When I began using Reader a few weeks ago I quite liked it. However, over the last couple of weeks I have found it does not always faithfully copy articles from my news sites, and/or that it is very slow at doing so.

I wonder what other people's experiences are with Reader?

I also wonder what other Pocket replacements people might recommend?

I organize my clipping with tags. Pocket was good at doing this, and Readers seems ok with it. However, it is a pain to have to check to ensure Reader is copying faithfully a whole article from The New York Times or Guardian.

Thank you.

Daly

Interesting. As I mentioned in the other thread about this, for now I'm using Instapaper as a Pocket replacement, and I have Instapaper syncing to Reader. Perhaps this would solve the issue you're seeing?

The syncing from Instapaper to Reader isn't instantaneous, but it seems to sync within a few hours --- depending on your flow, this may or may not be sufficient.

(FYI, it can be a bit confusing that Readwise and Reader--two products from the same company--can both separately sync with Instapaper and can also sync with each other. Last I checked, this wasn't well documented.)

https://www.outlinersoftware.com/messages/viewm/46411

I've noticed that more captures in Reader are not successful. Not a huge number, but noticeable, especially from major news sites when Reader throws up a message about not being able to capture the content. I assume the root cause is content providers blocking scraping, which is their right. I can always print to PDF and import the PDF to Reader, which is a longer path but usually workable.

I wish Readwise would get around to fully merging Readwise and Reader into a single product. And clean up things like removing Pocket as a highlight source since there's no there there anymore.

Lucas, thanks for your reply. Like you, I have found the Read/Readwise distinctions confusing.

Initially I liked Read, but am growing disappointed and want to replace it.

Hi Paul, thanks for your reply

Paul Korm wrote:

I've noticed that more captures in Reader are not successful. Not a
huge number, but noticeable, especially from major news sites when
Reader throws up a message about not being able to capture the content.

My experience also, except Reader usually doesn't give me a message of being unable to capture content.

Also there are times Reader is slow in completing the capture.

I assume the root cause is content providers blocking scraping, which
is their right.

I wish Readwise would get around to fully merging Readwise and Reader
into a single product. And clean up things like removing Pocket as a
highlight source since there's no there there anymore.

I find that Pocket appears still to be working, because very recent saves are appearing there. I sincerely hope Mozilla reconsiders shuttering Pocket and gives it a new lease on life. I would gladly pay for Pocket.

Daly

I never wanted to rely on Safari Reader because I wanted tagging, folders, read it later and archive features, and I didn't want to be restricted to just using Safari.

Goodlinks uses tags and folders, as well as highlighting and notetaking within the app, along with full-text search across saved articles. Goodlinks lets you can export to Markdown as an option, so articles can easily be thrown into other apps. And the macOS Share extension can be accessed in any app that permits sharing, not just a web browser.

Plus I like to use more than just Safari. My main browser is Brave, and Safari and Firefox are secondary browsers for me. Goodlinks has share extensions for all of them.

https://goodlinks.app/

Goodlinks is private, saves everything in your iCloud, and is cheap as chips: $10 for the app, which works across Mac/iOS/iPadOS, with a $5 optional one-year feature ugrade support. (When new functionality comes out the upgrade unlocks it forever, plus any new features that come out in the next 12 months.)

Last I checked, with Safari Reader Mode you could only search within saved pages (perhaps this changed), but Reader does not let you use tags or folders, has no metadata/notetaking inside saved pages, and Safari Highlights is only available in the United States and supports English-language websites.

With choices like Goodlinks I have no reason to consider Safari Reader or even Instapaper (which has a free tier but charges $60/year for permanent archives and full-text search and notes).

Thanks Satis - Goodlinks looks good. I use Windows and Android. You mentioned Instapaper. If it also works on Mac have you familiarity with it? Thanks.

Daly

satis wrote:

I never wanted to rely on Safari Reader because I wanted tagging,
folders, read it later and archive features, and I didn't want to be
restricted to just using Safari.

Goodlinks uses tags and folders, as well as highlighting and notetaking
within the app, along with full-text search across saved articles.
Goodlinks lets you can export to Markdown as an option, so articles can
easily be thrown into other apps. And the macOS Share extension can be
accessed in any app that permits sharing, not just a web browser.

Plus I like to use more than just Safari. My main browser is Brave, and
Safari and Firefox are secondary browsers for me. Goodlinks has share
extensions for all of them.

https://goodlinks.app/

Goodlinks is private, saves everything in your iCloud, and is cheap as
chips: $10 for the app, which works across Mac/iOS/iPadOS, with a $5
optional one-year feature ugrade support. (When new functionality comes
out the upgrade unlocks it forever, plus any new features that come out
in the next 12 months.)

Last I checked, with Safari Reader Mode you could only search within
saved pages (perhaps this changed), but Reader does not let you use tags
or folders, has no metadata/notetaking inside saved pages, and Safari
Highlights is only available in the United States and supports
English-language websites.

With choices like Goodlinks I have no reason to consider Safari Reader
or even Instapaper (which has a free tier but charges $60/year for
permanent archives and full-text search and notes).

Daly de Gagne wrote:

Thanks Satis - Goodlinks looks good. I use Windows and Android. You
mentioned Instapaper. If it also works on Mac have you familiarity with
it? Thanks.

I started using Instapaper when in came out in 2008 as a one-time paid app. But the dev at the time was a one-man shop and he refused to compete on features from services like Pocket, so I stopped relying on it by mid-2013, which is the date of my last saved article. That dev ended up selling Instapaper, and it's since transferred to three different owners.

When I used Instapaper I saved articles exclusively in iOS, and I if I need to access my saved articles on Mac I do so only through the web interface. Instapaper added a Mac app in 2020 but I have never used it.

Instapaper offers a free tier whose features might be enough for you if you want to move saved articles into other apps or save them into storable formats.

https://www.instapaper.com/premium