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Writing an article

The long-form editor, how long a piece can be, and what the reader count does and does not count.

An article is for the writing that a post is the wrong shape for: it has a title, a standfirst — the short line under the title — a cover picture and a web address made from the title, and it is written in Markdown rather than a single box.

Published articles appear under Read as well as in the feeds, and on your profile.

What it gets that a post does not Copy a link to this section

  • A title and an optional Standfirst, which is the line under it
  • A cover image
  • A readable address — easybie.com/@yourname/the-title-you-chose
  • Headings, lists, quotes, tables, links and code, from Markdown
  • A reading-time estimate

How long a piece can be Copy a link to this section

  • Title — 3 to 160 characters
  • Standfirst — up to 300
  • The piece itself — up to 200,000 characters

Two hundred thousand characters is somewhere around thirty thousand words, so in practice the limit is not the thing that will stop you. It exists so that a runaway paste has an edge to hit.

For comparison, an ordinary post holds 10,000 characters. That difference is most of what separates the two.

An article also has to say what it is about — the topic decides where it sits on Read and what is printed above the headline. Notes, diaries and wiki pages do not have to.

The reading time Copy a link to this section

Counted from the words, at two hundred a minute, rounded up, and never less than one minute. Nothing measures how long anybody actually spent.

It is shown on articles only. Notes, diaries and wiki pages do not carry one.

Readers Copy a link to this section

A published article shows how many people have read it, beside the reading time. It appears once at least one person other than you has opened it.

What that number counts:

  • One person, once. Opening a piece eleven times adds one
  • Not you. Your own reads of your own piece never count
  • Not machines. Search engines, link previewers and monitoring tools are excluded

Somebody reading without an account is recognised by a fingerprint built from their address and browser, mixed with a value that changes at midnight. That is deliberate: it is enough to stop one afternoon's refreshing from inflating the number, and not enough to follow anybody from one day to the next. The same signed-out reader coming back tomorrow counts again.

It is not a view count. Nothing records who read your piece, when, how far they got, or how long they stayed. The number is a total and there is no list behind it.

If you would rather not show it, hide your counts in your profile settings turns it off for everybody else.

What it shares with a post Copy a link to this section

Underneath, an article is attached to an ordinary post. It can be reacted to, replied to, reposted and saved exactly like anything else, and it carries the same audience choice.

Editing Copy a link to this section

An article can be edited after publishing. The date it was last changed is shown on it, so a piece that has been revised says so rather than pretending it was always this way.