Idea: Read It Together (a web page that you read with a stranger)

[Dan Q]

Reading Tracy Durnell's blog post from yesterday - https://tracydurnell.com/2026/05/30/imagining-human-oriented-online-posts/ - (which gives a shout out to this forum, BTW!) got me thinking:

Could I write a blog post that you had to read with somebody else?

I kind-of know how it would work, but my plate is full of side-projects right now so I'm not likely to do it. But I wanted to write the idea down to get it out of my head, so at least I'll be able to sleep, instead of coding, tonight.

The idea would be that a web page would be "gated". To get in, you need to provide a name (by which you'll be known) and wait for a second human to do the same. Then you'd both get to see the page, which you'd read together. This would work by tracking the scroll-position of the other, so that neither of you could see any page content more than a hundred or so pixels beyond the vertical viewport of the other. If you read faster than them... well then you'll still have to wait until they catch up and scroll on a bit before you can! It's kind-of like the experience of reading a book together: "can I turn the page yet", and all that.

Maybe there could be arrows pointing "off screen" to where the other person was, so you couldn't get too far lost. Or maybe each of your cursors could be a torch to help light the way, but some parts of the page would be so dark that only both torches together could illuminate them?

Dotted throghout the page would be opportunities for more-direct interaction. "How are you feeling about this post?" (click an emoji or whatever, and you'll see "Bob said: X" with their response). Or maybe a game of scissors-stone paper. Perhaps with shared cursor visibility so you can see where the other person is pointing? Maybe to get to the second page you both have to press a pair of buttons, but at the same time? Or maybe it works like a choose-your-own-adventure but you have to have consensus over which link you click on: you can see which link the other person clicked on, but if you don't agree then you don't go anywhere.

The experience would introduce a kind of... fragile humanity to the page. The other person could close their browser at any moment and you'd be cut-off, even if you hadn't finished. Or they could stop scrolling and walk away and you'd never know. The experience of reading a Web page could become something ephemeral, and delicate, but also distantly interpersonal... something that two strangers come together to experience, only to leave and never see one another again.

(It'd also be fundamentally hostile to bots, of course.)

I'd love to make this happen. And I'm confident in my ability to make the techy-bit work. But I don't remotely have the time right now, and I didn't want this one to just sit in my "maybe, someday" folder of Obsidian and never happen. So I thought I'd post it here. Maybe you'll take it and run with it. Or maybe you'll have ideas I haven't thought of, for me or the next person to pick up and play with. Or maybe in a year or so somebody with necro this thread and remind me of what a cool idea it was and maybe then I'll have the free time to make it happen. Who knows!

[poesu]

That is curious, although that would heavily rely on the text itself being "worth the effort" I guess? I imagine it being a community project, necessitating people to participate in it by hosting, say, a script on their article or submitting it to a specific website to really show off the collaborative spirit. What kind of contents you imagine the page to be having?

Btw, did you read Every webpage deserves to be a place by Matt Webb? EDIT: nevermind, it's linked in the Tracy Durnell's post, lol.

[Metropolis]

That is such a cute idea, but lowkey I feel like people may get slightly annoyed, especially if they are paired with a super slow reader. Maybe there is a way for people to categorise themselves as fast or slow readers, and they can get paired with people who are the same?

Idk, I read really fast, and unfortunately if someone is gonna read super slow, I might just tab out lol

[Dequake]

@Metropolis maybe so, but I think it's important also to remember that sometimes life takes compromise. It's easy to do your own thing, in your own pace. But to slow down, so your fellow person can catch up, in any situation. It's an important skill to practice. And it strengthens our humanity. Sometimes we have no choice of course. Sometimes it's better to pair up with someone who is more like you. Just some food for thought

[Metropolis]

@Metropolis maybe so, but I think it's important also to remember that sometimes life takes compromise. It's easy to do your own thing, in your own pace. But to slow down, so your fellow person can catch up, in any situation. It's an important skill to practice. And it strengthens our humanity. Sometimes we have no choice of course. Sometimes it's better to pair up with someone who is more like you. Just some food for thought

@Dequake Yeah, I get what u mean, but in this case, reading an online article, for a  lesson on patience and waiting for someone else  to feel meaningful. The article should be pretty interesting, otherwise people will probs get bored, especially if they are paired with a slow reader....its easier to learn that lesson in real life cause u lowkenuinly have no choice but to slow down but online its easier to tab off.