Newsletter articles land in the readlist they belong to, without losing the rest

When a filter decides which articles get saved, a wrong call leaves nothing behind to correct. Give the same filter a smaller job, choosing where a saved article is also filed, and each wrong call becomes a labelled card with a button that reverses it.

If the sorting can be wrong, sort after the save.

A readlist's purpose in Readplace gives the AI that smaller job. A reader writes what the readlist is for on its Preferences tab. Newsletter issues reach the readlist through a custom email address or from a Gmail sender set to save the articles each issue links to. Readplace saves every one of those articles in All, and AI also files the ones that fit the purpose into the readlist.

The purpose picks where else a saved link goes, and it can't take one out of All.

A readlist for streets and the fights over them

Take a readlist called Cities. Its purpose is invented for this post and reads "Long reads on how cities change their streets, from bike lanes and bus routes to parking fights." A weekly urbanism newsletter feeds Cities through a custom email address.

An issue arrives with 14 article links, and all 14 land in All.

The AI judges each link's text and URL against the purpose and files 4 into Cities. The email page sums it up as "4 of 14 also fit Cities." Each of those 4 cards reads "Fits Cities" with a short reason, and they're what the purpose describes: a protected bike lane, a redrawn bus network, a council vote on parking minimums and a long read on a street closed to cars. The other 10 read "Not for Cities".

A few of the 10 are pages the AI leaves out unless a purpose asks for them, like a job post for a transit planner.

Where the AI couldn't tell, the card shows no reason and the link stays out of Cities instead of going in on a guess. A failed run files nothing into Cities. The email page then reads "Couldn't choose articles for Cities", says the links all stay in All and points at "Keep in Cities" for the ones that belong there.

A wrong call among the 10 left out doesn't reach Cities, so the email page is where it shows.

The highway that became a park

The AI gets 1 of those 10 wrong. It's a long read about a city that tore down a highway on stilts and planted a park where the lanes ran. Its reason says the piece is about a park, which the purpose doesn't mention.

A city taking out a highway is changing its streets, and the piece is a long read, so both its topic and its kind of page match the purpose.

The reader taps "Keep in Cities". A toast reads "Adding to Cities…" with an Undo, and the card switches to "Kept in Cities" with a line that starts "You chose this on" and ends on the date. The article was in All before the tap and hasn't left, and now it's in Cities too.

1 tap fixes a wrong call, because the link stayed in All.

A filter that saved only what fit would drop the highway piece before it reached All. The reader wouldn't know it had arrived.

The opposite tap works the same way. "Doesn't fit Cities" takes a filed link back out of Cities, and the toast reads "Removed from Cities" with its own Undo.

Either tap is saved as a choice for Cities, and the AI sees it on the next issue.

How long does a correction count?

Until 20 newer ones for Cities push it out.

Readplace keeps each choice as the link's text, the site it points to and the call the reader made. When a later issue reaches Cities, the AI gets the purpose and up to 20 of those choices, newest first, as examples of what this reader keeps and skips.

So the AI judges the next highway teardown with that tap in view.

The choices sit on the Preferences tab under "Your choices", each with its date and a "Remove" button. A deleted readlist or account takes its choices with it.

TBH, an example is evidence the AI weighs and not a rule it obeys, so the next highway piece can still read "Not for Cities".

A kind of article the AI keeps getting wrong belongs in the purpose by name.

This readlist purpose is…

That's the placeholder in the purpose box. Finish it for 1 readlist of your own that a newsletter already feeds. Name the topics and the kinds of pages, in up to 10,000 characters.

Readplace tells the AI to leave out job posts, sponsor items, event promos and product pages unless the purpose asks for them, so a purpose that wants job posts has to say so. Under the same instructions, a link that only shares a word with the purpose doesn't count as a fit.

A readlist without a purpose gets every article link its newsletters bring.

Behind the Set up readlist button, on the Preferences tab of every readlist except All, sits the purpose box.