The WordPress Reader allows users to like posts without actually reading them. This kind of defeats the whole purpose of the blogs and the ability to scroll through content. What value is the stat if someone can click “I like” without reading? It is called bad data at best, misleading data. Look for my post on May 1st about my data mining project for my blog, which covers the first quarter of this year. The reader is fine, and you can glean something from a good excerpt, but the whole point is to drive opening the post, reading it, and then clicking the like. I have added an internal check to my posts, a rating system from 1 to 5 stars. I put it at the end of all posts. I can now compare “Likes” to internal “Ratings.” This rating will mean more to me than likes, since it requires at least looking at the post, not the reader, and clicking like. Likes are a useless vanity check. Use the reader to get to the post, but not an exclusive click for “Like”.