bill_rr

Hey everyone. I'm Bill, CEO of Readup and Jeff's co-founder.

FYI: We applied to YC and we're still waiting to hear back. They asked to provide a revenue update a few weeks ago. We grew a lot in September (50% increase in total # of subscriptions, MoM) so that was good. Fingers crossed!

Excellent post, Jeff! Hello, hackers!

Smart comments. I don't think you're being picky. I'm kinda shocked that this is the only thread about reading because that's what I think is wrong with the web: It's not good for reading. I'm 4 years into co-founding a startup that's solving this problem.

As long as it doesn't feel like I'm over-posting (We'll see! And I'll write about that too!) I'll probably post to (1) Twitter (2) Facebook and (3) LinkedIn.

I was def looking forward to the built in audience. Back in the day I had a little following on Medium. Nothing special, but definitely a few dozen people. Half were friends and half weren't. I just followed a few people, but I've been poking around quite a bit and it mostly feels like all the social stuff has been ripped out. The language "upgrade" is really confusing. Makes me think "Premium," yet the value prop is that I'm going to get paid for my writing. (Doubt it.) Medium feels very confused right now.

Omg the telegraph website is incredible. But what kind of new user experience is that? No About page or anything? What a stunt!

write.as looks awesome. I also might use snap.as for a bunch of my photos.

Thanks so so much. Exactly what I was looking for.

I'm just realizing that Medium might not be the right spot for me to post these daily updates.

It's nothing like it was before I disappeared a few years ago. When I went to hit publish, it gave me a lengthy explanation that, basically, it's going to be behind a paywall and there's nothing I can do about it (?)

Any ideas where I should post?

Hiya folks. Bill here, CEO/co-founder of Readup. My co-founder and I are both going to be hanging around here all day today and we'd love to answer your questions and hear your feedback.

Also, we recently applied to YC (corona batch?) so let's get this conversation going. ;P

I knew nothing about Krugman before reading this piece, which I enjoyed, but in general I'd rather hear perspectives from people who are in the action, rather than just studying things from the outside. Plus, ranting and moralizing aren't good looks.

View my comment on Readup: https://readup.com/comments/the-atlantic/cool-it-krugman/zjv...

This comment fascinates me. I hope you don't mind a very candid reply: You already know exactly what you need to do. You need to get away from the screen that you're looking at right now. Disconnect. Get to where you can see the clouds in the sky, and see how they move - spontaneously. Try to do THAT with your life.

No, it's good. It stands alone as a piece of literature. Atlas Shrugged doesn't - it's skippable. The Fountainhead is about work, art and passion. It's also just a much better story.

I've been wanting to read this.

The Overstory

PS Does anybody use Goodreads anymore?

That first sentence took me a little while to wrap my head around and I don't think it's true or logical. In other words, even if it was true, I don't see why it matters.

I'm building a company that plans to charge people to read things. The reading experience, without ads, is superior. It's worth paying for. That means that an ad free future is possible.

Great post!

I love this: "a social reading platform built around the central tenet that reading an article to completion should be an essential prerequisite for sharing, commenting on or rating it."

In other words: "People can't have opinions on stuff they haven't read."

I'm Bill, Jeff's co-founder. That recent New Yorker article about HN also appeared on Readup: https://readup.com/comments/the-new-yorker/the-lonely-work-o...

Readup is still small. But even with just a few people in each thread you can still feel the difference. On Readup, every comment comes from a person who read the entire article at hand. Let us know what you think! We're all ears!

Well said!

The New Yorker is indeed pretty solid, but it's funny that that's the standard because - as you say - it's still not quite as good as most "reader modes." The margins contain ads and I feel like I'm seeing "suggested articles" (aka pictures of AOC) every 5 minutes - which is a lot of AOC since some of the articles take up to an hour.

Hey folks - My co-founder and I have been working on this thing for over two years and we're just starting to get some traction. We applied to YC S2019 and we'd love your thoughts/ideas/feedback. Fire away!

Three cheers to this!

I think you'd love what my best friend and I have been building for the last two years. It's like Hacker News except no commenting on articles you haven't read (and no skimming allowed!)

Check us out: readup.com

Where did you hear that YC S2019 applications are due on April 12, 2019 (IST)?

This information might confuse people. YC apps were already due.

Did you read the article? No judgment if you didn't - just genuinely curious.

Over the course of the last decade (I got a flip phone in high school, smartphone in college, facebook my freshman year, instagram right after college) I feel pretty confident saying, "I didn't know." I don't think it's embarrassing and I don't think I'm alone. It's a big, complicated problem. BTW I went to Stanford and worked in startups. I think I'm a bright, open-minded, curious person.

To your second point: How do you recommend that we respond to environmental degradation? Or should we all look away?

I'm fully off social media and smartphones. On a day to day basis, I'm not being listened to and watched, at least as far as I know. I try to "vote with my behavior" so to speak, but it's tough. I'm concerned, for example, that not having a LinkedIn account is slowing down my career.

> The internet and "tech giants" have given us the ability to put our thoughts out to a global audience, stay in touch with friends and family around the globe (for free). Take and store a near infinite number of photographs. Order a car to your front door and have the destination chosen before hand without having to negotiate with your driver...

I realize that I'm an outlier here, but after each and every one of these examples, I thought - so what?!

So do you think it's more about breaking down the (centralized) big dogs or supporting the (decentralized) smaller startups. This Iron Cage is full-on dystopia. I really can't believe we're letting it happen!

Yeah - I'm with you. This is alarming. I've been reading and thinking about it for months. Some of the books and thinkers mentioned (especially Nicholas Carr) have really changed the way I see our current situation. It's quite dire, I'm afraid!!

you think? i feel like the unofficial rules of April Fools jokes is that they have to be on the exact day. Also, if the problem (height liars) is as bad as the article suggests (pretty bad!) I can see why they'd need to address it. And lastly, doesn't seem too complicated technically to pull off..

Hey! reallyread.it helps you read better stuff, more deeply. We aim to be a social media platform that's actually good for you.

Backstory: Two years ago we set out to fix commenting by prohibiting people from commenting on articles and stories they haven't actually read. To make it work, we invented a way to identify whether or not a person has read something entirely.

Real reading is fun! It feeds the brain and soul. Our product makes you feel happier and healthier.

Jeff (CTO) and I will be here all day so check it out and let us know what you think!

Epic.

What’s the app do?

Yup. Chrome desktop only for now but we’ll have an iOS app soon!

Hey folks -

I’m Bill, co-founder of reallyread.it, a social media platform powered by reading. We help people track and improve their online reading habits. We allow people to comment on articles and blogs that they’ve actually, fully read - it elevates conversation and creates true civil discourse. (And it looks a bit like HN and reddit.)

Now, we’re encouraging people to attempt a 10-day reading streak and we’re rewarding the first 100 winners with free pizza.

Join our community! Let us know if you have questions/ideas/etc.

I like your analysis of the "problems" from an industry perspective. Here's the user perspective:

(1) The problem with subscriptions is that it's unfathomable to subscribe all over the place. I live in New Jersey, so I'm not going to subscribe to the LA Times even if they have some great coverage of a particular topic.

(2) The problem with ads is that they are INSANELY annoying to see all the time. Period.

My company, reallyread.it, is going to be uniquely positioned to make "pay per use" (aka just reading something) a reality. It's the Holy Grail for all of us: Spotify for News - one premium subscription that unlocks everything, everywhere. We're on it. ;)