reading time
This article is a stub. You can help the IndieWeb wiki by expanding it.
reading time is a feature of posts (usually articles) that indicates the expected amount of time (typically in minutes) that it would take to read the post.
Why
Knowing roughly how long it will take to read an article will help a reader decide whether they have the time to read an article now or whether they should save it for later.
IndieWeb Examples
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmüller has been indicating reading time on his werd.io articles since ????-??-?? (date and citation needed).
- need example article (first article with reading time?)
Tantek
Tantek Çelik has tried posting an article with reading time on 2016-02-17:
Rob Weychert
Template:robweychert shows reading time on posts in list views (but not on permalinks) since v6 of his website (2017-09-11). Previously (v5) he showed word counts.
Jamie Tanna
Jamie Tanna shows reading time on list views and in actual posts, on https://www.jvt.me, as well as on Twitter sharing cards.
capjamesg
capjamesg shows reading time on his articles. He uses a Jekyll front matter variable to calculate the reading time for each post.
Silo Examples
- Medium displays reading time on Medium posts.
Criticism
Bad reaction to being told
- https://indiewebcamp.com/irc/2016-02-18/line/1455812120724
don't tell me how fast I read
First paragraph annoyance
- https://indiewebcamp.com/irc/2016-02-18/line/1455805042207
I'm mostly annoyed when the first paragraph of a post in my feed reader is "3 minutes reading time"
Does not reflect actual time
- https://indiewebcamp.com/irc/2016-02-18/line/1455827541363
maybe I don't like the "3 minutes reading time" thing because it never actually reflects the time I spend reading articles
- Everyone reads at different paces and there is no way to calculate each individual's reading time
- capjamesg says "This article takes approximately X minutes to read." This lets a user know that there may be a margin of error around the reading time of a post.
Not useful seems arbitrary
- https://indiewebcamp.com/irc/2016-02-18/line/1455827821693
i don't find that useful because I don't know what assumptions the author is making about reading times, so the time listed is pretty arbitrary from my perspective