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Incredibly annoying site. - 'Read More' button, why? The only action I should be taking is scrolling. - No text resize / fluidity adjustment (yay whitespace!)

by rublev 10y ago

Incredibly annoying site. - 'Read More' button, why? The only action I should be taking is scrolling. - No text resize / fluidity adjustment (yay whitespace!) - Huge graphics, not even talking about the full screen stuff. - Parallax crap - Movie background image - 50 requests / 13.9mb transferred / 8.28s load time I just want to read the article, man.

mortenjorck 10y ago
Just for an opposing view, I think what The Intercept has been doing lately with editorial design is fantastic. They've become one of the publications pushing the boundaries of the digital magazine experience, and the integration of rich graphics and video give an important story an appropriately compelling presentation. One thing I will agree with you on, though: The "read more" link adds no perceptible value and seems to have become an editorial design cargo cult.
- zeroer 10y ago
  I always thought the "read more" was to track how many people read the article for analytics and ad purposes.
  - forgotpwtomain 10y ago
    Isn't scroll tracking better? They can click read more and still stop reading.
    - viraptor 10y ago
      Scroll tracking can be disabled with adblockers. Read more can always be tracked since that's the primary purpose of the link - when you want to read more.
      - forgotpwtomain 10y ago
        > Scroll tracking can be disabled with adblockers. That's not strictly correct. Adblockers disable third-party services for it, you can just implement it yourself just like read-more, which again as I mentioned doesn't tell you whether they actually read or not.
        viraptor 10y ago
        Adblockers can block any requests. It doesn't matter if they're from the same site or third party. If your page is know enough, requests like reading progress are likely to be blocked at least by ghostery.
- alphapapa 10y ago
  > the integration of rich graphics and video give an important story an appropriately compelling presentation. Or from the other perspective, rather than simply presenting the facts and letting the reader judge the story's import, the "digital magazine experience" and "rich graphics and video" manipulate the reader's emotional state and seed his response. In other words, not journalism, but activism. "But this is The Intercept," you might say, "the guys who exposed the NSA's malfeasance!"--or in other words, the ends justify the means. And we all know where that leads, even if some of us won't admit it.
- Grangar 10y ago
  There is something to say for progressive disclosure in longreads like this. In my case, I'm reading at work and don't have 15 minutes to spare to read the whole article. Skimming over content is a much better experience when you can easily discern different sections.

by rublev 10y ago

mortenjorck 10y ago

Just for an opposing view, I think what The Intercept has been doing lately with editorial design is fantastic. They've become one of the publications pushing the boundaries of the digital magazine experience, and the integration of rich graphics and video give an important story an appropriately compelling presentation. One thing I will agree with you on, though: The "read more" link adds no perceptible value and seems to have become an editorial design cargo cult.

zeroer 10y ago
I always thought the "read more" was to track how many people read the article for analytics and ad purposes.
- forgotpwtomain 10y ago
  Isn't scroll tracking better? They can click read more and still stop reading.
  - viraptor 10y ago
    Scroll tracking can be disabled with adblockers. Read more can always be tracked since that's the primary purpose of the link - when you want to read more.
    - forgotpwtomain 10y ago
      > Scroll tracking can be disabled with adblockers. That's not strictly correct. Adblockers disable third-party services for it, you can just implement it yourself just like read-more, which again as I mentioned doesn't tell you whether they actually read or not.
      - viraptor 10y ago
        Adblockers can block any requests. It doesn't matter if they're from the same site or third party. If your page is know enough, requests like reading progress are likely to be blocked at least by ghostery.
alphapapa 10y ago
> the integration of rich graphics and video give an important story an appropriately compelling presentation. Or from the other perspective, rather than simply presenting the facts and letting the reader judge the story's import, the "digital magazine experience" and "rich graphics and video" manipulate the reader's emotional state and seed his response. In other words, not journalism, but activism. "But this is The Intercept," you might say, "the guys who exposed the NSA's malfeasance!"--or in other words, the ends justify the means. And we all know where that leads, even if some of us won't admit it.
Grangar 10y ago
There is something to say for progressive disclosure in longreads like this. In my case, I'm reading at work and don't have 15 minutes to spare to read the whole article. Skimming over content is a much better experience when you can easily discern different sections.