Reader now sports a simplified design, new post layouts, spiffed-up tag pages, and recommended posts.
Some nice visual changes in this iteration. Makes it one of the most visually pretty feed readers out there now while still maintaining a relatively light weight.
I still wish there were more functionality pieces built into it like the indie-reader Woodwind.xyz or even Feedly. While WordPress in some sense is more creator oriented than consumption oriented, I still think that not having a more closely integrated reader built into it is still a drawback to the overall WordPress platform.
@Chronotope Okay, so I’ve spent the majority of my time since your tweet playing with (read: drooling over) @pressfwd.
It is awesome and almost exactly what I’ve been looking for for ages without knowing it. I think that I’m not only an immediate convert, but an evangelist.
In fact, not just hours earlier in the day, I’d made this comment on the WordPress Reader Refresh (at https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2016/12/14/reader-refresh-2017/#comment-231762):
“Some nice visual changes in this iteration. Makes it one of the most visually pretty feed readers out there now while still maintaining a relatively light weight.
I still wish there were more functionality pieces built into it like the indie-reader Woodwind.xyz or even Feedly. While WordPress in some sense is more creator oriented than consumption oriented, I still think that not having a more closely integrated reader built into it is still a drawback to the overall WordPress platform.”
From the sound of your tweets and how I see it laid out, in some sense I suspect you’re personally almost also using it as a built in bookmark or to-read app like Pocket or InstaPaper? This is almost exactly the type of “off label” use case I’d like to bend it to–though it doesn’t really require that much bending given its current architecture. Are you displaying all the items you’ve read/commented on publicly (and where is it?) or are you just using the comment functionality and the nominated portions as a private “I’ve read this list” on your back end?
I’ve been thinking about the topic for a while since just before InstaPaper’s acquisition by Pinterest and recently written a few things including about Owning My Online Reading Status Updates: http://boffosocko.com/2016/11/20/owning-my-online-reading-status-updates/
I’ve even thought about using the Wallabag self-hosted version of something similar to this, but I’d prefer something more closely integrated with WordPress and PressForward has almost everything one could dream for.
If you have a few minutes next week to chat via phone about some of these uses, I have a feeling you could expand your user base a bit as a result. I also know of a few folks working on similar WP-based readers who might be encouraged to merge their work into your much more polished project.
My thanks to the whole team for not only a beautiful plugin, but for some well written and spectacularly documented code on Github!