
Show HN: Readsure – Pass a quiz that shows you read an article before commenting - nealrs
https://github.com/nealrs/readsure
======
matt_wulfeck
I'm honestly more interested in the discussion then I am with the article in
almost all occasions. Even if I don't have any interest in the link I'll still
peruse the comments.

If you ask me, the whole point of an article is to spark a good discussion.

~~~
randall
You need informed top comments, at bare minimum.

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gravypod
The title and previous experience should convey enough information to
understand comments.

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abustamam
It _should_, but, as we know with clickbait titles (which are not prevalent on
HN, thank goodness), the title doesn't always convey anything even discussed
in the article.

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throwanem
Brilliant, but it'll never be widespread enough to make a meaningful
difference.

Besides, nobody comments on websites directly any more. Now it all goes to
Twitter or Facebook, and they'll never implement anything like this because
it'd be directly inimical to their business model.

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rco8786
He says, in a comment directly on a website

~~~
ghostly_s
Not on the site of the article being discussed, you'll note...

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rollinDyno
This is not directly related to Readsure, but I've been thinking about
comments becoming the main content. It'd be interested to see which percentage
of people go directly to the comments in aggregators like reddit or hacker
news. Even more interesting to me would be to see how many people would pass
the quiz by reading only the comments. Sometimes the comment section is rich
enough and can provide more information than the source itself if one has good
inferring skills.

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dskloet
I think something like this is needed for elections. If you want to vote for
someone, you have to pass a simple quiz to prove you know what they stand for.

~~~
ElHacker
You're proposing aristocracy, that would be a big step backwards. I think
there are far better ways to inform people about their choices and give them
the power to decide who they want to be represented by. In any case, we should
make voting easier for people, not harder.

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personjerry
Since when does informed voters equal aristocracy?!

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ElHacker
That's not what I meant. I'm pro-informed voters. Restricting the vote to only
the ones that pass a quiz does lead to aristocracy.

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abakker
Can you imagine what kind of devious behavior would go into writing, wording,
producing, and administering that quiz...

Our elections are bad enough with the electoral college, super delegates, and
gerrymandering.

~~~
personjerry
Interesting that you assert "Our" in the sense of the US.

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ErikAugust
I have had this idea - but my solution is different. The solution is that the
time on site has to approximate the estimated reading time. Extra measure
could be taking by tracking the scroll rate.

~~~
Agathos
Y.T.’s mom pulls up the new memo, checks the time, and starts reading it. The
estimated reading time is 15.62 minutes. Later, when Marietta [her boss] does
her end-of-day statistical roundup, sitting in her private office at 9:00
P.M., she will see the name of each employee and next to it, the amount of
time spent reading this memo, and her reaction, based on the time spent, will
go something like this:

• Less than 10 min.: Time for an employee conference and possible attitude
counseling.

• 10-14 min.: Keep an eye on this employee; may be developing slipshod
attitude.

• 14-15.61 min.: Employee is an efficient worker, may sometimes miss important
details.

• Exactly 15.62 min.: Smartass. Needs attitude counseling.

• 15.63-16 min.: Asswipe. Not to be trusted.

• 16-18 min.: Employee is a methodical worker, may sometimes get hung up on
minor details.

• More than 18 min.: Check the security videotape, see just what this employee
was up to (e.g., possible unauthorized restroom break).

Y.T.’s mom decides to spend between fourteen and fifteen minutes reading the
memo. It’s better for younger workers to spend too long, to show that they’re
careful, not cocky. It’s better for older workers to go a little fast, to show
good management potential. She’s pushing forty. She scans through the memo,
hitting the Page Down button at reasonably regular intervals, occasionally
paging back up to pretend to reread some earlier section. The computer is
going to notice all this. It approves of rereading. It’s a small thing, but
over a decade or so this stuff really shows up on your work-habits summary.

~~~
ErikAugust
It will happen. I'm sure of it.

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krylon
First of all: This is cool!

Can this be automated? That would be really sweet.

There is an xkcd[1] comic where instead of captchas, users have to supply
valuable insights, thus solving the problem of trolls once and for all.

This might be first step towards such a solution.

[1] [https://xkcd.com/810/](https://xkcd.com/810/)

~~~
MichaelBurge
It seems like you'd just increase the volume of spam and tell your spambots to
always vote "Constructive". If you release more spam than legitimate users
send messages, you'll break through regardless of how they vote. You could
even have your spambots downvote the real users, since they'd be displacing
your precious viagra ads.

~~~
dpcx
Meta-moderation is a thing. Slashdot has been doing it for _years_. Not
everyone gets to vote, and systems would need to be in place to check for
gaming.

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callmekatootie
I think this has a flaw. Considering that you will be presenting the end user
with multiple options and the choice to only select one, the user can simply
spend 4-5 seconds to select each option one by one until they get it right -
Does not really verify that the end user indeed read the article

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adium
The correct answer is fixed on the last option. I don't see how this proves
anything.

if (ans == 4){ document.getElementById("question_right").style.display =
"block"; } else { document.getElementById("question_wrong").style.display =
"block"; }

~~~
nealrs
because it's a demo (and also a joke!) :)

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jsnk
Cool idea, but I feel like people will use it to make their comment section an
echo chamber. For example, if your article is pro-hilary, you are asking Trump
fans to acknowledge certain things you said about pro-hilary to be correct
before they get to comment. And they mostly likely will not want to do this.

~~~
spiderfarmer
I don't know. Before you dismiss an opinion, you should at least acknowledge
that you understand what they are trying to say. I think it's essential for a
healthy discussion.

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samch
Didn't want to waste my time reading this, but this kind of project should be
considered harmful. /s

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vortico
It could be used to stop bots if nothing else, assuming there's no technical
way to post a comment having just the HTML of the page.

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oblio
No you didn't.

Social engineering: some guy reads it and then posts the answer to your
question in the comments.

~~~
logicallee
To say nothing of: "I don't know how but I made it past the quiz - thank God!
Could someone summarize the article?"

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paulddraper
The internet is broken because of off-topic comments?

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dopeboy
Case in point.

(I kid I kid)

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paulddraper
Well played.

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mrwnmonm
i tried until i got the right answer without reading anything :)

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oneeyedpigeon
For crying out loud, please use labels for radio buttons - it makes them SO
much less painful to select. I wish browsers would start flagging errors for
this sort of thing.

~~~
nealrs
I'll refactor if people are seriously interested in this :)

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whamlastxmas
We are

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nealrs
thanks! i'll see what i can do - file issues if you've got more
ideas/suggestions!

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personjerry
This was really more of a fix

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sctb
We changed the title from “I fixed the Internet”. If anyone can suggest a
better one, we can change it again.

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mwcmitchell
THE WORLD IS A VAMPIRE SENT TO DRAAAIAAIAIAAANNNN

~~~
mwcmitchell
:( the name of the article

