Attack of the RSS feed!

[Sakrysta]

I forgot to check my feed reader for a few days. I now have 343 unread items. I think my head might explode before I get caught up! I always try to keep up with it once a day so it doesn't overwhelm me. I'm not sure why I forgot this week. Now I hardly want to start!

So, two questions:

What do you do when your feed gets out of control? Just mark all read and start over? Devotedly plod through every entry? Pick your favorites to scan and discard the rest? Perform a panicked purge to prune the posts to a more profitable length?

And what are you following? Share some of the feeds you just can't miss!

 

[RoJoHen]

I didn't even know what an RSS feed was until a few months ago, and I have absolutely no interest in starting to use one.

 

[Naira]

Since I spend most of my day trying to solve this problem for you (it is related to the PhD I am currently pursuing), I don't even want to see one of these when I get home!

However, whenever I find myself in a similar situation, I usually scan the list quickly for anything that will catch my eye and then mark all as read.

 

[RJDiogenes]

What exactly is an RSS Feed? Is it a mobile device-related thing, because I don't have one of those.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^you don't have a phone?

I'm typing this on one now, and I don't have a clue what an RSS feed is

 

[Sakrysta]

An RSS feed is something you can use a feed reader to aggregate new entries at multiple sites in one place. TrekToday has an RSS feed for example. If you've ever seen this little symbol -

- that's what you click on to add a site to your feed reader. I use Google Reader, but there are lots to choose from. I have lots of blogs that I enjoy, so I use their RSS feeds to keep up with them.

 

[Iasius]

I get lots of items every day because I have the feed from three news sites in there as well, but I certainly don't check out every article. With the news feeds, I just scan the titles to see if anything catches my attention.

Depending on how interesting the other (slower moving) feeds usually are, I'll go into more detail with them.

But yeah, if I don't feel like even doing that, I'll simply mark all as read.

 

[F. King Daniel]

An RSS feed is something you can use a feed reader to aggregate new entries at multiple sites in one place. TrekToday has an RSS feed for example. If you've ever seen this little symbol -

- that's what you click on to add a site to your feed reader. I use Google Reader, but there are lots to choose from. I have lots of blogs that I enjoy, so I use their RSS feeds to keep up with them.

Ah, I see. Thanks!

 

[PsychoPere]

I use the Live Bookmarks function built into Firefox to keep track of RSS feeds. I have six different folders (Android, Cinema, Gaming, Misc., Politics, TV) on my bookmarks toolbar, each with multiple feeds contained within. I browse through the headlines in each feed several times throughout the day to see if there's anything that sounds interesting.

 

[Arrqh]

I've tried using RSS feeds in various ways and I just don't really like them that much... I prefer to go to the actual sites I read and just catch up every few days. I do use one on my phone but mostly so I can have quick access to news stories in one of my homescreen widgets for idle reading and I don't really care about marking things as read or not. Even then I find myself going to the actual websites/apps more often then not.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^you don't have a phone?

I'm typing this on one now, and I don't have a clue what an RSS feed is

I have a phone that plugs into my wall. I bought it in 1989.

An RSS feed is something you can use a feed reader to aggregate new entries at multiple sites in one place. TrekToday has an RSS feed for example. If you've ever seen this little symbol -

- that's what you click on to add a site to your feed reader. I use Google Reader, but there are lots to choose from. I have lots of blogs that I enjoy, so I use their RSS feeds to keep up with them.

Ah, so it gathers all your favorite stuff for you in one place. Nice.

I use the Live Bookmarks function built into Firefox to keep track of RSS feeds.

I use Firefox. I'll try that out.

 

[Holdfast]

What do you do when your feed gets out of control?

Delete them all, and just add my blog feed instead. Job done.

Actually, I don't really use many feeds myself, maybe half a dozen or so and I don't let the list get longer than that because I know I'll never get round to even glancing at the content if there's more than that.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I use the built-in Feeds feature on Internet Explorer to see what has been updated, but I only have about 5 things on it right now. I only use it for podcasts that I listen to weekly. I like the idea of using it for other sites but when I think about it, I don't actually visit many other sites on the Internet regularly besides here, some places I play games at, and Pandora, none of which require feeds. I have found, in the past, a couple of sites that I considered adding but of course they did not have a feed available.

 

[Sakrysta]

I often click through the link in the feed to the actual site if the article warrants it. Some sites only put the first paragraph of each article in the feed, precisely to encourage you to visit the site. So, if the article looks interesting, I click through to read the whole thing. If not, I just skip past.

I love it for things like Screen Rant, which I might be interested in a tenth of the things that they post about, so going to their site, I might miss something. But with the feed, I can quickly skip through what I'm not interested in and click through to read what I am interested in. And occasionally, I get introduced to new programs or movies that I wasn't aware of before that way.

 

[PsychoPere]

I use the Live Bookmarks function built into Firefox to keep track of RSS feeds.

I use Firefox. I'll try that out.

I love Live Bookmarks. It does only show you the article's headline, of course, whereas dedicated RSS feed readers will show you part of the article (and, in some at least, the full article). I used to use the Netvibes site to keep track of feeds, but these days I prefer LB over a dedicated reader since it's built right into Firefox; you don't even need an extension for it. This support page should walk you through everything you'd need to know to give it a try.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Thank you. So far it just seems to have Bookmarked the TrekToday headlines in a separate folder. There's no option for "Mark All Read" or anything like that. I'll take a look at the support page.

 

[PsychoPere]

^ It is called Live Bookmarks, remember? Headlines will "drop out" of the folder as new articles are posted.

 

[trekkiedane]

I use the Live Bookmarks function built into Firefox to keep track of RSS feeds.

I use Firefox. I'll try that out.

I recommend the Sage add-on... Very simple little thing for all kinds of RSS feeds.

I have it in my Navigation Toolbar; one click opens a side panel containing all my feeds.

The tab looks like this:

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I use the Firefox extension 'Brief' as my RSS reader. It works through Live Bookmarks, but it shows an excerpt instead of just the headline. I follow several blogs (mostly legal blogs, but some friends/family as well). If I get a backlog, I'll skim the headlines and only read the ones that sound interesting. Then I'll mark the rest as read.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Do either of those have utility functions like "Mark All Read" or whatever?

^ It is called Live Bookmarks, remember? Headlines will "drop out" of the folder as new articles are posted.

Ohhhh. I had visions of ending up with a bazillion Bookmarks.