reading is fundamental

Victor Kohli                                                                                                                 Jan 22 2016

Jeff Atwood’s blog uses a number of reasons and presents new ideas as to why reading is fundamental. The blog is aimed toward anyone in high school and above seeing as he makes it clear that reading is a skill that will be a major skill in one’s life. Jeff also adds that listening during a discussion is more advantageous for the discussion to move forward. He cites over posting as a key example, saying that there is more value to ones words when they speak less and listen more. He presents a number of new ideas that can change the way commenters interact with online writers.

Jeff brilliantly starts his blog by addressing that your post count is the only number that you can change next to your username. That the amount of articles read is never counted but the amount of articles posted is, as if the person who spends more time repeating then listening has more knowledge. The reason this introduction is relevant and engages young readers is that the world of social media has given us a platform to share our ideologies and argue different ideas. Most of us don’t bother to read the articles we post and just like the articles posted by others without even opening it. Jeff’s argument may hit home for those looking for validation in re-posting articles. The idea that the amount of articles read isn’t counted is a missed opportunity that the world of social media could use. The ideas of needing to read the whole article before you post is also intriguing for any internet user. These new perspectives on comment etiquette are sure to keep readers invested.

Jeff uses many examples as to why he thinks it necessary for there to be restrictions on commenting on article pages. He cites the Ars Banana Experiment where readers were asked to comment “bananas” at the very end of the article. It wasn’t until the 93^rd commenter till it was done.  Atwood convincingly proves why each of his solutions would work. None of them fundamentally change the world of commenting and all are practical ideas to evolve conversations and potentially change opinions. Removing pages to get rid of interruptions during the reading is a good start. Displaying read times and rewarding readers would also go a long way. However restricting commenters to a quiz is a little extreme. Overall Jeff structures his solutions in a bullet point format in a clear and concise way