Been thinking about better ways to show people The Joys of RSS, again. I’ve been pondering this for a while, because of all the ‘tech’ that’s out there, RSS is probably my favourite.
And this morning Iris’s survey on info lit and student research needs (do it, especially if you’re an academic librarian!) really started me thinking about it again – one of the questions was about any trends or changes in students’ research needs, and my response was that I’ve noticed that many students (and staff) are very keen to learn more about information and communication technologies and better ways of using them to keep up with all the information that’s out there. Whenever we’ve run any sessions on RSS, for example, it’s been standing room only!
RSS is not one of the easiest things to teach, though. Showing people usually works best. I do like Google’s description of their new version of Google Reader as ‘your inbox for the web’. And Stephanie Quilao’s How to explain RSS the Oprah Way is also very clear. Might have to rework the workshop I usually teach on RSS to incorporate the explanations they provide.
I can’t imagine life pre-RSS, now. Who needs bookmarks??
At the moment I have 404 subscriptions in Bloglines. I’ve given up trying to keep my subscriptions below a certain number. I decided there was no particular reason for the limit I’d assigned – it was completely arbitrary and I don’t remember why I decided I needed such a limit, anyway.
In any case, using the ‘Show only updated feeds’ option means there are usually only about 50 new things to read at any one time. And the best thing about RSS? Whenever I fall too far behind, I just use the ‘Mark All Read’ option, and start again.
It’s not that blogs are so trivial it doesn’t matter whether I read them or not, but I can set Bloglines to display the last week’s or month’s posts if I wonder whether I’ve missed anything. And the beauty of blogs is that if something is really that juicy, I can count on bloggers to keep mentioning it.
(Do you read this blog using Bloglines or some other RSS reader? Or do you actually visit this blog directly? Feel free to let me know – comment, or flexnib at g mail dot com.)
Listening to: Pet Shop Boys, Discography, Always on my mind.
10 Comments
Oh – I like the Oprah description. It is tricky to describe without getting technical.
I subscribe to your feed via Bloglines… it works for me because I use multiple computers throughout the week. At home I could use Thunderbird or Sage but one rss feeder keeps things simple I feel. I like the new auto-refresh too đ
Bloglines for me too! And I don’t have over 400 subscriptions like you do, only about 100. I’m pretty ruthless with culling! đ
Bloglines–but I think you already knew that.
404! Wow. (Except that, when I click “show all” just now, I see 407. Hmm. As you say, it’s still not all that many at a time–even after a three-day absence, I only had 120 or so feeds with new posts.)
I use my email client Thunderbird as my feed reader – I am really strict – I’ve only got about 60 subs!
Thanks for taking my survey. I’m SO excited to have some responses!
And yeah, I read you mostly in bloglines. But some days it just feels right to click that link on the sidebar of my blog. After all, you never know if maybe there’s something there that bloglines didn’t pick up… đ
Theres many reasons why I dont like RSS.
– Sites have colour and flavour. They reflect personailty and community. They often link to areas in the sidebar or from some special link that end up in very interesting places. You miss all this in an RSS feed.
– RSS doesnt normally track comments. Comments for me are as important as the posts themselves. Most of the interesting stuff comes out in comments on the sites I read.
– Many sites break up the new pages into sections and with markers to help you navigate the stories. If I go to the SMH homepage for instance I am often not interested in business news. I read the latest stories and then skip down to tech and entertainment. Trying to navigate the stories like this in RSS is a lot harder.
– Many sites I use dont support RSS due to thier formats. Blues News for instance is just not conducive to the RSS format. game Rankings is just impossible to do RSS for, the information is just … different.
– Many sites dont keep their RSS feeds up to date as fast as thier home page. Sometimes there isn’t one that even reflects the homepage. Reddit’s RSS feed for instance in no way matches thier homepage.
Where I think RSS shines is in the blogosphere where there are many posts with little comment. I think most of the RSS advocates read heaps of blogs. I dont hang out there much though so it’s just doesn’t resonate with me. I much prefer my news sites like slashdot, reddit, digg, blues news, the register, gamasutra, etc.
Me too Penny – the Bloglines thing, I mean. I use up to six different computers every week so having an online reader works best for me!
Mooiness I do wonder which subs I should cull from time to time. I’m not good at doing that, though…
Cheers, Walt. I had 250 new posts to browse through this morning… đ
Hey tango – you know, I’ve never ever investigated Thunderbird as a reader. I have Sage at home for when I want to test how this blog feed is working but that’s it..
Pleasure, Iris! đ I’m starting to think that I need to cater to my RSS readers by making sure I link to people in my blogroll in posts from time to time…
M, M, M… you make good points which I think I will need a whole post to respond to :)) In the spirit of Don’t Knock What You Haven’t Tried, I might have to try reading Digg and Reddit for a prolonged period (I usually just visit fleetingly every now and again) and see what I think. As for your comments on SMH – they do have separate feeds you know, ie you don’t have to subscribe to stuff you aren’t interested in đ
RSS in a Bloglines full-text feed.
I hardly ever use my Bloglines reader at the moment – the lit blogs have a few news sites where enough info can be picked up quickly to keep me busy, and I tend to scan a few across Firefox tabs, then skip over to (blog)news sites for headlines, or even just back to my own blogrolls!! I agree with Michael about comments, they do not refresh quickly enough even on group blogs where there are comments feeds. Notification by email works better for this at present. Anyone using Newsgator as a desktop tool who can make a comparison? as I think Bloglines is pretty slow.
Having said all that, I have some research on litblogs to do in a few weeks so will probably be reading my feeds a little more often then.
Hi CW,
Sorry I’m a bit late with this. The Opera browser includes a feed reader and I use that to subscribe to blog feeds. I only ever use the same computer and if I’m really keen to catch up while I’m away I know where to find my favourites. I do like to visit the actual sites occasionally, just to see the content in context, and to comment. With the feed reader as part of the browser, if I click on a link a new tab opens and I’m away. I don’t think I’d like having my e-mail and rss so closely linked in my mind. Feeds do sometimes feel more intimate…
Okay, so a bit of random thought there, hope some of it’s relevant!
Dee