I really like WordPress. It’s a great blogging platform and a great community, and I feel ungrateful saying this. But I’m going to say it. I don’t like the new Reader layout.
The problem for me is that the listings are too big. A single post takes up nearly the full screen on my devices and a post with sample images can take up two plus screens.
This is great for readability, but I follow a lot of people, and all the scrolling is making it harder for me to browse the headlines and look for the names of bloggers I particularly like. I feel I am going to miss some posts I really want to read.
Anyhow, I’d be happy to hear what other folks think. And if most people like the new layout, I’ll keep quiet and adapt.
And……the ‘freshly pressed’ is, I think, even worse. One’s moment of fame is utterly diluted as in GIANT type your post rolls away almost instantly.
I was online at the moment it all changed and spent the next far too long trying to change it back thinking it had gone to iPad format or some such.
I’m glad it’s not just me. I think. This is the kind of change that I’d be surprised if WordPress hadn’t done some user testing. We’ll see if anyone else has thoughts. Thanks. And New Year’s greetings, a bit late.
I agree completely–the posts and pictures are too big and it feels less manageable in both the reader and FP. I really hope they change it back, because I feel as if this is going to discourage me from taking the time to scroll through the new posts.
Thanks, Erin. I’ll figure out a way to send a note to the WP folks once I’ve gotten as many comments as I’m likely to get, and ask them to take a look at what everyone has said.
I have to agree Peter. I wish they wouldn’t keep changing things. I can’t find my notifications now, where I used to see peoples replies to comments.
“New and improved” isn’t always “improved”. I’m sure someone at WP thought it was a good idea, in good faith. And maybe some folks will pop up that like it, too.
I’ve actually managed to find the place where my comments are now. Maybe they should put out some sort of navigation instructions with new setups? I like WordPress as well, but sometimes the changes spring on you out of the blue
I have only just realised it has changed thanks to you. I have been avoiding Reader since before Christmas when it kept crashing my Firefox. I have been reading via email subscripton which I actually think I prefer.
I wonder if a lot of people do that. Do you get individual notices or something like a daily digest? Funny WP would crash Firefox: it’s popular enough that I’d think the WP engineers would test the programming for it. Do you have a really old version?
I don’t know what was going on. A few others were having problems too. This new Reader seems to work well, today. I get an email to my gmail every time someone I follow writes a post or makes a comment on my posts. It means a lot of email but I can scan through quite quickly and then click on the ones I need to look at in more detail.
Thanks. I might try the email approach if Reader stays like it is.
I agree with you. I hope they do something about this. Also, some of the blogs I follow show up in the reader with no headlines, or anything except for their tags and avatar. The whole thing feels clunky and awkward. Not sure why they felt the need to “upgrade”.
So far no one in my small and probably not representative sample has been happy. I see posts without headlines too, but the very few I’ve checked lacked a title in the post (I think).
Agreed sir! I went to dinner and when I came back it was changed completely! For a few minutes I thought I pushed the wrong “reader” button so I clicked it three times hoping it would send me home to the original format–gosh I hope you got the Wizard of Oz reference…
I wouldn’t have gotten the Oz reference if you hadn’t pointed it out, but I like it quite a bit. No one seems to like the change so far, and it isn’t “we don’t like change because it’s change”.
Hi Peter,
I agree. I spent twenty minutes trying to work out what I’d done. I even thought I’d somehow logged in to an old and outdated version of WordPress (I’ve not been using it for very long so don’t know how it used to look).
I don’t think it’s just that its different to what I’m used to because I haven’t been here long enough to get used to it in the first place!
Thanks, Tony. As I mentioned to another blogger, I’ll forward all this to WP … if I can find the right person … in a day or two.
It will be interesting to see what notice they take!
I’ll throw my name in the ring for those who do not like the new format. I understand them wanting to combine the Freshly Pressed into the reader, but the best thing about seeing the Pressed posts was being able to quickly scan through 20 or so of the best to find ones that interested me. Much harder to do know. And it’s much harder to follow those I want to due to the size of each post.
All said it seems as though the new format will discourage readership for everyone slightly.
Thanks Jeff. It is a good point about reducing readership, which had crossed my mind too.
I posted on this as well. I hope WordPress are reading all these comments. The new formats are dreadful. Freshly Pressed is not worth looking at now. Apart from being diluted if you happen to get on there, the old grid format was easy to glance at and tell if there was anything that might interest you. Now scrolling through just like on the Reader (which is also awful) is such a waste of time. I have stopped reading both of them.
I came to you via a link from Reflections on Life thus Far, which is probably the only way to discover new and interesting blogs now.
Hey Pat: First, thanks for additional perspective on the WP changes. So far, no one has said they liked it that I know of. I promised the folks who commented on my piece that I would forward the feedback. Maybe I better do that now before my day job gets in the way.
Also, thanks for the tip on “Reflections”. I’ll try to check it out.
[...] or downgraded, depending upon your point of view. As a result I happened on her links to Peter Galen Massey and Someone Fat Happened. We’re not the only ones to loathe the new layouts, it seems. Thank [...]
This seems to be a Ping notification but it has enough relevant content that I approved it. PGM
There is a very long thread in the support forum on this I started two days ago. The cropping issue, the lack of info on the post, and the huge type face seem to bother a lot of people.
Thanks, Victor. Do you have a good idea for how to give feedback to WP? I added a conversation to the forum too this morning, because I had promised folks who had commented on my post to try. If you’ve got good momentum on your thread, perhaps it would be most effective for me to chime in there?
A “happiness engineer” commented on the thread and Time Thief is a volunteer helper for WP, no-one holds out much hope, but that is as close as we have come to being able to contact anyone. They have turned off private requests to support, so joining the thread and keeping it at the top of the list is probably a good start.
Thanks for starting the conversation. I’ll give it a nudge later today.
Given the number of posts an hour we would need several people to chime in to keep this at the top of the list as 1pm its on page of the forum threads.
I agree. I hate the new scroll format. I have not read a Fresh Press in a few days because I do not want to sit there and fight to see what I am looking for. I also do not like the new way that a post is posted. I have been unable to add photos sence the change.
Thanks. I haven’t tried adding images since the change. Now I’m wondering how it will go. I had a note just now from another blogger who seems to have a thread going that is getting read a lot … so I may try throwing the feedback I’ve gotten here into his mix.
I’ve been a WordPress user since 2006, and have seen the evolution of the user interface. When I started with WP, the dashboard was much simpler and the homepage only featured the “Blog of The Day”. As WP evolved, some of the new features I liked, others not so much and a few disliked. While the UI changes were meant to be more friendly, I thought each new wrinkle complicated the entire process.
Last June, I had to close a previous WP when the problems of publishing a post were becoming more difficult. When I returned to WP for my current blog, it is a much smoother process than 6-7 months ago but requires a bit more of guess work in the posting process, especially whether written text and photos for a given post will appear in the preview and when published.
This particular overhaul is probably the worst I’ve seen through the years with WP. It is less intuitive, the ease of use is decreasing. The Reader part of the interface has been a mess for many weeks, and the new format is completely useless. It seems the development staff is more interested in adding a new feature, or trying to introduce a feature not seen other social media platforms.
Thanks for the insights David. I think with this latest change WP has discovered its New Coke.
I think they heard you, my friend. They changed the FP page.
I think they heard everybody, of course. I also think that WP monitors the stats for Freshly Pressed and I’m willing to bet that the now superseded layout reduced the number of clicks featured bloggers received. That really got their attention.
I’m sure there was quite the backlog of complaints; but still, you raised the issue. Just giving credit where it is due.
I found this post searching for anything written about the new format. I don’t think that the reader has been really improved at all. You can view the freshly pressed in tiles, but it is still a long stretch for the eye to see the blog title, the category, and the same goes for the “blogs I follow” section. I haven’t been reading as much on wordpress as a result. Glad that I wasn’t the only one that was unhappy with the change- I hope they keep tweaking it back to a more user friendly/ visually helpful layout!