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Readability's new service

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Re: Readability's new service

#21

Post by jacques_chester »

scraplab wrote: post #17
jacques_chester wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like eps, you've assumed that this application is like the Readability bookmarklet. It isn't. It's an almost completely different thing. Here's the model. 1. Publisher embeds Readability code on their site. 2. Subscriber reads sites through Readability application. 3. When the Subscriber visits a known Publisher, Readability records the visit. 4. At the end of the billing period, Readability dishes out cash, divided…

There's no need to embed any code on anyone's site. The whole point is that Readability automatically detects the main body content from a page and extracts it. As a publisher, if your main body content isn't being detected automatically, probably because your HTML is awful, you can add some classes to the key elements to fix that. But that's not necessary. There's also no need to register as a publisher to receive c…

Ah, so it's completely mediated by their app. That's a clever way to get publishers to sign up -- "you could be earning $X right now!"

Re: Readability's new service

#22

Post by vampirical »

eferraiuolo wrote: post #19
vampirical wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say "100% of claimed Tips". How much initiative do you take to inform publishers that they've received a tip and should sign-up and claim their money? What do you do if a publisher who has received tips declines participating? The idea that I could donate money which the publisher hasn't agreed to receive and you could end up keeping it if the publisher doesn't decide they want to be a part of your service rubs m…

We hope to always error on the side that will benefit the user in these cases. Telling web publishers they have tips waiting for them is tricky business, i.e. Don't want to be spammy. We hope to develop some interesting ways to notify people that they have tips; but tippers have been filling this void by mentionig on services like Twitter that they've tipped someone for something. For now, if a tip goes unclaimed by…

Thanks for clarifying :)

I don't know that I agree with the refund strategy as the way to handle the issue but it's good to hear you guys come down in a good place ethically/morally on the issue (as you say, the most important thing with this sort of site is trust).

Re: Readability's new service

#23

Post by greyman »

jacques_chester wrote: post #4
eps wrote: post #2

The only pages I am using the Readability bookmarklet on are those that are impossible to read in their native design. Rewarding authors of such pages (and effctively excluding well-designed blogs from the rewarding process altogether) seems counter-productive. Also this gives them a tangible incentive to not improve the usability of their websites. I'm all for micropayng for the content, but this solution is backwar…

If I understand the model correctly, they want you to browse various sites through their applet. They'll dish out money based on which sites you visit.

Yes, you are right, the article says exactly that. And now, what is your opinion about this strategy? You consider it a bad thing to do?

Re: Readability's new service

#24

Post by jacques_chester »

greyman wrote: post #23
jacques_chester wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand the model correctly, they want you to browse various sites through their applet. They'll dish out money based on which sites you visit.

Yes, you are right, the article says exactly that. And now, what is your opinion about this strategy? You consider it a bad thing to do?

If you look at my other comments in this thread, you'll see that I independently conceived of a slight variation of the same idea (as have several others). I still think it has amazing potential.

Re: Readability's new service

#25

Post by beaumartinez »

quellhorst wrote: post #10

My old readability bookmarklet isn't working now.

Really? Mine (yet) works fine. I'm using Google Chrome 8; my bookmarklet is:

javascript:(function(){readConvertLinksToFootnotes=true;readStyle='style-apertura';readSize='size-medium';readMargin='margin-wide';_readability_script=document.createElement('script');_readability_script.type='text/javascript';_readability_script.src='http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/js/readability....);document.documentElement.appendChild(_readability_script);_readability_css=document.createElement('link');_readability_css.rel='stylesheet';_readability_css.href='http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/css/readability...

Re: Readability's new service

#26

Post by apl »

beaumartinez wrote: post #25
quellhorst wrote: post #10

My old readability bookmarklet isn't working now.

Really? Mine (yet) works fine. I'm using Google Chrome 8; my bookmarklet is: javascript:(function(){readConvertLinksToFootnotes=true;readStyle='style-apertura';readSize='size-medium';readMargin='margin-wide';_readability_script=document.createElement('script');_readability_script.type='text/javascript';_readability_script.src=' http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/js/readability.... );document.documentElement…

[Your JavaScript breaks this page for me on iPhone and Safari; maybe post a link to a GitHub Gist instead?]

Re: Readability's new service

#27

Post by flawawa2 »

jacques_chester wrote: post #9
cookiecaper wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I only use Readability on sites that are difficult to read in their native format. It seems that the Readability guys are presupposing that most users use readability on everything, and that the user would be happy to see money going to sites the user likes and visits often. However, I don't really like most sites I end up using Readability on, and they also rarely need any more money. This will probably las…

Like eps, you've assumed that this application is like the Readability bookmarklet. It isn't. It's an almost completely different thing. Here's the model. 1. Publisher embeds Readability code on their site. 2. Subscriber reads sites through Readability application. 3. When the Subscriber visits a known Publisher, Readability records the visit. 4. At the end of the billing period, Readability dishes out cash, divided…

This sounds exactly like Flattr to me, what do you mean by "it requires all parties to pay in"?

Re: Readability's new service

#28

Post by eli »

jacques_chester wrote: post #21
scraplab wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no need to embed any code on anyone's site. The whole point is that Readability automatically detects the main body content from a page and extracts it. As a publisher, if your main body content isn't being detected automatically, probably because your HTML is awful, you can add some classes to the key elements to fix that. But that's not necessary. There's also no need to register as a publisher to receive c…

Ah, so it's completely mediated by their app. That's a clever way to get publishers to sign up -- "you could be earning $X right now!"

Actually, if you check out the NYTimes article: > The company plans to pay them “regardless of their participation”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/technology/01read.html?_r=...

Re: Readability's new service

#30

Post by vampirical »

alphadog wrote: post #13
quellhorst wrote: post #10

My old readability bookmarklet isn't working now.

Apparently, they've retired the old one. Here's a link to the new free bookmarklet: https://www.readability.com/bookmarklets/

My old bookmarklets still work and the old site still seems to work fine (http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/). It would be pretty foolish of them to break everyone's existing endpoints like that.
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