5 aggregators for those who are interested in English longrida

Information hunger is difficult to satisfy posts in social networks, news stories and other fast-food network. To better navigate the world around us, we need structured, informative and well-presented content. Therefore, even in the era of clip thinking, there is a demand for voluminous and informative articles - longreads.

Popular in the printed press, but temporarily forgotten with the advent of the Internet, the long texts are finally beginning to attract the attention of the online audience. In many ways, this has become a merit of mobile technology: it is much more convenient to read for a long time from the display of a tablet or smartphone than from a PC screen.
')
Increasingly, modern media choose the format of volumetric and high-quality articles adapted to the displays of mobile devices. Moreover, innovating publications like The Verge or BuzzFeed create separate headings for quick access to their longrid.

However, there are projects that pay particular attention to the long form. Some of them produce exclusive materials themselves: Narratively , Atavist , etc. Others aggregate the best content from around the English-language web. I would like to tell about such platforms in more detail. In my opinion, the aggregators presented below are the best way to keep track of interesting longrides on the Internet.

1. Longform

The Longform project is supported by the University of Pittsburgh Writing Program. His goals include helping the Internet audience in finding worthwhile texts and raising the standards of modern journalism.

The team of editors of Longform keeps abreast of authoritative publications and publishes links to the best Longrides found on a special site . To avoid missing interesting articles, add longform.org to your RSS reader or subscribe to this Twitter account . You can also subscribe to a weekly digest of materials selected by the project team. All this is absolutely free.

An alternative, and more functional, version of Longform is represented by an IOS application . She also does not require payment. The application generates something like a smart RSS feed that aggregates only longrids. There are two types of sources to choose from: publications and authors. All are categorized from policy to technology. Subscribing to selected sources using the application, you will receive a stream of Longrides published by them. In the IOS-version there are sections with distinguished materials: the best, according to the editors, and the most popular among users.

The Longform application displays the history of read articles. Favorite materials can be added to bookmarks. In addition, the iOS version perfectly interacts with Pocket, Instapaper and other delayed reading services. Thanks to these features, managing the publication stream is simple and convenient.

For high-quality presentation of content, the application supports two modes of displaying articles. In the first, it shows standard web pages, in the second, only images and full texts, cleared of advertising and unnecessary layout elements. The second mode allows you to adjust the size and type of the font, as well as the display brightness.

2. Longreads

The longreads web platform , recently acquired by WordPress owners, brings together fans of rich and engaging stories. Together, its users add to the publicly available collection of links to the Longrid found on the open spaces of the network. At the same time, an alternative list is formed on the resource. It includes links to articles that are selected by the editors.

Longreads does not allow you to personalize the feed updates, choosing sources of publications. At the disposal of the reader only user and editorial collections of links to the texts of various publications. All materials can be sorted by rubrics, by the date of publication in the original source, or by the time of appearance on the site.

In addition to links to Longrida from external resources, the Longreads editors publish full texts of exclusive articles. Thanks to the minimalist, adaptive design of the platform, it is convenient to read them at any screen size. At the request of the article can be exported to Pocket, Instapaper or Kindle.

To keep abreast of the latest updates on the site, you can use RSS, Twitter and Facebook . Every Friday all email-subscribers of the service receive the 5 best texts of the week according to the version of the Longreads team. This newsletter does not require payment. Nevertheless, the site has a paid subscription. For $ 3 per month, the user receives daily recommendations regarding new articles. The collected funds go to the fees of the authors of exclusive content.

3. ReadSheet

The ReadSheet editor collects links to longreads and groups them into several headings on the project website . A separate RSS feed is available for each category, and there is a common one for all links at once. Thus, new publications on ReadSheet can be tracked using an RSS reader. But the interface of the site itself is great for this purpose, as it looks equally good on PC screens and mobile devices. You can also keep track of updates via a Twitter account or a free weekly email newsletter with materials selected by the editor.

4. Digg

The famous Digg aggregator uses the potential of its own community and the power of software algorithms to collect the best English language content in one place. The project is represented by a web version and applications for mobile platforms.

Enthusiasts fill Digg with links to favorite materials or vote for the best ones already added. All new arrivals are ranked by popularity. Moreover, the place of each link in the overall rating depends not only on the number of user votes, but also on its virality in social media.

In each section of the Digg website, there are quite a few Longrides, but especially for long articles, the authors of the project have identified a special section . To stay up to date with all the updates of the aggregator, you can use RSS, Twitter , Facebook and a daily email digest from the editors of the project.

In addition to the web version of Digg, official applications for iOS and Android are available to owners of mobile devices. They do not have quick access to individual tags. But there is everything you need for comfortable viewing of a common aggregator tape on the screen of a compact gadget.

5. Medium

The increasingly popular Medium blogging platform attracts sophisticated readers, publishers and authors from around the world. It offers users a convenient toolkit for publishing and promoting their own, as well as searching for others, worthy of attention texts. Subscription and user recommendation systems provide each reader with articles that are potentially interesting to him.

A significant part of the content presented on Medium - informative longrida. It is not surprising, because the accumulation of information garbage is completely contrary to the philosophy of the platform. The authors of the project tend to accumulate only really significant texts. The most popular materials are displayed in a special block, and therefore quickly get into the field of view of the audience.

As for the user's individual tape, it consists of publications of publications and authors on which it is signed, their recommendations and articles selected by the editorial board. Conveniently, social connections between Facebook / Twitter users are transferred to Medium. Of course, this applies to those people who connect accounts of several services. Such convenient integration allows you to quickly get contacts in Medium.

The full version of the project is available via the web and only for computers. When you visit the site from mobile devices, you will not be able to publish your texts. But for passive use, there are no restrictions. The situation is similar with an IOS application , except that there is no tag navigation. In any version of Medium content is perceived perfectly, regardless of the device used.

The ability to create bookmarks and export to deferred reading services helps not to get lost in the stream of publications. RSS is great for monitoring the activity of individual accounts on the Medium site. In order not to miss updates to your feed, you can set up an email digest. If you prefer a mobile application - notifications to help you.

Some last words

Unfortunately, of all the platforms mentioned, content in Russian can only be found on Medium. But on each listed resource you will find many worthy English-language publications, separated from the annoying news noise. As the slogan of one popular RSS aggregator reads: "Read more, know more."

If you are familiar with other Longrid resources, I would appreciate links in the comments.