Mostly it's the article title that makes me take time to read (and re-read) that article. Also, quality of the source of the article, list of similar examples and practices and authors play great role in this.
jcov - 15 years ago
I'm old school, I guess, but I am a reader. However, the key phrase is "good / useful posts" -- and of course not everything is in that category. So I do scan first. If it really is good, I'll take the time to read it, save the URL, even save something a search-able format on my hard drive if I know I'll be looking for it later. I am a fan of Smashing Mag -- many thanks for the the high quality content you provide! I look forward to checking SM every 1-2 days, and I tend spend more time with your content because I consider it high quality. Event the topics that are outside my area of interest are usually informative and worth reading. Thanks again, guys!
As the guys above have said, with list articles I try and scan through them quickly first to quickly see what they're covering and assess if it's worth taking more time to go through them thoroughly. If it is then I'll either drop down to a lower 'scan' rate to read or click through, or I'll bookmark it for later.
Ever since I started using TweetDeck though, I've had less time to read articles as I've been getting so many great links to very interesting articles. Although I am starting to see many design sites regurgitating more-or-less the same lists and I've found myself on occasion scanning through yet another website listing 'the 120 best CSS menus', for example.
But if there is an article which has more depth than just a list article then I will take the time to read it - either straight away or save it for later if it's particularly long.
Usually I will scan the article first. If it is something that interest me, then I either read the entire article then if time permits, or save to delicious until I have enough time to read.
Mostly it's the article title that makes me take time to read (and re-read) that article. Also, quality of the source of the article, list of similar examples and practices and authors play great role in this.
I'm old school, I guess, but I am a reader. However, the key phrase is "good / useful posts" -- and of course not everything is in that category. So I do scan first. If it really is good, I'll take the time to read it, save the URL, even save something a search-able format on my hard drive if I know I'll be looking for it later. I am a fan of Smashing Mag -- many thanks for the the high quality content you provide! I look forward to checking SM every 1-2 days, and I tend spend more time with your content because I consider it high quality. Event the topics that are outside my area of interest are usually informative and worth reading. Thanks again, guys!
As the guys above have said, with list articles I try and scan through them quickly first to quickly see what they're covering and assess if it's worth taking more time to go through them thoroughly. If it is then I'll either drop down to a lower 'scan' rate to read or click through, or I'll bookmark it for later.
Ever since I started using TweetDeck though, I've had less time to read articles as I've been getting so many great links to very interesting articles. Although I am starting to see many design sites regurgitating more-or-less the same lists and I've found myself on occasion scanning through yet another website listing 'the 120 best CSS menus', for example.
But if there is an article which has more depth than just a list article then I will take the time to read it - either straight away or save it for later if it's particularly long.
Usually I will scan the article first. If it is something that interest me, then I either read the entire article then if time permits, or save to delicious until I have enough time to read.
I see alot of links over Twitter during the week so I actually save urls for weeks at a time if needed till I can get round to reading them properly.
"20 websites that..." and list style posts I tend to rip through as quickly as possible