Comments on: The Great Blog Reading Aid

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:18:27 +0000

This is a wonderful post! I only wish I had found it a couple of days ago when I was trying to find out what the heck RSS/ATOM & Feeds were all about! Still glad I read it because you cleared up some lingering questions that were still floating around in my head!

Thanks for think of all us newbies to the Feeds world!

~Heather

By: Selene

Selene — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:34:12 +0000

I use Google reader and love it. I usually don’t follow blogs that don’t put the full text in their feed, so I’m glad Dear Author does. :) It’s too annoying to have to click around to different sites, just to see if a specific post is something I want to read. Plus, a lot of blogs have strange colors or too small text for me to read comfortably, whereas I can have my own perfect settings in Google Reader.

About comments, I’ll click through on posts that interest me, and that works fine for me. What I would like to see is a handly link that lets you subscribe to the comment trail of a specific post (such as many livejournal etc. blogs have). As is, I do feel I miss out on comment trails sometimes because I’ll check them once when the post is new, but then I’ll forget to check back.

Selene

By: Nicole

Nicole — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:12:29 +0000

I use Google Reader and am trying out the Flock browser for feeds. That Sage looks like something I’d really like, though. Going to get it and try it out.

By: Keilexandra

Keilexandra — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:52:05 +0000

Actually, FF2+ has Live Bookmarks too.

By: MB (Leah)

MB (Leah) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:36:00 +0000

I totally love Google Reader. I can quickly scan through the many blogs I like to keep track of and when I feel like commenting I just click on the title and I’m on the blog.

Bev(QB) showed me how to get the comments feeds from blogger blogs to my reader as well, so I can read all the comments as well from my reader.

What I’ve loved about it in particular is that before I got Google Reader, I would only go to a few blogs, now I get to see what’s going on on many blogs because I don’t waste time looking on blogs when there is no new post. Love it!

By: SonomaLass

SonomaLass — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:03:33 +0000

I’m another one who didn’t respond to the poll, because none of the choices fit. Frankly, the generalization that anyone who doesn’t use a feed reader must be ignorant of the technology ticked me off a little.

By: Bev(BB)

Bev(BB) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:50:27 +0000

The thing about the full vs excerpts issue is that it really is a question that’s skewed towards volume. Or lack thereof. If someone only visits or subscribes to a few sites/feeds then they may want full access to content. Someone who subscribes to a lot or has to subscribe to a lot because of a work situation may want or even need excerpts due to time constraints. That’s why the “more” or “intro” content choices are there for sites to make use of. It makes things adaptable for everyone’s needs rather than locking subscribers into one option only.

The other thing to remember is that not all feeds are from blogs by any means. In fact, quite a few of them aren’t.

By: Shiloh Walker

Shiloh Walker — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:41:09 +0000

I’ve used feeds before, just don’t like them as much.

By: Heather Holland

Heather Holland — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:31:47 +0000

I don’t nor have I ever used a feed. Why? Because I’m bad. I only visit three blogs on a regular (read daily) occasion and they are conveniently hot linked at the top of my browser window side by side by side. They are one click away. I click, do a quick skim to see if anything catches my eye and move on.

Procrastination by my middle name and email is my biggest downfall. I check it obsessively, though I am working on a 12 step program for that. Email Addicts Anonymous anyone?

By: Jaci Burton

Jaci Burton — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:57:33 +0000

I couldn’t survive without Google Reader. I don’t have time to go to blogs that haven’t updated. And honestly, if you want to comment or scroll around someone’s blog, it’s just one more click and doesn’t take that much more time. And I really do make a concerted effort to comment so I’m not just a nonparticipant. I like people to participate on my blog so I like to return the favor on others, too.

By: Nadia

Nadia — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:58:49 +0000

Has anyone else fallen in love with Office OneNote?

MEMEME! :)

I come here to check comments. I don’t like feeds that show me only the excerpts / partial pasts. I basically just delete those or not bother.

By: Gennita Low

Gennita Low — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:15:49 +0000

Okay, I’m home from work and I (sigh) just reread my post from early this morning. Please excuse the excessive use of the word “just” in the first paragraph. My brain–it wasn’t working.

Back on topic, I’m always amazed at how many blogs some of my friends keep up with. I probably go to three or four different regular ones daily (Dear Author is one of them) and check up on all those I “favorited” once in a while. When I used a Feed to collect all the new updates, I started having such a backlog along with my email, that everything became a chore of playing catch-up. Then I started saving them for later, like I did with my recorded TV shows, which still sit in a queue waiting for me ;-). I’m just not good at mass updates.

By: Maya Reynolds

Maya Reynolds — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:09:20 +0000

I used Bloglines, an early feeder, for several years.

Like Gennita, I decided to go back to reading my favorite blogs individually. I still have Bloglines for when I’m in a hurry, but I now only visit the site about once a week.

By: Shanna

Shanna — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:54:20 +0000

I agree with all the others who commented that the poll was flawed. I had no idea there was one either because I read the feed and come directly to a post. I predict the results will change quite a bit from those of us who are now completing the poll.

By: veinglory

veinglory — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:53:19 +0000

I would second the idea that you need to appreciate a hell of a lot of people know all about feeds but dont use them. They don’t fill a need for me. So that proportion was not in the poll.

I think that *every* poll needs an ‘other’ option to signal that you may have missed a major alternative which would skew the meaning of the data.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:21:39 +0000

Well, I answered the question that way b/c it was the only option that came close to what I was experiencing. I know what an RSS feed is, but I still haven’t figured out how to subscribe. I think I will take the time to read this post more in-depth when I have time because it might help me with my blog habits.

Anyway, just wanted you to know there was another answer to your question and none of the answers you provided quite was my situation…

By: Wendy

Wendy — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:09:06 +0000

I don’t think I could function without my GR. I used it all the time. Heck, it’s one of the first things (along with my email) I first check when I get online!

By: Marianne McA

Marianne McA — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:23:15 +0000

I think it's probable that the reason your poll turned out the way it did is because the feed readers never saw it

… and the readers who don’t use feeds, but know what they are, weren’t included in the poll.

By: Arielle

Arielle — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:05:55 +0000

I’m addicted to my GReader but I still check out some of the more interesting posts for the comments.

I don’t like excerpts because I can’t open blogs at work and sometimes…ok some days more often than others, I procrastinate by reading my feeds.

I have romance reader/writer blog feeds, sewing/craft feeds, politics, news, fashion, gossip. You name it, I aggregate it!

By: Jennifer A. Ray

Jennifer A. Ray — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 17:57:36 +0000

Another way you can use RSS feeds to keep up with favorite blogs more easily is to add those feeds to a program like Mobipocket. Mobipocket can be set to synchronize those feeds to your PDA so you can read them on the go!