I discovered Google reader last summer. I loved it! I immediately subscribed to all the blogs I had bookmarked, and found lots more, thanks to Google’s recommendations. Most of those are romance blogs, but a few are related to my academic discipline (which creates some very odd juxtapositions).
If you are reading this post, I am 100% sure your blog’s feed is in my reader.
But then something happened:
with dozens of new posts a day, I could not keep up with reading them. I actually started to feel grateful that sites like Smart Bitches don’t give me the full post, because I could feel my duty was done just by reading a few lines.
And then, as I added more (I now have about 65 subscriptions), something else happened: I could not even keep up with reading the titles of said posts.
A few times (I won’t say how many) I just screwed my eyes shut and pressed “Mark all as read”, which helped, but gave me this awful feeling, like the feeling I get with a DNF, that I had missed something very important.
It occurred to me that the Google reader, once an incredible time saver and burden lifter, has become, itself, a burden (big shock to you guys, huh?!)
I feel about it just the way I feel when I open my work email and see 23 new messages, then glance at my office phone and see the light blinking, at the very moment I feel my cell gurgling in my pocket, announcing a missed call. The immediate reaction is a full body clench, and not one of those fun ones we read about in our romance novels. Instead of thinking “oh goody! There are so many fun posts to read!” I now think, “Shit. How am I going to get through all of them?”
Lest you think I have gone beyond my usual making mountains out of molehills and have, in fact, gone batshit crazy, I hasten to add that while I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by this at the moment, I’m not exactly losing sleep. I’m in the middle of two fabulous books — one on audio (the last Sookie Stackhouse) and one on the Kindle (Patricia Gaffney’s Wild At Heart). I had a great workout this morning, I’m about to take the kids roller skating (a fun but near death experience for all of us and anyone within arm’s length), and I am in general having a great weekend.
But that damn Google reader!!
So here’s what I want to know: Do you use a reader? How many sites do you subscribe to? And how do you deal with all those posts?
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#1 by Marsha on March 22, 2009 - 12:42 pm
I do use google reader and have had the same feelings about posts piling up. For a while I felt as if I’d miss something if I didn’t read every last post by every last blog that ever captured my interest. Then I started to notice that 1) there are firsts among equals among blogs that have captured my interest and 2) even when I missed a few posts or even weeks of posts I was able to catch up pretty easily once I got back to reading. Blog are kind of like soap operas in that way – the important plots are revisited. If I miss a post about something super important to someone, the poster tends to revisit that topic with links so that I can catch up.
You’ll find a path. In the meantime, I have to ask: I’ve posted here with TWO blogs. You’ve got them both in your reader, right? Right?!
#2 by Natasha A. on March 22, 2009 - 1:15 pm
I use Google Reader. I have over 300 subscriptions. I do a lot of scanning. I glance at headlines see what they say, and if it is something I want to look at more, I will actually open up the post on its on page. I love the next and previous buttons!
#3 by JC on March 22, 2009 - 1:27 pm
I use google reader also. What I’ve found is I’ve organized my websites into different categories. There’s blogs I read that are post-intensive, but don’t have much substantial content. I look at the pictures and read the post if something catches my eye.
I have blogs I follow of my favorite authors. Those I scan to see if there is book info or a contest, but otherwise I just dismiss.
Review sites I scan. If a blog comes up in more than one site, I start paying attention to it. If it’s from a site I love, Like Dear Author, I’ll read the full thing.
Academically related posts, which are fewer but long, I’ll read through on Saturday Morning.
Craft blogs I look at pictures, unless it’s a really good blog I like and then I’ll read the post through.
I have 171 blogs, but I only read the entirety of a few of those, and even fewer I post on. I do try though, to use the next button so I go to the actual site when I can.
#4 by December on March 22, 2009 - 1:36 pm
I am so glad I’m not the only one who gets overwhelmed. I don’t want to know how many I follow in my reader, but yeah, it gets to be a bit much.
I have them in groups also – Editor/Agent blogs, group Blogs, reviews, favorite writers, and friends.
My method to keep it trim is to hit the multiple posts first – like Dear Author usually posts a few times a day. I haven’t had to resort to Mark All As Read yet, but that day will come I’m sure.
#5 by Mary-Frances on March 22, 2009 - 2:47 pm
Like the previous commenters I use google reader. I don’t know exactly how many subscriptions I have, probably over 50. I try to read as many of the posts as I can depending on my schedule. Some days I just scan the titles and only open the posts that grab my interest. Then there are the days when I’m too busy and I mark as all read and move on.
#6 by Zelda Talley on March 22, 2009 - 4:02 pm
I subscribe to ~30 feeds using bloglines.com (still weighing a switch to Google Reader.) The volume is low enough that I group them by subject, but I’m intrigued by the idea of grouping them by frequency/importance ever since reading Kottke’s description of organizing his RSS feeds.
#7 by Janine on March 22, 2009 - 4:35 pm
I don’t use Google reader or subscribe to anything. I’m pretty sure it would drive me batty if I did since I have a hard time keeping up with my email correspondence, as well as the message boards and blogs that I frequent, as it is.
With regards to blogs specifically, I just drop in on the ones I’m interested in when the mood strikes me. Sometimes I lurk. Sometimes I post. There are times when I find it’s been a while since I visited that blog, and if I feel inclined, I catch up on back posts at that time.
Heck, there are even days when I don’t keep up with new posts or comments at Dear Author, and I am one of the bloggers there! Not because I don’t enjoy reading what my blogging partners have to say, but because there is only so much time in a 24 hour period.
I try to be relaxed (if disorganized) about my blog-hopping. It just feels more sane to me.
So glad you are enjoying Wild at Heart! I can’t wait to hear more of your thoughts on it, Jessica.
#8 by KristieJ on March 22, 2009 - 10:37 pm
I still do it the old fashioned way. I click on the links I have on the sidebar of my blog. I kind of think of the first as just waving when you drive by and the second as dropping in for a coffee.
And isn’t Wild at Heart wonderful??? I just love that book and it’s so totally opposite to To Have and to Hold it’s hard to believe it’s the same author!! I hope you review it when your finished.
#9 by Tumperkin on March 23, 2009 - 3:29 am
Like Kirstie J, I just bookmark favourites and visit them as and when the mood arises. If I had notifications of posts popping up in my inbox, I know I’d just feel bad and blogging would turn into work. I have a personal philosophy about blogging which I’m very careful to try to stick to. Anything that makes it feel like a job, I try not to do. It’s hard. Because I’m not working at networking etc. I probably don’t get as much traffic as I could do – but then as soon as I start thinking about stuff like that, I’m deviating from what I wanted blogging to be for me. But it’s difficult to try to avoid the mindset of ‘success’ and numbers etc. And I do sometimes think – if I don’t engage with this as fully as others do, maybe I should just stop blogging?
But to get back to your post – I visit almost all of my bookmarked sites (which probably only number 30 or so) at least once a week and my favourites (10? 12?) every day that I’m online. There are some sites I visit and almost always comment on – like this one – and others where I hardly comment at all but I am visiting daily. In fact there are more in the latter category. I think I comment here a lot cos you tend to pose questions, whereas Kirstie J’s and Kate Rothwell’s blogs for example are much more ‘so this is what I think/ this is what’s happening with me’ etc.
#10 by Jessica on March 23, 2009 - 6:03 am
KristieJ wrote:
What a fantastic image! I love it!
The thing that I miss when I just use my reader is the comments. some folks have a little “comments: 5″ in their feed. I would like to add that to mine, but have no idea how. Still, I feel the comments to my posts are a key part of their success.
Tumperkin wrote:
Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. And this is why my personal blogging philosophy is WWTD: What would Tumperkin Do?
Janine wrote:
I may have to try this.
Marsha wrote:
Only Demons and Dukes! I don’t subscribe to any “personal” blogs, not even my siblings! I’m not sure why.
December wrote:
This sounds like a great idea. I think I will try it.
Natasha A. wrote:
300?! This post has been great for making me feel less obsessive! (although I can easily see how I could get that high.)
I am almost done with Wild At Heart (took a break last night to watch Milk). I love it, and almost don’t want to finish it. Review forthcoming this week.
#11 by SB Sarah on March 23, 2009 - 7:36 am
It was a deliberate decision on our part to offer only a portion of our feed. First, it helps cut down on scraping, which is when people grab the feed, republish it on their own sites, then sell advertising on their site based on our content. Burns my toast, I tell you.
Second, our entries are HELLA long, and since we often have long comment threads, it made sense to release a portion via RSS then invite folks over to our site to finish the rest.
Some folks have complained but given the pervasiveness of the scraping, I prefer the portioned option until I can think of something better. And if a section of the entire content gives you a sense of what we’re talking about today, and whether you want to continue reading or move on to another site, that’s a good thing. Not enough hours in the day for any of us!
#12 by Jessica on March 23, 2009 - 10:05 am
@ SB Sarah:
As Sookie Stackhouse would say, “Jesus-Christ-Shepherd-of-Judea” (all one word)!! I had my chance to make my case to you directly and missed it!
As someone who likes to read and write long blog posts, the first argument doesn’t convince me. I did borrow someone else’s case against partial feeds, which address your second argument (basically by saying that it doesn’t really reduce splogging) in this post:
http://www.racyromancereviews.com/2009/01/15/bouquets-and-blogbats-january-09/
I’m not expert enough to weigh the merits of that argument versus yours, but it looked good to me, mainly because it furnished me with a rationale, ex post facto, for a belief I already held on the “grounds” that partial feeds annoy me (and not just yours, of course).
Thanks for your visit and illuminating explanation, SB Sarah.
#13 by azteclady on March 23, 2009 - 11:51 am
I am with Kristie and Tumperkin–I visit the blogs, read and comment depending on whether I have something to say about the topic.
While I mostly lurk in a number of blogs
it’s the comment threads that really make each blog worth visiting.
Well, aside from reviews, but that’s a different dynamic altogether, no?
#14 by Janice on March 23, 2009 - 11:52 am
I subscribe to 104 feeds in my Google Reader: a mix of personal and professional materials come in. For professional stuff, I do a quick triage — if I need to read the work in-depth, I use the “Read It Later” Add-on for Firefox to bookmark it temporarily in a dedicated folder. I use the star system within the Google Reader interface to keep track of any tech-related tips I want to retain. Personal stuff I read through on the spot and will open in tabs to comment on if I have anything to add.
If I’m doing nothing else, it takes me about half an hour to go through my reader. Usually I’m poking my head in and out during the day. Like email, though, I’ve gotten into the habit of opening my reader only a few times a day. Otherwise it rules my life just like those piles of papers to be marked are ruling my desktop, real and virtual. *sigh*
#15 by ReacherFan on March 23, 2009 - 8:28 pm
I don’t use google reader. I read blogs as they interest me and feel no obligation toward them as I would if I had them on google reader. The blogs are both business and reading related. I don’t subscribe to blogs. About the only reason I even bother as much as I do lately is because business is slow and I have more time on my hands. That’s why I started my own blog about books, though only 25% are romance type books. I spend way too much time on my computer. Technology can easily rule your life without us even realizing it.
#16 by KristieJ on March 23, 2009 - 9:36 pm
“The thing that I miss when I just use my reader is the comments. some folks have a little “comments: 5″ in their feed. I would like to add that to mine, but have no idea how. Still, I feel the comments to my posts are a key part of their success.”
I often get even goofier when I’m commenting on someone’s comments on one of the goofy posts I do. And a large part of why I like visiting blogs IS to comment and read others. I would miss a lot I think if I didn’t read the original post and the comments.
#17 by Jessica on March 24, 2009 - 6:31 am
azteclady wrote:
This is a good point. Reviews don’t generate that many comments, unless they are really positive or really negative.
Janice wrote:
I like this idea. I will have to utilize the stars and other means of coding the posts.
ReacherFan wrote:
I agree with you that you feel more obligated with a reader than with bookmarking.
KristieJ wrote:
Really? I never noticed.
#18 by Bookwormom on March 24, 2009 - 9:22 pm
I’ve roughly 70 feeds on my reader, plus a few more that are linked on my blog. I’ve separated them by subject. Most of the time it takes me about 45-60 minutes to read the content & post to the ones I feel compelled to stop in & say hi or offer my .02 or whatever. Often this is my morning coffee time or else my quiet time after the kids are abed.
If I’ve fallen behind for any reason it takes me ages & ages to catch up even if I’m mostly deleting posts unread. For example, my college age son was home for spring break last week & so I avoided my reader & my blog in favor of spending time with him. It was great. However, I’d accumulated 600+ posts!
I open tabs on the posts I want to comment on & I check the box for followup comments. That way I keep track of conversations that are important to me. I also use stars for things I want to return to when I have more time. Sometimes I add a feed & then later decide the site doesn’t fit somehow & I delete them. I’m not a person who has a static amount of feeds. It’s like dating- sometimes the chemistry is good and sometimes it isn’t. No hard feelings.
I found myself devoting more & more time to my online life, to the detriment of my RL needs & commitments. I’ve steadily become a lurker on nearly all of the blogs I visit. I simply don’t have time to stop in & say hi to everyone- which saddens me, but RL demands intervene. I used to frequent a couple of message boards, but I’ve dropped off that too.
Nevertheless, the online book world remains very important to me & my feed reader is a great way to keep my finger on the pulse.
~Amanda
#19 by Jessica on March 25, 2009 - 5:41 am
Bookwormom wrote:
Thanks for your suggestions about marking and saving.
I agree that the online world can be addicting. And it’s very important to keep that balance. I do know that people form genuine and important connections online, and I definitely feel that I have made some of those since staring this blog, but since I have a partner and/or kids (and/or parents) in the house, there’s no contest as to who should be getting the bulk of my attention.
#20 by Sunita on March 25, 2009 - 9:10 am
What Janine and ReacherFan said.
I used to subscribe to Bloglines, but I invariably fell behind. Now I bookmark the bare minimum and use links within blogs to reach ones I haven’t bookmarked. Or I even type in the URL!
I think aggregators are great for some people, but for me it made me feel that I had made some kind of commitment to reading a blog, that it was more important, and therefore I *had* to catch up when I fell behind. Which is ridiculous, I know, but I still had that nagging feeling of guilt when the number of unread posts that Bloglines tracked kept climbing. I can immerse myself in surfing for an afternoon, but this way when I don’t for a few days, I don’t know what I’m missing! But then, I don’t have a blog, I’m primarily a lurker and occasional poster, so my sense of what I owe the communities I visit is different. I think there are only three or four sites I’ve posted on more than once.
#21 by carolyn jean on March 25, 2009 - 11:59 am
I totally went off the google reader for the reasons you cite. I made my own sort of reader on my sidebar of my blog, where I can see my little buddies’ sites (all 95 of them!) and the topics of their posts, but I don’t feel like I have to go around to all of them every time, but like I’m still keeping up. It doesn’t pressurize me like GReader did.
I’ve gone to visit my google reader now and then, and just feel this crushing weight.
#22 by Holly on March 25, 2009 - 1:25 pm
I also use Google Reader. My subscriptions now number just under 1000 (*wince*). Yes, 1000. I suffer from the dreaded FOMO (fear of missing out) disease and am terribly nosy. GReader has, in essance, become a sickness for me.
The only thing saving me from insanity at the moment is labeling and separating my subscriptions. I only read about 100 blogs regularly (read: each and every post) and I have a special folder for them. The others I either skim titles only, or skim the posts themselves (ex: if it’s a review I’ll skim to the grade and then either read the post or move on from there).
As for the full feed vs. partial feed debate: I personally prefer a full feed. I hadn’t considered the issue SB Sarah raised, but I always thought the partial feed screamed, “I NEED ATTENTION, SO CLICK ON MY SITE!”. I’m sure that isn’t always the case, but that’s how I feel about it.
#23 by Jessica on March 25, 2009 - 5:02 pm
Sunita wrote:
A virtual Luddite among us!!!
Sunita wrote:
I wonder if bloggers generally feel more of a responsibility to read and comment on others’ blogs. Probably.
carolyn jean wrote:
That’s very interesting. I thought you did it out of the goodness of your heart, trying to share some of your bounteous hit wealth with us noobs.
I would say that was a good strategy, and it IS a good one if it works for you, but I have to wonder if 95 links on the sidebar would feel like an improvement for me. Maybe I’ll try it.
Holly wrote:
I think we have our first intervention candidate people. We will show up at Book Binge armed with delete buttons, a spray can filled with Mark All As Read, and a blind fold. Maybe we can get Maria and Maris to film it!
Holly wrote:
I feel kind of coerced to click through, so usually I don’t. But it obviously works for some bloggers, and for many readers.
#24 by carolyn jean on March 25, 2009 - 8:19 pm
1000 !?!?!
I am in awe, Holly!!!!! In both a good way, and a bad way!
#25 by RfP on March 25, 2009 - 9:20 pm
“I agree with you that you feel more obligated with a reader than with bookmarking.”
It’s the opposite for me; having feeds in a newsreader allows me not to think about checking them. I have one newsreader account for work-related feeds, and another for fun sites, each with probably hundreds of subscriptions. I don’t know exactly how many, and I turned off the count of how many new posts are waiting. I don’t feel obliged to keep up with any of them. (Of course, I may be an outlier: I don’t even feel obliged to post on my own blog. I strive to out-Tumperkin Tumperkin.)
For me, feeds are primarily for when I have some down time, or a resource when I want to search for something in particular. Searching my subscriptions is much more productive than googling the whole internet. That’s one reason I dislike partial feeds: they prevent me from finding articles that I remember reading and want to reference. It’s a futilely pinchpenny approach to intellectual property, IMO; scrapers don’t need RSS feeds to scrape their scrapy scrapings.
#26 by Bookwormom on March 26, 2009 - 10:45 am
Holly wrote:
I’m nosy too, but I can’t imagine 1k feeds! Goodness gracious. lol
RfP wrote:
Readers work for me in a similar way: I like not having to go out hunting- they’re all right there. And I feel it’s “more productive” than simply surfing. That’s probably just my own justification, though. LOL
I’m still working on feeling less obliged to read them all, though.
~Amanda