# 阅读时长指标
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [2018年六月14日 20:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916 "2018-06-14T20:05:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [2018年六月14日 20:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/1 "2018-06-14T20:05:47Z")
Given how central reading time is in discourse, wouldn’t it make sense to add some reading time metrics to to the dashboard (or, since it’s admittedly not as crucial as the other stats there, perhaps on a separate page. Here are some ideas (note: “user” means “logged in user” because reading time is not tracked for anons):
- total reading time per day
- average reading time per user per day
- average reading time per post (total read time / number of posts created in same time frame)
The time frame (last week, last month, last year etc) for each of these could be selectable. In addition, it could be interesting to calculate these not only for the whole forum but also on a per category basis.
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [2018年六月14日 20:25 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/2 "2018-06-14T20:25:26Z")
Related:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-us-build-the-new-dashboard/86468/199](https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-us-build-the-new-dashboard/86468/199)
Maybe we should move that post and some of the replies over here?
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [2018年六月14日 20:32 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/3 "2018-06-14T20:32:58Z")
I suspected that this must have come up before and searched for it. I didn’t find your post because I searched for “read time”…
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [2018年六月2日 13:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/4 "2018-06-02T13:30:19Z")
One thing I still feel like is missing from the dashbaord is any surfacing of information about how much people are reading since _Reading is Fundamental_:
> [@Include reading time in the site stats](https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-reading-time-in-the-site-stats/20108/3):
>
> I’ve said for a long time that Reading is Fundamental and that’s why read time (and read flags) are weighted so heavily in user metrics.
This is something I pay closer attention to than any other metric:
> [@What would you like to see on your Discourse 2.0 Admin Dashboard?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/14):
>
> How much people are _reading_ seems like one of the most [_fundamental_](https://blog.codinghorror.com/because-reading-is-fundamental-2/) 😉 things we should be measuring.
I think plotting it (and other metrics) as _distributions_ across the user base has proven to be the most informative way for me to understand how people are engaging with the site:
> [@What would you like to see on your Discourse 2.0 Admin Dashboard?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-would-you-like-to-see-on-your-discourse-2-0-admin-dashboard/67134/14):
>
> We’ve started to play around with better ways to measure this and so far, something like this is looking promising:
>
> #### Number of Users who have read at least N Posts over 28 day periods
>
> [](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/5/0/50347688adb0a1a6187f2a90a1aa84a020758eec.png)
>
> ### Writing metrics
>
> We are also exploring measuring writing activity similarly:
>
> #### Number of Users who have created at least N Posts over 28 day periods
>
> [](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/6/6/66822feed7217e379364ba0d409dc96265dd38b2.png)
I can imagine doing something more similar to this though, which would combine the percentile distributions on a time-series graph more like what you already have on the dashboard. (Just imagine the percentile “response time” buckets are instead bins of user engagement on the reading or posting axis).
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [2018年六月2日 15:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/5 "2018-06-02T15:56:16Z")
It would make sense to me. What do you think @HAWK?
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [2018年六月4日 20:24 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/6 "2018-06-04T20:24:12Z")
In my experience read time isn’t a commonly reported on metric so I don’t think that having it prominent is necessary but I agree that it is useful information to have so I’m def not opposed to it.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2018年六月4日 21:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/7 "2018-06-04T21:57:07Z")
> [@Help us build the new 2.0 Dashboard](https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-us-build-the-new-2-0-dashboard/86468/201):
>
> read time isn’t a commonly reported on metric
That’s because the rest of the world hasn’t figured out that this matters yet. We can be leaders here instead of followers.
[https://medium.com/data-lab/mediums-metric-that-matters-total-time-reading-86c4970837d5](https://medium.com/data-lab/mediums-metric-that-matters-total-time-reading-86c4970837d5)
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [2018年六月5日 00:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/8 "2018-06-05T00:26:44Z")
> [@Help us build the new 2.0 Dashboard](https://meta.discourse.org/t/help-us-build-the-new-2-0-dashboard/86468/202):
>
> We can be leaders here instead of followers.
That makes sense for iterations but my goal for the MVP was to make life easier for CMs, esp at reporting time. Until people start reporting on read time, surfacing that info isn’t a priority.
Also, a note that that article talks specifically about content based websites and I agree that read time is super important for those, but not all communities are about reading or content. Why would a support community care about read time, for instance? Interested in your thoughts here…
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [2018年六月5日 03:55 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/10 "2018-06-05T03:55:00Z")
There are a lot of interesting questions with read time (probably more questions than answers)… You could make some rough assumptions about users based on a first posts’ estimated read time vs time read…
- \<10% read: not what I was looking for
- \<50% read: skimming the content
- \>50% read: engaged
- \>50% read and replied: involved
Then what if you started looking at time-to-reply vs % read… are most users responding before reading fully? or maybe the content wasn’t meeting their initial expectations and they need more details?
Are some categories more engaging than others? Is that what you’d expect? You’d think #Support would have shallow reading engagement (searching for answers), and #howto would have deeper reading engagement (longer learning-based content). Should deeply engaging #Support topics be prioritized to graduate to #howto?
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [2018年六月14日 20:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/11 "2018-06-14T20:59:04Z")
> [@HAWK](#):
>
> my goal for the MVP was to make life easier for CMs, esp at reporting time. Until people start reporting on read time, surfacing that info isn’t a priority.
How about a separate metrics page dedicated to time related stats? That could be in an experimental state for some time, during which people test the various ideas for read time related metrics and figure out which ones are the most useful.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [2018年六月14日 21:03 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/12 "2018-06-14T21:03:56Z")
Sounds like a good plan.
Note that I’m not pushing back on read time on the main dashboard. It’s not a metric that people generally report on which is why it’s not included, but if enough people are asking for it then we can do it.
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### Author:  [@alyssavigil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alyssavigil)
#### Post date: [2019年二月21日 22:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/13 "2019-02-21T22:13:34Z")
Where did we end up with adding read-time to the dashboard? TIA 🙂
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [2019年二月22日 00:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/14 "2019-02-22T00:02:20Z")
I imagine we could add a Read Time report to the Reporting tab pretty easily.
Thoughts @j.jaffeux ?
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [2019年二月22日 06:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/15 "2019-02-22T06:58:15Z")
I think it’s now doable in a plugin. So it’s more your call than mine, do you think it makes sense in core? Would you use it?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2019年二月22日 07:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/16 "2019-02-22T07:58:03Z")
Having thought about this a bit more…
I think this is important _to surface to users directly_, in public “take a look in the mirror” UI fashion, not as much the site owners and staff in the back-end reporting. So maybe that’s what @hawk was reacting to.
What is critically important is a regular influx of new users who read (this is captured in TL1 transitions), and daily/monthly users who come back regularly and read (which is captured in the DAU/MAU). Heck, for that matter, the /users page kinda captures reading reports for anyone who wants to look at it, not just staff!
Perhaps the only thing _not_ captured is users who come back regularly and never post (or like?), but do read. I’m a little unclear if DAU/MAU will show you users who visited and read but did not post a reply/topic.
That said, to @mcwumbly’s point I think we should still continue to look at even more ways to surface read time _directly to users themselves_ and that’s the more important effort.
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [2019年二月22日 08:07 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/17 "2019-02-22T08:07:58Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> I’m a little unclear if DAU/MAU will show you users who visited and read but did not post a reply/topic.
AFAIK DAU/MAU is using `UserVisit.count_by_active_users` which is using the `user_visits` table, notably updated in `UserStat.update_time_read!`
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [2019年二月22日 09:55 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/18 "2019-02-22T09:55:41Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> look at even more ways to surface read time _directly to users themselves_
Do you mean their respective own read time or the read times of posts/topics? In other words: are you thinking of _reading time_ or _being-read-time_, if you know what I mean?
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### Author:  [@alyssavigil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alyssavigil)
#### Post date: [2019年二月22日 16:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/19 "2019-02-22T16:27:47Z")
> [@j.jaffeux](#):
>
> AFAIK DAU/MAU is using `UserVisit.count_by_active_users` which is using the `user_visits` table, notably updated in `UserStat.update_time_read!`
Forgive me if I’m being dense, please, but I do need a clarification: having a UserStat.update\_time\_read table means that user reading time “counts” as activity, hence making an active user? Said differently, if I come onto the site and read for, say, 30 seconds, does that count me as an “active user”? I might have tangled myself up in a confusion-knot.
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [2019年二月22日 17:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/20 "2019-02-22T17:08:42Z")
> [@alyssavigil](#):
>
> if I come onto the site and read for, say, 30 seconds, does that count me as an “active user”?
While I’m not dure if there is a threshold (don’t think so, though), yes, reading counts as “being active”. A very important though often undervalued kind of activity.
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [2019年二月24日 19:04 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/read-time-metrics/89916/21 "2019-02-24T19:04:49Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> I think this is important _to surface to users directly_ , in public “take a look in the mirror” UI fashion, not as much the site owners and staff in the back-end reporting. So maybe that’s what @hawk was reacting to.
Exactly! I think it’s interesting, but the purpose of the dashboard graphs is to make reporting quicker and easier for CMs. I’m yet to meet one that reports on general read time.
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