Comments on: Blog Note: The Deal with the Feed

By: Barry Deutsch

Barry Deutsch — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:42:02 +0000

Kate, if you'd like to add a copyright notice to your RSS feed, a plugin such as this one is the easiest way.

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:34:31 +0000

Hate to be another naysayer, but I only recently started faithfully reading SP (as in like a week or so before the RSS change) and really *only* have time to read anything at work…where of course they *completely* block the site. So my only way to see the posts is through my reader…not so useful now :(
I already installed the Better Reader Plug-in mentioned above and it doesn’t seem to be doing anything for me…or else, since they block the site, the reader *can’t* bring in the rest of the article…
I shall take another look tomorrow, but I am sad to say I may not continue to read if it doesn’t work :(

By: Tiana

Tiana — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:01:56 +0000

Wow, Olive is now my hero, too. I wonder what kind of impact this plugin will have on Google Reader’s search feature though … if it still only recognizes the excerpts, I’ll have the same problem as lauredhel. Especially since I can never remember on which blog I’ve read something, so being able to search all of them at once can come in handy.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:32:25 +0000

The teenyness of the snippets also mean that the searchable offline archive in my feedreader becomes useless

Now this is a good reason! Beats the hell out of “sorry, I only read your content if it’s right in front of me; it’s not interesting enough to lift and drop my finger for.”

Kate, when I get back from PA I will figure out how to change our feed settings to add a footer. I haven’t done anything with the feed yet but maybe I can figure it out. Everyone else should do what Olive said.

By: Anita

Anita — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:38:21 +0000

Getting the full feed is wonderful, and it’s incredibly irritating to have to click through all the time. I understand your position, and can’t imagine trying to do damage control on this. However, it does mean that I will probably read fewer posts – not because I don’t love you, but because I’m only going to click through on things that sound interesting (rather than reading it all because it’s in line on the screen.) I hope other options open up. Thanks for letting us know about the situation.

By: mike r

mike r — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:15:44 +0000

SM,

There is a ton of compelling content on SP. But in a reader I’m much more likely to skim a topic that I’m not 100 percent interested in, whereas if I have to click through, I skim the intro only.

One other nice thing about full feeds, the rss readers on mobile phones are often better than the web browsers. But I’m probably the only one who actually reads a quarter of your postings on my phone because I’m a hopeless nerd. I’m doing it right now! Of course I’m using my phones mobile browser to type this comment.

By: Becky

Becky — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:53:17 +0000

Hell, sometimes I actually visit the website itself without checking the feed….’cause it’s, like, a site worth visiting and stuff.

Heh, seconded.

By: emi

emi — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 18:50:27 +0000

Thanks Olive! I am SO downloading that right now (luckily I am 100% a google/firefox girl).

Kate et all, if this works (and I assume it will), I won’t mind the truncated posts at all.

and good luck reducing the stealing shit. It just blows my mind that people do that.

By: kateharding

kateharding — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:50:57 +0000

Update: I just talked to Al (who deals with spam for a living), and he points out that a footer would help label the crime, but wouldn't actually stop it. I just found more of our stuff on the same blog, which is a pure spam site, and bitched again to the people who got the first post I complained about taken down. We'll see what happens.

By: sarah

sarah — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:46:26 +0000

To be honest, I have not been clicking through nearly as often now, and I rarely click through on blogs that don’t load the whole post. I think this move will hurt your readership at some point, but you have to do what you have to do.
Ditto!