interest!
LikeLike
Can’t see how many likes a post has – can’t see enough of the post to decide whether to read or not. Also would like to see who liked something. In general, not too happy with the change, but keeping an open mind. I prefer to go to people’s sites if I am not familiar with them and I find this a little clunky. Actually the reader has always been clunky.
LikeLiked by 2 people
What happened? When I get to the full post I want to read, I can’t find a way to get back to my reader page. I have to go back and open my blog and click on “reader” each time! Can anybody tell me how to navigate this correctly? Thank you!
LikeLiked by 2 people
When viewing the full post in the Reader, click on the arrow at the very top left to go back to the main list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can also hit the back button in the browser, or hit the ESC key on your keyboard.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I don’t like it at all. I wanted to read a post that I only discovered when someone reblogged it. Previously, I would click where it said “X” more words and go directly to the site. Today it took me three clicks before I could read the article. This makes sharing content less valuable, and much less likely to get that content read. People will not dedicate that much effort into reading a post.
LikeLiked by 4 people
“highlight great photography and make it easy to scan for something that looks interesting.” The photo may be gorgeous, but it’s the title (content) that let’s me know if it looks interesting to delve further.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The title and content are still there, and titles have now been moved back up to the top (above the featured image).
LikeLiked by 1 person
How do I look at my own blog posts as formatted on the reader? Thank you.
LikeLiked by 2 people
First make sure you are following your blog, then you should see your content appear in the Reader the next time you add a new post.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The new interface looks promising but I think it’s kind of here and there. The user is not able to enter comment if the user clicks view more. On the other hand if the user clicks the title then the user is directed to page that allows entering comments but no “Like” button. I think it is more awkward the the previous interface. Thank you for trying to make improvement.
LikeLiked by 3 people
There should be an option to comment if the blog is a WordPress.com blog. We’d like to expand that to other blogs later too. On the single-post view in the Reader, the like button is at the top right.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Looks nice in terms of the aesthetics, but…
I used to click on the timestamp to open a post I wanted to read, because I want to read them in their natural habitat – on the blog itself, with its theme. Now I find I have to click on the three dots and then click “visit site” – i.e. more clicks to achieve the same result, and very unintuitive.
I saw a reply to one of the comments here suggesting that all we need to do is double click the post title, but that doesn’t take me to the actual blog – it opens the post in a neutral page.
and the same goes for clicking on the name of the blog to see more posts – it takes me to a bland neutral page and not to the blog itself.
LikeLiked by 7 people
The three dots is just one possible route. To get to the blog post, you should click the title and then read the post there or click the title again to reach the original post.
Double clicking is not the right thing to do. You need to click two separate times, not double click.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Not sure why we need the Slashdot comments above the story, or at all, for that matter, but I like the refresh. Thanks for all your hard work.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The avatars are too small. I’m a visual person and I need that cue to know who’s posts I’m reading.
LikeLiked by 3 people
We’ll look into making Gravatars a little bigger.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, please. Some of the Gravatars aren’t even showing up… / And perhaps a bit more demarcation / separation between the posts. As is, they’re all sort of running together. ~ Thank you.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Gravatars were designed not to show on single post views if the name of the site matches exactly with the name of the post author. We may update this based on feedback though. Stay tuned and give some time for things to get worked out. Thanks for your feedback!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I actually liked the way it was….
LikeLiked by 11 people
I like it ! its design is clean and that makes the blogs very readable.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In revamping a site, your focus should be on usability, not monotony. Function, not form, in other words. The posts in this new version bleed together, and everything looks like a poorly designed phone app. Considering I deleted the WordPress iOS app long ago for its limited functionality, that makes this a double slap in the face as I sit at my laptop and see this new, awkward Reader screen.
In addition to having to do even more to access the blog entries I want to read in the format I want to read them, there’s the fact that the new screen no longer gives me the handy orange bar when I arrive saying “9 new posts” or whatever number. Given the number of blogs I follow (and the number of posts one of them puts out, sometimes five or six a day), that bar was extremely important in knowing just how far down the page I needed to scroll in order to know where to start reading *up.*
Bottom line: the new format is not attractive, and it is not functional. Double fail. Please make it optional.
LikeLiked by 8 people
Thanks for your feedback. In regard to the orange “new posts” indicator, it is still there. It’s smaller and right-side instead of centered.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I must say, the new interface is cool. You guys do a lot of hard work. Hats off!
When I go to WP Admin > Settings > Reading, I see two options under “For each article in a feed, show”.
a. Summary
b. Full text
Will the like and comment buttons not show in the reader if I choose the summary option. Can you explain the difference between the two?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The like
and commentoptions will still appear in the Reader if the feed summary option is selected for WordPress.com blogs. The summary option restricts how much text is included in a feed, for example the first 50 or so words.[Update Jul 16: posts from summary feeds have been updated to only include title and excerpt and clicking on them now opens the original post directly on the blog.]
LikeLiked by 2 people
I am disappointed with the format of the new reader. It is not user friendly in that it is time consuming and forces one into the blog in order to “follow” and gone is the side bar of recommended blogs. Please, this is really enough to send me running from my beloved blog here on WordPress. Obviously you have bought into a new program that is cumbersome and I doubt it is going to ease itself into the hearts of your bloggers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The recommended blogs under the “you may like” heading will probably be added back later. Also, updates are still ongoing and hopefully that will help!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I saw them today, thank you so much for responding! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The comments space is rather small. Can’t seem to be able to reread my comment before clicking on send. Is this just me?
LikeLike
It’s not just you. We’re going to see if we can update it to auto-expand.
In the mean time, you should be able to click-and-drag the bottom right corner of the comment box to make it bigger as a workaround.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for also allowing WordPress.org users with jetpack to get likes via the refreshed reader. I’ve been hoping for this for a long time. I’m very grateful.
LikeLike
Love it already! Bravo!
~d.
LikeLike
Bonjour,
I like the new format with only a couple of points l would like to make:
1. I seem to have lost my gravatar/logo next to my site name on my posts – it is now some sort of generic symbol?
2. Don’t know if it is me but I cannot browse the ‘Photography’ posts in the Reader further back than about 40 minutes – There is no problem with other tags such as Weekly Photo Challenge and France for example where l can go back as far as l want to.
LikeLike
For the first issue, you need to set a blog icon (or blavatar). Please give these instructions a try: https://wordpress.com/support/blavatars/
I’m not sure about the 2nd issue. I will look into it. [Update: after emailing about this issue, we found that it worked out on its own, so perhaps it was just a temporary glitch on the client side.]
LikeLike
Bonjour Sheri,
Thank you
Dan
LikeLike
This new format will take quite a bit to get used to. I also liked it much better the way it was; but maybe after I become accustomed to the changes, it’ll be less cumbersome to use. I find it cumbersome now because the Ctrl + Click route mentioned earlier still opens the post in the reader rather than another window/new tab. I prefer going to a new tab so that I don’t lose my place in the feed. I keep losing my place in the feed because I inadvertently end up closing the tab after I finish reading rather than backtracking. I miss the option to go to the blog directly from the feed rather than having to click twice to get to the blog. In the end today, I’m giving up out of frustration because it’s actually taking longer to read what I normally would rather than being faster.
LikeLike
It’s possible the control-click tip won’t work in every browser. I can take a closer look. Can you please tell me what browser version you are using?
LikeLike
I like it too! Maybe more people will visit my blog too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The New Reader is a quicker, cleaner reading experience so it will make me less likely to click into blogs unless they are set to offer a summary only, not the whole post. I’ve noticed that some of the poetry blogs I follow haven’t changed their settings so the whole poem is now available to read in The Reader. I think this will mean that my visit to their content won’t register in their stats? It would be the kind thing to do to remind bloggers about this, I think. I’m reserving judgement on whether this change is an improvement. It will probably make me less likely to try out new themes since everything now looks the same in The Reader anyway. However, I’m not inclined to cry for it be changed back until I’ve had a few more days getting used to it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK, thanks for clarifying that, that’s reassuring. And, yes, of course, I take your point about other visitors.
LikeLike
What I miss – unless I’m overlooking something – is that I used to be able to click into the blue bar on the top of the main reader page and it took me to the top of the page. It doesn’t do that anymore, I have to scroll up now. Purpose or accidental?
LikeLiked by 2 people
The scroll-to-top option in the toolbar wasn’t included in this round of updates but may be added back later. It’s good to note that you’re missing it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really don’t like the new reader. I prefer reading the whole post in the persons blog as they designed it to look. I know I can do this but it requires extra mouse clicks! The previous reader worked fine on my phone.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I’m seriously unhappy with this update. For one thing, (in the mobile version, at least – haven’t yet checked the other) it’s sterile and cold. I can’t see the interesting page designs that give my favorite blogs part of their personality. Hating that. Then, too, when I look atnmynown posts, I no longer see the lineup of likes. That was a quick way for me to see which blog friends had seen it and check for new icons I hadn’t seen before. All in all, this new version is impersonal and creates a much less satisfying experience.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The lineup of likes have not changed. They are available on posts directly in the blog, not in the Reader.
Try giving the updates more of a chance! We’re still working on it, and it will continue to get improvements.
LikeLike
Yes, I figured out that it is possible to see a normal page through the reader. It would be very helpful in the future if the posts announcing such changes could offer very basic information like that, to save me spending so much time trying to figure it out myself. I’ve had similar issues in the past when updates have been unrolled.
LikeLike
The new layout looks interesting. But take me some time to get used to it. Feel that the small thumbnail for gallery a bit confusing with likers thumbnail. Make the interface a bit clustered.
Not sure how useful is the 20 sec / 1 min read at the end of each feed. Prefer to have “mark it as read” button instead.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow I am impressed with the new interface.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Overall I like it and great that it’s faster. I like the ‘reading time’ display too.
Please can you make the Gravatars and Blog names bigger? We usually take our time to choose a picture and name that reflects our site so would be good to see this.
I like the thumbnails of additional pics.
I also used to use the suggested sites and found some good blogs there – can you put this back please. Thanks for improvements.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The site icon and adding back the “you may like” section are both things we’ll look into updating. Thanks for your comment!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the refresh, now it’s a lot smoother to navigate from pc!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Way too much clicking and concentration needed to get to the actual post on a blog I want to read. If a change requires someone telling me to “give it time” to learn to like it despite how frustrating it is to use, then the ratio of cost to benefit in this “refresh” is probably out of whack.
LikeLiked by 5 people
How come we aren’t able to see the number of Likes a post has in the Reader yet we can still see the number of Comments a post has?
Why is this?
Was this intentional?
I found those counts very helpful, especially when searching for new blogs. I like to see what’s popular and what other people like and this is frequently determined by the number of Likes & Comments a post has.
LikeLike
The main idea behind that change was that something should be liked on its own merit and not just because a post already has a lot of likes, and so all readers wouldn’t need to see the count in that case. Also, in testing, we found that some people couldn’t figure out how to like a post if we showed a star and a number instead of a star and the word “Like.” In feedback after the change, it does seem like writers and blog owners really loved seeing the count, so we are going to consider bringing it back. A final decision has not been made yet though.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Ok cool, keep us posted on the decision to bring it back.
Glad it wasn’t just me who felt that way heehee
LikeLike
Also – now that clicking on the title once results in viewing the post in its entirety in the Reader (this varies by blog I know) vs before when it would just take you to the authors site, in this new format – you have reduced the opportunity for more site traffic.
Similar to when you guys reformatted the Stats page – are you planning to give us an option to view it (the Reader) in its old format?
This would be awesome because it wold give us time to compare the two and warm up to the new one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Clicking on the title once also opened the post in the Reader, however, clicking on the timestamp for the post used to open it directly on the blog. We are considering making a change to that.
We are not planning to offer an option of the Reader in the old format.
LikeLike
Here’s hoping that consideration goes through 🙂
LikeLike
Sorry, this is the last one I promise –
But for those blogs where you can’t view the full content in the Reader, why still show all the pictures in that post in the Reader?
It doesn’t make sense.
You have to go to the authors blog to view the rest of the post but that isn’t the case to view all the associated pictures.
That just seems backwards.
The pictures are part of the post. If you have to go to the authors site to view the full post, then why doesn’t that rule apply to the associated pictures of that post?
For blogs that are very picture heavy, you’re screwing with their stats by essentially reducing the opportunity for site traffic.
LikeLiked by 2 people
We just pushed an update that hides the gallery on posts from sites that only allow us to show a summary. Thanks for the feedback!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Alright!!
Thanks for the quick turnaround!
LikeLike
Much better! 🙂
LikeLike
I generally do not like when things are changed (why fix it if it is not broken) – but I will say that just viewing quickly it is fast and I like when you click on a blog link on your reader you get a full page of the blog instead of the little box – and I like the return arrow. So far so good!
LikeLiked by 2 people
A good effort so far, but the refresh of the Reader still needs some polishing:
– The “Block Site” function isn’t working. I use this feature dozens of times per day.
– When I set my blog to provide just a summary within the Reader — the images vanish when you click on “more”, but the comments remain. I set it back so the images remain when the post is clicked within the Reader.
– Also, why are the images so small? Are they being optimized for mobile devices? On the screen I’m using right now, the images just show up in the middle-third of the screen, with lots of wasted white space on either side. Without them being BIG, lots of detail is lost.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m looking at the Blocking issue right now, thanks for mentioning it!
We also just pushed an update that hides the gallery on summary posts, so your second point should be addressed.
The images are not full size because they’re meant to be a preview of what’s in the blog post and an enticement to click through. We’re looking at some other treatments for the gallery; thanks for the feedback!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t mind this new format but I do question as to why there is a summary option of a blogger’s post? I had read a couple years ago that newspapers were trying to write their articles to appeal to average readers, i.e. readers with an 8th grade level of reading. I have also noticed a “dumbing down” of sorts with local news broadcasts in my area of the country-very short snippets of “breaking” news. Is WordPress thinking that we readers of blogs need to be catered to, i.e. life is so fast-paced lets offer shortened summaries of the blogs? I would prefer life to move at a slower pace, so I would say, get rid of the summary section. Other than that I like the other apsects of the new format. Thank you.
LikeLike
The summary feed option is something that has been around in WordPress for a long time. The Reader tries to respect that setting and only displays partial content when it’s in effect. Each blog owner has the option to use summary feeds our full text feeds, and it’s up to them which option they’d like to use.
LikeLike
I have a question about the new Reader. For my most recent post I published a poem and included a recording of it on SoundCloud. The SoundCloud link now appears at the top of my post in the Reader (on my actual post, I put the link at the bottom, after the poem). So it’s possible for a reader to click in the link, listen to my poem and not visit my site at all. Have I got this right? This seems a shame. Is there a way around this? I’d prefer visitors to click into my blog, read the poem and then listen to it (if they’d like to). Thanks, in advance, for any comment about this.
LikeLike
We are considering updating so that the featured image will always be used in the Reader if present. If we make that change, you would be able to set a featured image to avoid the SoundCloud player from showing up in the Reader.
Regarding the player, if your goal is to give visitors the option to either read or listen to the poem, then I think seeing the player in the Reader is actually pretty cool, and some people may listen to it when they might not have otherwise. Why would you want to try to force people to read before listening?
LikeLike
Thanks for replying, Sheri. Using the featured image in the Reader would be a good idea although I don’t think Plane, the theme I’m currently using, has the featured image feature so I would consider changing themes. As to your question about the player, I would like people to click into my post and not just experience it in the Reader. Usually, if I’ve included a poem on my blog, I’ve given some background or context to how I’ve written the piece, or I’ve linked through to a previous post to give more explanation. I’m trying to develop a relationship with my readers so I’d like to find ways of engaging them and encouraging them to stay around longer, not just dash in and out!
LikeLike
Featured images can be used by themes, but they don’t have to be. You can set one to control which image appears for a post in the Reader even if your theme doesn’t used featured images.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I didn’t know that, Sheri. Would you mind posting a link to how to do this, please?
LikeLike
Certainly. Please see the Featured Images support page.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Sheri. I’ve tried this with my Plane theme blog and the featured image doesn’t appear once I update the post. I don’t think Plane supports Featured Images.
LikeLike
My apologies! You need to set a featured image and also be using the full text feed setting on the WP Admin > Setting > Reading page. This has been updated today. Summary feeds do not display images in the Reader now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK, thanks for the clarification.
LikeLike
The new interface looks cleaner. I even like the font (what is it?). Could you make the blog names a bit bigger, perhaps the same size as the title?
p.s. thanks for reading and responding to the feedback.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! The font is called Merriweather. We just pushed an update that moves the site title up to the top of the card. How’s that look?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes, that’s a lot better! Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is not an easy way to get to the actual blog site rather than just reading a generic post. When I click on my post, it doesn’t show any of the formatting or side bars with other information that I want people to see. I read some comments about double-clicking, but that’s not intuitive. Some sites have the “click here to visit site” button. How do I get this, as mine does not? Before, I could just click of “read more” button and go directly to the site.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You may opt to truncate your posts and limit what content is included in your blog feed by selecting the “Summary” option instead of “Full text” on the WP Admin > Settings > Reading page.
LikeLike
Blocking a site still doesn’t work, and now some of the Tags aren’t working either. For example, the tags for both “Leica” and “Zeiss” result in “No posts in this stream.”, both of which were working before the refresh and both of which I have posts tagged within the stream.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for reporting these issues. Blocking is being fixed—should be working soon if it’s not already.
On tags, https://wordpress.com/tag/leica is working for me but https://wordpress.com/tag/leica isn’t. I will look into this.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Awesome — blocking is now working! The tag issue is still there, however. Might this be a function of the browser? I’m using Chrome right now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad blocks are working, and thanks again for reporting it. We’re still digging into the tag issue. It doesn’t appear to be browser-related.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Does the refresh still have a cap on “Likes”?
I ask because I used to go and like a high number of photo posts, then find that there was an invisible cap of some number (100? 150?) before the gold star would flip back to the neutral color. I found that I had to wait for about 45-minutes to an hour before I could “like” more posts.
LikeLike
There is a cap. It was added as part of spam-prevention measures. The number and rate is subject to change, and we do try to keep the limit reasonable.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I understand the reasoning for this and like the way it works on my mobile. The problem is that on my PC I now have to work harder to get to the actual blogs. Is there a way you can add a single-click option for getting directly to the blog one wishes to read/explore? Also, I am wondering if this is going to cause problems with stats. Will my stats accurately reflect readers who read entire posts from The Reader instead of navigating all the way to my blog?
LikeLiked by 3 people
We’re looking at ways to add something back that’s easy to find.
Yes, a pageview stat is counted for full posts viewed in the Reader on WordPress.com.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m a visual person but I find the emphasis on pictures overwhelming. Also the obsession with centring the text while there’s plenty of unused room to the sides seems pointless. I do like the increased speed of navigation, though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would rather read the post on the actual blog. I’m clicking about but can’t get to where I want to be.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I actually like the overall look of the “boxes” and I think the new look is fresh. I am however not a fan of the “30 second read” or “2 minute read” idea. WordPress is supposed to be about unique voices and perspectives. Those perspectives might be longer than a few minute read and I would rather have a surprise once I click on a blog title I like for the first time. Maybe it is short, maybe it is long, but I want to control what I read. I fear that with this little notification, longer blogs will suffer because people will see “6 minute read”…nope, no time for that right now. It also risks negating the well chosen words from people who share a poem or a thought of the day. It may only take 20 seconds to read that poem, but by “advertising” that length you run the risk of negating the well chosen words by the blogger. We already live in a rush rush society and 24 hour news cycle. WordPress is a refuge from that chaos, but little unnecessary tweaks like that will erode that refuge. What is the reason for adding that feature?
LikeLiked by 6 people
The new reader doesn’t work on my windows phone 8.1 at all. I’ve tried multiple browsers but get the “update your browser” page. Going to the old interface then clicking on “blogs I read” redirects to upgrade your browser!
Please fix it so it works on IE 11 on wp8.1!
Thanks.
LikeLike
Thanks for reporting this. I will look into it.
LikeLike
We pushed out an update that fixes IE 10 & 11 on Windows Mobile. Thanks again for the report!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I don’t know if it’s just my iPad but when I try and read a blog just in the reader (not on the persons actual blog) I cant scroll down to read the whole post. I’m scrolling down but the page just gets stuck so I can only read the top half. So I then have to click onto the person’s site and wait for that to load if I want to finish what I started reading. Is that a WordPress fault or something with my iPad? I never has this problem until the new change!
LikeLike
I can’t say for sure without knowing a little more detail. I did test a few posts just now from my iPad, and scrolling in the single-post view in the Reader is working for me. It could be that the blog owner for the posts you’re looking at has set the summary feed option, and that is one possible reason you might not be able to see full posts for some blogs. If you can tell me the address for one of the blogs you are following that has this problem, I will take a closer look to see what I can find out.
LikeLike
I can’t find the last comment I left…
Anyway, I’m sorry but I’m not finding it an improvement at all. It is more cumbersome to read posts now, as it only shows the summary or else you have to go to the actual blog.
And, I repeat, we don’t all read at the same speed. Please bring back the option of showing how many words per post instead of these estimated reading times!
LikeLiked by 3 people
The summary-only view only happens on blogs where the blog owner has intentionally limited the content that appears in their feed.
No final decision has been made yet, but we’re going to consider making a change to the read time. Thank you for your feedback.
LikeLike
I don’t find that double clicking on the title takes me to the original blog post. I have found the “…” and ‘visit site’ option. Too many steps to get to source……not simpler but does seem to load quicker.
LikeLike
Sorry if my comment earlier was confusing! Double-clicking is not the right thing to do, it’s two separate clicks each on the post title. The “Visit Site” link in the “…” menu is another route.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for the clarification. Still not exactly liking the changes (the extra steps).
LikeLike
More visit links have been added and now lead directly to the original post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The link addition is much appreciated and much more “logical” (that is to say, if any of the changes are logical(!) or have some behind-the-scenes significance that we’re not aware of.).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Astute observation. There are indeed behind-the-scenes, under-the-hood updates driving some of these updates. 🙂 The codebase is being re-structured.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a good thing someone knows how to do all this……..I sure don’t!!! LOL!!!!
LikeLike
When my post shows up in the reader it does not contain the “There’s more” link while posts from other bloggers have the link. How can I add that?
LikeLike
You can add that by going to WP Admin > Settings > Reading and selecting the “Summary” option for feeds. Keep in mind it will truncate what information is offered by your blog to all feed readers, and possibly other places, including the WordPress.com Reader.
LikeLike
The writing in the new Reader is harder to read as it appears grey rather than black on a very bright background. I don’t know if the font has changed also?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the font has changed.
LikeLike
It is really difficult to read this print, as it is so pale. I am not alone in this. Please can you choose a clearer option?
Tilting my laptop screen or altering the brightness does not help. I have increased the zoom, but it is still very tiring trying to read posts in my Reader now.
Otherwise, the speed has definitely increased, so thank you for that 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Still not seeing a significant portion of Gravatars in the reader. Including my own. Is there a fix for this?
LikeLike
The main Reader page now shows the site icon (or blavatar). Can you verify you have one set by going to WP Admin > Settings > Reading in your blog dashboard and looking for the icon at the top right?
LikeLike
Thank you. I went through the process following your note and, though taking about 24 hours, it finally worked. Perhaps share this openly in a post as I note that some of the people I follow still don’t have it showing up for them. ~ Thank you. 🙂
LikeLike
I much prefer the previous version. I am not at all happy with this new format.
I was forced to read all the explanations and I thank you, Sheri but instead to save time, I lost a lot.
Sorry for my english 🙂
LikeLike
Can some one help me find the ‘Explore Topics’ which was under the ‘Tags’ section in the ‘Reader.’ Please do not tell me, it was part of the renovation, I used hours ago and it just disappeared. It is very important for researching in WordPress.
LikeLike
The Reader still has more updates on the way. Adding back the Explore Topics link will probably be one of them. In the mean time, you can get to it here: https://wordpress.com/tags/
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you very much Sheri.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m really happy to see that for each one of my blogs the respective blavatar is now showing in the reader again. For a long while it used to show the gravatar for all blogs. Thanks for that!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thank you so much for listening to our constructive criticism on various issues about the new reader, and making several changes today. I’m very impressed.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I wish you’d stop using words like “easier,” “fun” and “improved” to describe your butchery of features. You’ve made every blog look like the same generic blah with no widgets or sidebar unless you want to click more times to get to the real thing. WP’s MO seems to be “make them click more to get to the same place.”
LikeLiked by 4 people
Visit links have been updated and are now a single-click away from the original post.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thank you for removing that business about how long a read each post was! And the “visit” link is great for getting easily back to the original post. Thank you for that too!
LikeLiked by 3 people
I can see WordPress are working very hard to respond to comments & feedback, and make changes – thank you. But for my latest post, the tags don’t appear, nor does the photo. Will there be a tutorial on how to best format posts for best preview in Reader?
LikeLiked by 3 people
To rectify the issue I mentioned in my previous comment that occurred since the tweaks… I had to change my Reader settings to Full rather than Summary so the photo and a single tag appeared in Reader. I’d prefer Summary so that posts don’t appear in full in email notifications but so that a photo and tags appear in Reader and email notifications (is this possible in the new format? as it was it the old). Once glitch, Reader picked up a photo from my Library that wasn’t in the post and added it as well, which meant I had to go into the Library and delete the photo.
LikeLiked by 3 people
An update was made today based on earlier user feedback—summary feeds now only display title and excerpt. Currently, the only way to change that in the Reader would be to use a full text feed instead of a summary feed.
About the photo, that sounds strange. If you see that happen again, please don’t delete the image right away and contact support and please include a link to the post in question and also describe the image. That way, someone will be able to help take a closer look. Hopefully you won’t see that issue again though. I haven’t seen any other similar reports.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Forgive me if you already answered this one, but how do we get the line in that says, “Visit XYX (name of blog) for the full post?
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s controlled by the “For each article in a feed, show” setting in Reading section of Setting in WP Admin. Set that to “Summary” and posts from your site will appear as summary cards.
LikeLiked by 3 people