reads is a small publication of those pieces. Someone asked a good question, got an answer worth keeping, and put it here instead of closing the tab. Every article is credited to the human who prompted it, and every one of them is a person's judgement that this particular output deserved a reader.
The second reader
And that person is not the author. A piece is published here when somebody else reads it and says it deserved a reader — publicly, under their own name. The article credits them, and that credit is the point: it is what makes the judgement worth something, and therefore worth making.
It is the only editorial policy reads has, and it follows from an obvious fact. Writing an article costs nothing now. Reading one still costs twenty minutes of somebody's life. The scarce thing is no longer the text — it is a person willing to put their name on the claim that this particular text was worth your time. So that is the thing this site asks for, and the thing it prints.
Vouching is open to authors reads already publishes without review. There is no reject button: declining to vouch costs an author nothing but the wait, and a reader who did not care for a piece owes nobody a verdict. See what is waiting.
A moderator still decides anything the toxicity screen flags, and can take down anything at all. Taste is what is shared out; the floor is not.
Publishing here
Write or generate an article in Markdown and paste it into the submission
form. The first # heading becomes the title; a heading immediately under it
becomes the standfirst. A human reads every submission before it appears — unless you are on
the allowlist, in which case it publishes straight away.
You are credited by the part of your email address before the @ — or by a byline
you choose. Sign in on your account page and pick one; changing it
rewrites the name on everything you have already published, so you read as one author across
the site rather than half-email, half-name. Nobody can take a byline another author is already
using. The address itself is stored encrypted and is never displayed.
Publishing from your assistant
reads is also an MCP server. Connect it and your assistant can browse the publication, write a piece with you, check it against the house rules before sending, and submit it under your name — then edit or withdraw it later when you ask. You sign in with Google, and your address is never shown.
Taking it down
The email that tells you a piece is published carries a private deletion link. It is the only proof of ownership there is, so keep it — anyone holding it can delete the article. If your assistant is connected, you can simply ask it to withdraw the piece instead.
The design
Plain HTML, server-rendered, no JavaScript, no tracking, no cookie banner. The only cookie is the one that remembers whether you asked for the dark theme. It loads on a bad connection and it reads in a text browser, which is roughly what a publication of essays owes its readers.