New feature: Talk to Faithlife on your Amazon Echo!

I have used 'wc' on linux and it agrees with the word count provided by Word for the ESV reading on Job 1 - 5.  The linux count comes in at 2,159. 

So it looks like a limit of 8,000 should not be a problem for reading plans which read through the Bible in a year.  But the current implementation did truncate much earlier than 8,000.

I will put put back my plan back to one which reads the Bible in one year and see if truncates on other readings.  I will also note the truncation points, if any, and try to come up with a maximum word count.

Dustin Masters said:

I had a typo...it is 8000 characters, not words.

Well that makes sense.  Thanks for responding.

Linux reports that the truncated passage, Job 1 - 5, is approximately 12,500 characters.  I would estimate that 8,000 is at best half what is needed for a reading plan that expects to cover the Bible in one year.  It would be much better to have a limit of 20,000 characters, or even more.

Assuming that there is no way to increase the Alexa limit, does anyone have any ideas on how to get around this limitation?

I don't see how Alexa can be used to "catch up".  The "next" reading and the "current" reading both result in reading the passage scheduled for today.  I set up a plan where I was several days behind, but I am unable to get Alexa to access where I left off.

Reading plans are schedules with deadlines we sometimes miss.  It is not helpful to not assume that catching up or reading ahead is not part of the usage case.  When you ask for the next reading and it begins on the current date without any notification that you missed a day, it becomes much less useful as a tool.

Dustin Masters said:

Thanks for the feedback..I agree it's unhelpful that it skips readings without warning , instead of just picking your next scheduled reading. I'll see if I can make a change to adjust the behavior so it's more helpful.

Dustin

Thank you!  Actually, I see two ways which might accommodate reading through the Bible in one year while living within the 8,000 character limit.

The first would be a method for the user to manually swap between at least three reading plans.  The readings for each plan could be well under 8,000 characters and still allow traversal of the Bile in a year.

I mention a second, so that you have this in mind when you consider how to make your "adjustment".  A user could make a custom plan to read through the Bible in three years and then schedule the plan to begin three years ago.  Thus, one is always behind.  The user would simply ask to read the next reading three times a day.  It would be a little difficult to determine if you were on schedule.  I personally would build an Excel spreadsheet to map fake schedule dates to actual dates.  On the other hand, dividing each day's reading schedule into three might make it easier to shoehorn into a busy schedule.

This isn't as preposterous as it sounds.  I sometimes use a reading plan to keep track of progress as an alternative to a bookmark.  I expect to be behind.  But I can easily pick up where I left off.  I am currently in that situation with Carson and Moo's Introduction to the New Testament and Groothuis's Apologetics.

If the "read next" mechanism allowed for being so far behind, then the user could also easily read ahead since there is no correspondence between  current plan date and actual date.

Dustin Masters said:

I was able to adjust the service so it doesn't skip any readings in your reading plan. Every time you ask for a reading, it will find the oldest session up until today's date that you haven't read. If you want to read ahead, you still have to say "what are my readings for tomorrow".

Thank you, very much, Dustin!  This may fit my second scenario quite well and allow me to set up a read through the entire Bible reading plan where Alexa actually reads everything.

After I wrote my last note, it occurred to me that having the shorter passages might be better.  It would allow me to squeeze readings into periods where I am limited on time.

I will try this out tonight, at home.

Dustin, thank you working on this for us. I am using the 5-Day Reading program but Alexa is telling me I don't have readings for today. Any suggestions?

I would have hoped there would be some way to get this Skill to U.K users by now, some 4 months or more since release, and I still cannot find the skill in th UK.

What can be done to get the skill working in the UK?

Duncan

Hi Dustin,

Can you tell me if there's a similar Logos service for Google Assistant?

Thanks, 

Peter 

PL said:

Can you tell me if there's a similar Logos service for Google Assistant?

I don't have Google Home, so I can't verify, but these instructions are looking helpful. https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/googlehome/64p7vApuzKA/InMkG2d8CQAJ 

Also, when I ask it to read my readings for today or for a specific date it says, "Sorry, something went wrong." But when I look in Logos, the reading has been marked as read.

When I ask Alexa to read a Bible verse it reads the KJV. How do I change that to esv?

Ha! There;s a big enough learning curve for Logos, now I have to learn Alexa? 

Check out this hilarious SNL skit, works for old preachers like me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk 

Mark said:

1. Is there somewhere a list of ALL the things we can ask.

None that I know of. Maybe that'd be a project for a new Wiki page.

Mark said:

2. Can we ask Alexa to read a book in our library?  If yes, how?

You can ask to read from a reading plan (which could contain a book from your library).