Read-random-article feature

[igorrust]

I think it would be nice to have a "read random article" button, possibly for the inbox and/or archived folders. Motivation: Sometimes you just forget about what you've read before (or you are not sure with which unread-article to start :) )

[thelazyoxymoron]

Another +1 for this.

I'm someone who can't decide the priority of an article to be read and totally rely on shuffle/randomness to make my decisions for me :)

[jacksonh]

Close eyes, scroll, tap :)

Yeah we do plan on adding this as a sort option. I think you will want some ranking though

[masonc15]

+1 for this. In the meantime, I'll use the blind scroll workaround 😄

[artjomsR]

I originally thought about having a random article button / feature as well. But as @jacksonh said, I think random sorting option would be a good starting point. Once the random sort is added, maybe some sort of "Go to next random article" button could be implemented - so you don't go back to the main screen and don't spoil what's next to read :)

I think you will want some ranking though

Pure random would be easier as a starting point. Alternatives seem more complicated:

• as of now, it doesn't seem possible to combine sorting parameters, so this would need to be implemented as well, either separate from the random search or within the random search itself
• to add some ranking you'd need some UI to rank the articles and then there's the consideration of how you use weights to sort pseudo-randomly based on user's rankings

[stevenrobertson]

I think you will want some ranking though

I've used Instapaper's "Shuffle" sort a lot and really like it. A few observations:

• I used this this when I find a new author/newsletter/etc where I want to read a bunch of back issues, but reading them all straight through can be a slog. I'm using an e-ink device, so "close eyes, big scroll, click" doesn't work as well to get past these big blocks of articles.

• I don't think I need ranking for my use case. That said, Instapaper's version shuffles on device, and the on-device DB is limited (100 newest articles by default, up to 500 with a setting). So that acts as an implicit filter: only shuffle among the most recent X articles.

• Instapaper's shuffle is very unstable, it changes entirely any time the DB is modified. IMO it's a little disorienting. I'd prefer something like a sort key of prng_hash(article_id + timestamp_trunc(now(), HOUR)), as a compromise between stability and freshness.

[jacksonh]

• Instapaper's shuffle is very unstable, it changes entirely any time the DB is modified. IMO it's a little disorienting. I'd prefer something like a sort key of prng_hash(article_id + timestamp_trunc(now(), HOUR)), as a compromise between stability and freshness.

Ah so you want to apply random on a filter basically. Like something along the lines of: in:inbox subscription:"Some newsletter" sort:random

yeah doing it on device obviously simplifies a lot, pagination + random is kind of the issue.