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.