Which brings me to today's inadvisable topic: How do you triage your RSS Feed Readers and/or (*sigh*) bookmarks?
Here's how I do it (you: *Rushing off to get pen and paper*):
- First I read posts that might include some "news" or something that requires my immediate attention. Is someone finding out the sex of their baby? Posting on a topic that I have suggested? Doing something that I just KNOW is going to end badly? I am right on top of that shit. How, you ask, do I keep this straight with 90-ish blogs in my Reader? I JUST DO. And if BR reads this, that sentence is going to send him into a rage wondering why I can't apply the same level of concentration to remembering which of his identical white t-shirts are Running shirts, and which are Regular shirts.
- Next I read posts on which I am likely to comment. These are usually the blogs of people who comment here, or people I know in real life. Like most people, I read lots of blogs on which I never comment (Dooce, Ask Moxie, Mimi Smartypants), although my ratio of commenter to lurker has increased dramatically since I started blogging myself. I should say that I don't have any bullshit "rules" about comment reciprocity or anything like that. It just kind of works out that way. There are some blogs that I only occasionally comment on, and those don't fall into this category. ARE YOU GETTING ALL OF THIS?
- Of what's left, I next go from Favorite to Least Favorite. So, I might start with Linda's blogs, and go from there. MYSTERIOUS! Are you one of the dreaded Least Favored bloggers? The Nervous Tummy and the Messing With Texas legal team prevent me from commenting at this time. Also, who fucking cares.
- FINALLY, like all ego-driven bloggers, I read blogs that show up in my referral stats for whatever reason. Now, don't go all mental on me and start linking on your site about what a potty-mouthed bitch I am. You can accomplish the same thing by calling me a potty-mouthed bitch in the comments. I also visit the blogs of everyone who comments here.
Wasn't that fascinating and useful information? Should I start some kind of Best Practices blog? NO? That's it, you are toying with Least Favored, bub.
How do you triage your Reader? AND, if you don't mind sharing, what three blogs do you read first (besides THIS ONE, you ass-kissers!)?
42 comments:
Well, OBVIOUSLY yours is the first I read. DUH! As a matter of fact, I sit at my google reader constantly clicking refresh, until yours pops up, before I even entertain reading anyone else's. ;) <-- I hate those things, so why do I use them?
Anyway, I don't have 90 in my reader (I don't think, maybe I should check), so I am able to get through them daily. If I am gone for a couple days, though, it gets overwhelming. Then I read the ones with the smallest number of new posts first and go from there. I think this is due to my love of checking things off a list.
I triage mine EXACTLY how you do yours. Seriously, exactly. Let's see, top three... well, I have more than three that I really like, so I will pick three of the ones that especially catch my attention (besides yours, which goes without saying): All & Sundry, Swistle, and Such Great Heights.
Like jmc, I also like checking things off a list, so I start with the ones I know I WILL NOT comment on, like Dooce or Amalah. I read, chuckle, then gleefully clear them off the list.
I then move on to the ones I may or may not comment on. I preview the post on Google Reader and if I think I may comment, I save it for later.
Once the only posts I have left are ones I will definitely comment on, I slowly work my way through them.
Okay, after writing this, I didn't realize I had such a neurotic method of blog reading. And I would be very interested in reading your "Best Practices of Blogging Handbook"!
I actually do usually read yours as one of my first and not just because I am an ass-kisser (although I suppose I am that). I go favorites first and then, Because I am anal and OCD, I usually go alphabetically or else I get all confused on myself. I only have about 40 on my reader though and I will skip ones that are "least favorites" if it is as bad as it is today . . .
I don't think there's a rhyme to my reason, but I feel more "involved" in some people's blogs than others (I swear, I'm not crazy, it's just that some blogs are like that for me) and I read those first. That includes this one, because you were one of the first blogs I actually de-lurked on, and you're funny. Funny is a big motivator.
I don't do the reader thing. I set it up awhile ago, but I find it too daunting to run through. I mostly use my own sidebar ("Blogs I'm reading"), which has maybe 15 blogs, sorted alphabetically, and click on those in order. I also click through to anyone who comments on mine, but I don't yet have on my sidebar. I comment on pretty much all the blogs I read.
So, yeah, my system is alphabetical.
I agree I usually start reading the blogs I do not comment on unless the topic is totally something I want to comment on which is rare. I will skim the ones I am not very into but I do save several for last (I like to read the favs last versus 1st so I have something good to end with and leaves a good taste in my mouth for the day...)
My favs are All & Sundry, Rude Cactus and Better Now (Better Now is always last because Kristen is an amazing writer and everything she writes just makes me feel everything she is feeling - in short I love it so it is last...)
I try to comment on as many blogs as I have time to but I do have to limit it or else I would never get REAL work done!
That is that! Only 20 in my reader - I just checked. Whoa 90 that is impressive I must say!
90!??! What ARE they? I must know. I must add them. I have like 15 and now I feel inferior.
(PS, because I only have 15, I can usually get through them all no problem.)
Okay, you are all giving me a complex about my 90. It's actually 92, I just checked. I could probably 86 some of those, though.
I will say that about 10 of those are people I know in real life, or friends/family type blogs. Another 20 are informational-type blogs, like food blogs or the Freakonomics Blog, etc. Another 15 or so are the Big Bloggers that I read before I had my own blog (Dooce, Sundry, Amalah, Plain-Jane, Swistle, etc.). And the rest are blogs of people who have commented since I started my blog.
Fifteen. FIFTEEN? If you have less than 25 blogs in your Reader, I demand to know who they are. There is NO WAY I could narrow it down to fifteen.
As I don't have a blog, I don't give a rat's ass how I rank!
Anyhow....now to the ass kissing part.....I read 2 blogs....yours and Erin's! Not very hard to prioritise that!
Last...don't get mad at all the "british" style writing. I've had to conform, otherwise spellcheck goes MENTAL on me!
Tess....I don't even know what the hell Google Reader, RSS Feed Reader, etc. is!
You've completely lost me with all this technology crap.
Is there a way to know once you guys have posted on your blogs? I just go out there and check. If its not there, I come back later.
Tess....I don't even know what the hell Google Reader, RSS Feed Reader, etc. is!
You've completely lost me with all this technology crap.
Is there a way to know once you guys have posted on your blogs? I just go out there and check. If its not there, I come back later.
I read all the big ones including some of their twitter blogs and flickr feeds, too. Then I'll go through those who reguarly comment on my blog. But I subscribe to so many, mostly because I read something pretty awesome or witty and I want to keep tabs or else I'll forget and then I'm stuck with currently 629 unread posts. Shoot me.
Shannon-First of all, if anyone needs a blog, it is YOU. GET ON IT! You will not be one of the Least Favored bloggers, I promise!
Second of all, Google Reader or Bloglines or one of the other RSS Readers is a way to know when we update. If you have a Google account (like gmail or whatever), you can sign up for Reader and it is totally easy. I'll email you and walk you through it.
Having a blog DOES NOT fit into my "being a lazy ass" routine. Sorry Charlie.....
It fits PERFECTLY, because instead of actually TALKING to your friends and family, you can just force them to read your blog.
I have about 50 subs on Google Reader and a good number of those don't update consistently. My secret? I don't read shit. If I find myself skimming a blog, I give them about a week and then I dump it. I'm also not obsessive compulsive about it..if a blog has 5 unread and I just can't read them I mark them all read and move on. Not that you're OCD. But you are. It's funny, because my order of reading is trainwrecks first, small personal blogs of people I know second, and big impersonal blogs last. Now you can obsess over where you are in the heirarchy. xo
I don't use the Google Reader. I have an old fashioned bookmark folder labeled "blogs." If I like yours, it goes in the folder. If I don't, then it doesn't.
The bookmarks are in the order I like to read the blogs. I usually start with the ones I feel more involved in. The less involved I am, the lower the blog is on my list. However, there isn't a blog on there that I'm not interested in, even in a small way.
I don't read a lot of the "big blogs." I read dooce and Sundry, and that's about it.
There are 31 blogs on my list.
We all have some kind of hierarchy, I'm sure. I have a bunch of blogs that are financial, technology, or news. They definitely go last though. All the personal blogs are at the top of the list.
I only have fifteen because I need to EXPAND, ya heard!?!? I only just started using an RSS feed. I have mostly blogs of people I actually know and the others belong to people I *wish* I knew. [ /ass kissing ]
I have 18 in my reader. I read them all, Monday Thru Friday on my lunchbreak. I can't mark something as read unless I actually read it, and if I don't read it and there are unread items out there, it KILLS me!!
I don't do RSS feeds. I do the old fashioned list of favorites - and I have them prioritized with the ones I read first (AND OF COURSE YOU'RE IN THE VERY TOP OF THE LIST, TESSIE) - and then work my way down. Actually I do re-rank the list every couple of weeks, thinking about which blogs I'm not reading and can be deleted, and which ones are really getting interesting.
I usually look forward to being away for a few days because it means that I'll have lots of reading fodder throughout my day. Boring conference call? READ SOME BLOG. Too many emails related to insignificant purchase orders and other such stuff? READ SOME BLOG. Sadly eating lunch at my desk? READ SOME BLOG. If I do it right, I can have the catch up session last all day long. LOVE IT.
There are a few I keep on my reader out of guilt...those I read last and sometimes let pile up.
The ones I read first depends on what my mood is or what is going on. If someone is waiting for news on adoption or pregnancy - I always run to them first. Then I usually read the ones who tend to be funny.
I have 21 in my Google reader, and then I don't know how many that I haven't bothered to add. I need to delete some from my reader and add others. Honestly, I'm bad at reading blogs lately, because why isn't there more time in the day? Not reading blogs at work, plus having a lot of non-computery things to do at home really cuts back on the blog reading/commenting. Especially the commenting. I don't have much of a system--I might read the first few at the top of the list, and then hope that I will have time later to catch up. About once or twice a week I try to catch up, and try to do some commenting, or I try to get a little done on my lunch break (like right now).
What I am trying to say is that I am a terrible blogger.
OH MY GOSH I'M NUMBER 90 ON YOUR LIST, AREN'T I?
I used to have my favorite blogs on my personalized Google homepage, but then I never sign into it anymore, so I just go down the list of my blogroll, which is categorized alphabetically.
I also have a ton of blogs I don't have on my blogroll that I check periodically, like amalah and dooce, missdoxie, mimi smartypants, etc. No rhyme or reason.
And the top 3 depends on the day - really.
Blacksheeped-Heh. What I forgot to mention is, within the parameters I listed, I go in alpha order (how GR lists them). So you are far from 90th.
Actually, now that I think of it, if you are naming a blog it might behoove you to choose a name close to the beginning of the alphabet. I know a lot of people just start at the top and get through as many as they can.
i do like stephanie... i read the ones i KNOW i won't comment on first, and procrastinate commenting until later in the day. Order thus tends to be all & sundry first, then usually amalah (gooooo alphabetizing!), then.. uh, ok that's where my system stops being methodical at all.
I have absolutely no system, just read whichever sounds most interesting at the moment. If I'm really crunched for time, though, and have only a minute to check my own comments and maybe read ONE other blog, it'll probably be Swistle. As others have mentioned, there is a certain involvement you start to feel with some blogs, and hers is one of them.
However, if I'm in the mood for some smart-assed humor, I get an urge to mess with Texas, if you follow.
Okay, what is with all you people who read the blogs you comment on LAST? But, but...what if, by the time you get there, all the good stuff has ALREADY BEEN SAID?
I am too lazy to set up reader, so I click through my sidebar. And I click through to a few blogs that caught my attention on other people's side bar. That way, I don't know when people have updated, so if it's new, great! If I have missed a few, no biggie.
I can't believe there are so many opinions on this subject! It is fascinating (seriously).
I too read the big names first. I really love Kristin's Better Now and Sundry. I think they are just awesome writers. I wish I could write like that....
Then, I go on to the funny ones (Like Tessie's!) Then, on to the ones I need to comment on without fail--family/friends. Then....there are those dregs at the bottom that I sometimes just skip.
AAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!! After skimming these comments, I see that I must deliver wonderful posts to get put on someone's to-be-read list and THEN I must also deliver these great posts CONSISTENTLY or my ass gets booted right off their lists? Damn! You guys are tough!
Yea, I? Don't have a reader/feeder/whatever. Because I can't figure out how. I know I should do it, but I'm dumb like that.
I still can't figure out how you work, have a family AND comment on so many blogs. Do you sleep?
I read blogs of family and friends first (which you qualify for because you're friends with loni, even though I haven't actually met you, plus you're funny as all hell.) Then I read Swistle and Desperate Housewife and then randomly go from there. I have 90 blogs in my feed right now and I just cut down from 136. Once I stopped blogging myself, I knew there were some people I was only reading because they commented on my blog, so I quit reading them. :)
You are a potty-mouthed bitch and I. LURVE. YOU.
Secondly, I in true lame-ass form have not downloaded reader yet. I just bounce down through my favorites and go one at a time. If someone has a new post, it's like fucking Christmas morning over here!!!
Um, I have 95 feeds and 1064 unread posts. I am pretty sure some of those are from before my kid was born. In May.
I use Bloglines (should I be using Google Reader?) and I have everything categorized. Can you say anal? Commenters. Big Blogs. Blogs About Specific Subjects On Which I Never Comment. Local Blogs. Real Life Friends Blogs. It's very very sad. I only comment in some of those categories, so I tend to read those first. They're my favorites anyway.
This comment section makes me feel incredibly dorky. I think I need to cut back.
I've used NetNewsWireLite for a while but I feel like I *should* switch to Google Reader. For one thing, i had to count by hand the total number of feeds I have: 72.
I used to sort them in order of preference, but now I have a folder for Blogging-related items (Problogger.com, etc) which I never read, a folder for work-related items which I also never read, and the rest of yous lined up alphabetically. It was the only way I could see them clearly.
If I'm reading from the feeds, I typically read Sundry and Swistle first, then WouldaCouldaShoulda (because she doesn't post until later in the morning).
Sometimes I just go to my own blog and read from my list of links, starting at the top.
Interesting to hear some other methods! I might have to try a new technique!
I have them bookmarked. And sometimes I go top to bottom...or bottom to top...or start in the middle and forget the top and feel badly and go back at 11:45 the next night. Of course, the real a$$-kissers would have you as their homepage. As for first three, they truly are random...although, on really BAD days, I visit the blogs of those I know are sure to make me laugh, or are not overly sugary and happily talking about life as a wife and/or are pissed at their husbands. I could go on and on about the twisted mess that is my blog reading decision making mind, but this is probably enough.
First KristyK, then Pioneer Woman then Everyday Stranger. Always!
Ooh a little late, but Lifehacker just wrote on this: http://lifehacker.com/software/how-to/prioritize-your-feed-subscriptions-by-reading-habits-327389.php
This was SO INTERESTING--and timely/applicable, because I am having such a huge problem with my RSS reader. I MUST cull some blogs--but CAN'T! Whoa, weird: I have EXACTLY 90 in my reader. And I keep adding more.
I read basically the way you do, but then things get so out of hand I start going through them methodically, alphabetically or reverse-alphabetically, just trying to make some goddamn progress.
My read-first group contains (AMONG OTHERS) yours.....no, I can't go on. I can't say who else. Too upsetting to think of saying. I have enough trouble having a blogroll without choosing ONLY THREE.
Post a Comment