I can’t remember if I said this already in one of the FB groups, but I’m curious if comment read time ever adds to total read time.

Like, each comment is it’s own story, so I assume if you click through to a comment, you’re no longer adding to the time on the original story. But is time browsing the comment section of an article read time? If so, then a piece that facilitated discussion would get more read time.

I bet comments at least add to a piece being shared, like claps do. I’m not saying I’ve heard this anywhere. I just have a feeling Medium isn’t telling us all the details of everything, because they want to figure out a way to measure real value, not to create incentive to game the system. And I’m okay with that.