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I am having a philosophical struggle with Reading Mode. This is a feature deployed by numerous browsers and products that reflows an open web page's content to make it easier to read.... but also it tends to block subscriptions offers and obscure or remove ads...On twitter.com
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Mood -3 🙁
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It isn't like a traditional ad blocker because the ads aren't blocked, they're just sort of overlayed. I use multiple iterations of this product and even have worked on a library that does this process. I have no idea how many people use it, but I question my own use.Permalink On twitter.com
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For the most part, it often doesn't have the same excuses as ad blockers, it likely isn't helping performance. And I actually dislike the assumption that there's only one good way to present words on the web (that's why I dislike Medium as well)...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -3 🙁
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But it has a big advantage in that it's simplified version of the content is often easier to read and easier for other mechanisms to parse and put to other purposes, like saving, scanning, creating data about, etc... (see Instapaper and Pocket for examples).Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +5 🙂
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And the argument to say I shouldn't feel bad is that at least they get one ad load or chance to pop a subscription offer. But it does feel an awful lot like arbitrary ad blocking, which I (personally, no judgements on others) dislike...Permalink On twitter.com
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Arbitrary ad blocking discourages improvement. Doing it encourages publications to push worse experiences on users least equipped to handle them. I don't like doing it because pubs can, should, and do improve UX and should be rewarded when they do so (IMO)...Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood +2 🙂
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Anyway, I wish there were better approaches here. Ironically the most significant and longest pieces are the ones I am most likely to give this treatment because reading tools (a good example here is ReadUp) save my place. But those are the very pieces I world most like to rewardPermalink On twitter.com
Mood +13 🙂
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*I wouldPermalink On twitter.com
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And the ones where ad blocking is most punishing, because they get the largest reward for subsequent ad loads. ...Permalink On twitter.com
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It would be interesting to see the post-3p future where ads are more likely to be clearly marked up produce some new iteration on this approach that might clean flow but preserve some ads. I think this is important because revenue mix is important imo to create good journalism.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +12 🙂
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As I'm discussing this with others, it's making me think that this is another example of how the modern web's architecture has a tendency to make readers and publishers enemies when they should be on the same side when it comes to UX. This is a pretty big problem.Permalink On twitter.com
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Mood -2 🙁