Really interesting feature to help you sort your Instapaper reading list based on what is popular in other reader’s queues. Of course, I worry that my interests will not align with the interests of enough Instapaper readers to allow the algorithm to effective for me.
An interesting story. Matt Alexander provides both [before](http://one37.net/10/9/2012/instapaper-controversy) and [after](http://one37.net/11/9/2012/9to5) reactions if you want a fuller picture of what happened and why it was important[^fn1].
[^fn1]: [Buzzfeed](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbuchanan/how-to-get-banned-from-instapaper) has the most detailed explanation, but it is probably overkill at this point
[On Build and Analyze, Marco Arment addressed the rate limits currently in place for Instapaper](http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze/89). I actually jumped to this part in the episode when I first downloaded it since, as I mentioned earlier, [I had been hitting the rate limits a few times](https://johnkiv.us/2012/07/28/hitting-rate-limits-on-instapaper-is-probably-my-fault/). Mr. Arment stated that the current “add” limit for Instapaper is 120 articles a day, with a portion of the previous day’s total counted toward the current day. Mr. Arment emphasized that this was the “current” rate limit and he would not guarantee that the limit would not change as early is that evening.
Listening to Mr. Arment’s discussion of the rate limit in context, it seems he would prefer users of Instapaper make the decision whether or not they will actually read something *prior* to adding it to Instapaper. As [I mentioned previously](https://johnkiv.us/2012/07/28/hitting-rate-limits-on-instapaper-is-probably-my-fault/), I tend to send things I *might* want to read to Instapaper anticipating that I will eventually read about 30-40% of those things.[^read] This means I may border on the type of user that can be harmful to his service. On the other hand, I have been using Instapaper since 2008, purchased the app as soon as I got my first iOS device, am a paying subscriber, and evangelize the app to anyone who gets a new smartphone.[^bookmarklet] I would like to think those “positives” outweigh the “negatives” of my particular article tagging style, but that is really not my decision. Regardless, I will try to be a little more selective in sending articles to Instapaper.
One thing I do not understand is whether or not “archived” articles are easier on Instapaper’s server than “unread” articles. I am sure I have “unread” articles that are multiple years old, that I will never read, and would be fine having move to “archived” status. Would that benefit Instapaper’s server load? If so, I would be absolutely fine with a system where Instapaper automatically “auto archived” any of my articles that were (1) unread and (2) added to Instapaper over 3 months ago. Sounds like I have to email Dan Benjamin with the feature request[^ed].
[^bookmarklet]: After all the times that [Mr. Arment has talked about setting up the bookmarklet](http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/79), it was funny to [hear a friend of mine](http://twitter.com/jpfluke/status/232294966834102272) talk about how proud she was of herself for setting it up.
[^read]: I do not send everything I see in my RSS reader to Instapaper. Instead, I try to use it as a way to delay decisions and cycles in my brain about whether or not an article is really worth reading. If I do not have to make a 4-5 second decision about whether or not to read a particular article, I can check my RSS feeds in a quick 30-40 second burst and move on with whatever I am doing at the time.
[^ed]: In case you do not get that reference: on [Build and Analyze](http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze), Mr. Arment used to say “Please don’t email me” after most comments or points. That has changed recently to “please email Dan.”
I’ve noticed that since Wednesday I’ve started to receive “rate limit” messages from [Instapaper](http://instapaper.com). Though I found one [StackExchange](http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/29291/hitting-rate-limit-page-on-instapaper) posting about it, I have not seen a lot of mentions about it on Twitter. My theory is that my method of using Instapaper[^insta] is not how they would prefer people use the site.
I hope the last couple of days have been a blip[^ml] and/or the rate limit rates are relaxed. I’ve been using Instapaper since [John Gruber first linked it in 2008](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/01/30/instapaper) and have been a subscriber since the iOS app has had an option to subscribe. I really would prefer to keep it as my only “Read Later” service. If, however, I am causing too much strain on Instapaper’s servers by sending it too many things, there are other “Read Later” services I can use to spread out my articles[^rl]. Hopefully it will not come to that, but at least I have options in the market if it does.
[^rl]: *E.g.,* I could send sports and politics stuff to [Readability](http://readability.com) and tech stuff to Instapaper.
[^ml]: I did send a metric buttload of Mountain Lion stuff to Instapaper and that will not be happening again any time soon.
[^insta]: Since I normally go through RSS feeds in short 2-3 minute bursts, I send any article I think I *might* want to read to Instapaper. The decision takes about half a second. I will then sit down in both morning and evening and pick articles out of my Instapaper queue to read. This means I probably end up reading only 30-40% of the stuff I send to Instapaper.
As reported on [The Verge](http://theverge.com), Marco Arment has [launched Instapaper for Android](http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/4/3061693/instapaper-for-android). Of course, the highlight of the article is in the comments. My favorites:
> Marco says please take your complaints about price and SHOVE ‘EM because you weren’t buying the app anyway.
…
> whatever happened to copying everything and placing it in your notes?? ppl are lazy.
…
> These “iOS only” developers need to stop pretending that their products are the holy grail with their “if you dont like it, dont buy it” attitude. There are some of us who really want them to succeed (former Instapaper user on iOS), but have been really turned off by their trolling.
…
> This is gonna bust. Pocket works fine and is free. This isn’t even properly designed.