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p/readupThe internet is destroying our ability to read.
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Chris Messina

Readup - A social platform that incentivizes deep, focused reading

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Readup is the best way to find, read, and share articles and stories online. It's powered by a global community of readers who vote with their attention. Articles are ranked by read completion (versus upvotes) and nobody can comment on stuff they haven't read.

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Bill Loundy
Maker
Hi folks! Jeff and I met in pre-school and we've been best friends ever since. We've been working on Readup full-time for almost three years. The company started with a random phone call that ended up lasting several hours. We talked about a huge problem with the web: tons of people comment on articles they haven't read. It leads to shallow, off-topic, and toxic conversations. We wondered if we could design a way to prevent people from commenting on articles they haven't read. We could! And we did! (And we have since filed a patent for our read-tracking technology.) Lots of screen-based activities are addictive and unhealthy (something I've personally struggled with) but deep reading adds a lot of value to your life. It's healthy and enriching, a great use of your time and attention. If you're distracted while you're reading, you can't reap the same benefits. That's why reading on Readup is always 100% distraction and ad-free, to allow for maximum comprehension, critical thinking, emotional immersion, memory formation, creativity... the list goes on and on. We have grown a lot in the last few months and currently the number of Daily Active Users is hovering in the triple digits. We want to push the gas hard and get this thing to the next level (especially while so many people are locked down!) so we're eager to hear your feedback and answer any/all questions. Ask us anything. :) -Bill PS We're hoping to add a couple of co-founders to the team within the next few months.
Gaurav Bora
This was really needed as currently, many digital marketing companies are gaming the system by providing paid reviews for books. This will let the WORDS do all the talking.
Bill Loundy
Maker
@gauravbora yes, digital marketing companies are gaming many systems. and it should be the words that do the talking. but FYI, Readup isn't for books, it's for online articles and stories. Check it out!
Deep Dave
Readup makes reading on the internet easier and better. It's been 3 months since I have started reading on Readup and certainly my reading habits on the internet has changed positively.
Bill Loundy
Maker
It's been so great having you on Readup, Deep!
Jeff Camera
Maker
Hey everyone! Psyched to be on Product Hunt! Looking forward to your feedback and we'll be hanging around all day to answer any and all questions. Readup was built completely from scratch so I'm especially happy to answer any technical questions. Jeff
ADitya Kandari
Interesting take and filtering the real vs fake readers.
Bill Loundy
Maker
@aditya_kandari Thanks! There sure are lots of "fake readers" out there. The thing is: I don't think that the "fake readers" (meaning, non-complete readers) even realize that they're doing it. It's such a widespread, persistent problem. I know that before I started Readup, I, for one, had no idea how bad my habits were.
ADitya Kandari
@billloundy That is true, half knowledge is dangerous than no knowledge at all. I also fell in the trap of making conclusions just by reading the headline and not the whole content. Done that and learned from it.
Chris Messina
Hunter
This is exactly the kind of gameification we need now — that both encourages people to read content in its entirety AND is that achievement is used to earn the right to add commentary. I see a lot of people (and yes, I'm guilty of this myself sometimes!) leaving comments in response to a mere headline without having read a piece, and their facile response only reveals their ignorance or bias, rather than adding to the conversation. ReadUp requires that commentators do the work necessary to contribute an informed perspective, and then uses all that activity (reading completion rates and commentary) to highlight the best/most read articles on the daily. A worthwhile effort in these twitchy times!
Bill Loundy
Maker
@chrismessina VERY well said, brotha. And thx again for hunting us! (Obviously that made *all* the difference.) These are, indeed, such "twitchy times."
Farhan Mustafa
Congrats guys - great to see how this product has grown over the past years!
Bill Loundy
Maker
@farhan_mustafa2 Thanks!! Great to hear from you. Hope you're well.
Edison Espinosa
LOVE THIS product, been using it for a year easily and I loveeee it.Congrats Bill and Jeff!!
Bill Loundy
Maker
Thanks so much, Edison! Stay close. These next few months should be really exciting. And we obviously want our earliest users (like you!) to remain engaged.
Jake Tran
Why I can't escape the reading mode by clicking the extension again, instead of reloading the site again?
Jeff Camera
Maker
@jake_tran Entering reader mode involves mutating the DOM in an irreversible way so the only way to escape is to reload the page. We had discussed putting an "Exit" button somewhere but all it would do is refresh the page and we thought it might be confusing to have a button like that which only duplicated the functionality of the browser's refresh button.
Jake Tran
@reallyjeff I personally think putting an exit button wouldn't do anything harm either. Since once I'm in the interface, I kinda expect to have an escape route somewhere
Bill Loundy
Maker
@reallyjeff @jake_tran Makes sense! Thanks for the feedback.
Alexa Rohn
LOVE Readup. It's my #1 place for an online community, these are definitely my people. Thoughtful conversation, interesting reads, it's the best.
PlugKing
I like the idea and love to explore. Yet the iOS app takes some minutes to be opened, and then I try to tap Sign in with Twitter but it doesn't respond.
Jeff Camera
Maker
@plugkingteam Hey, sorry to hear this and thanks for reporting the problem! Can you try to force quit the app and re-open it and let me know if it still doesn't work? The UI for the iOS app is just a WebView that is loaded over the internet. It sounds like maybe there was a server error or connection issue that caused the page to take a long time to load and the Javascript to never run.
PlugKing
@reallyjeff Still got the same problem on iOS. Tried to Create Account, using Chrome, but it takes forever to load...
Adrian Wang (辣醬の食記)
@plugkingteam @reallyjeff I love this idea,but I found some problems in my sign up process(web), when I click get start, I can't use apple or twitter to sign up, and it doesn't respond, I can't type in , except the username.
Madhu Ganesh
Downloaded this after hearing the Product Hunt podcast episode and so far, I’m a fan! It is incentivizing helpful behavior and introducing me to perspectives outside my ordinary channels. I’ve only been using the app for a few weeks, but my main ask would be better tool tips and guidance. For example, it’s not clear how someone can become a scout. I would love to add articles into the mix. And theme or topic based reading lists would be really helpful, along with the ability to underline/highlight areas. So far, Readup does a great job helping people read with more attention, how can we give people tools to read with a critical lens as well? Keep it up!