March 07, 2006

Why aren't you using RSS? A n00b's guide to RSS. You have a ton of sites bookmarked. You may have whittled down to a list of, oooh, a number that you check every day (/presses envelope to head - that number is six!). RSS is a way you can be MORE in touch — with a higher number of sites — while doing less work. And, thus, an aid to becoming fatter, lazier and inevitably uglier, as if that were even possible. This is me pretending that I've not heard of RSS. Of course, I'm really much hipper than that, and this is all old news. Also, I didn't search before posting.

Introduction to RSS. Wikipedia list of Feed Readers

posted by Chyren 18 years ago
  • I set my homepage to Bloglines. FATAL.
  • oWo, I have a hERBl Hrd on/
  • Thanks - I've been too fat and lazy to investigate the orange icon of Firefox, but have now done so. Huzza!
  • What is a "site"?
  • I KEEP TALKING INTO THE WALKIE TALKIE THING ON MY COMPUTER BUT YOU BASTARDS NEVER ANSWER. HELLO?! HELLOOOO?!
  • I've never actually bothered to use RSS, so this is a good way to get me off my tuckus. Thanks, Chyren.
  • I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't actually use a computer. The only way I'm able to access MoFi is because I pick it up in my fillings. Which is painful.
  • I prefer going to the site, rather than recieving content. It's like visiting someone at their home, but I don't have to put my pants on.
  • The Planet of the Apes project I did the rss thing for a while but I, sadly, prefer the oldfashioned way. Maybe if I ever set up a post + comment rss for MoFi I'll use it.
  • I never bothered with RSS because nobody ever presented a straightforward and practical description of what it is. I'll check out the link.
  • I agree with layne. I like the experience of going to the site. You put on pants when you visit people?
  • pfft! Luuuuserrrrrr! *high-fives cabingirl*
  • 1. Because Dave Winer invented it. 2. Because I like going to sites. That's why it's called 'brow-zing' (pinky on chin).
  • I don't trust acronyms.
  • I like the experience of going to the site. The beauty of RSS is that you can read the first few lines of the site's postings and decide if you do want to go there or not. RSS saves me from going to 80-85% of the sites' contents. I can go first to what interests me most. My primary RSS reader is "My Yahoo". After that, I go with "Google Reader", though several readers are probably on par with Google.
  • Dave Winer is the new Hitler.
  • Hi-tech Monkeys. Who'da thunk it?!
  • The judge said I had to, okay? /Dries tears of shame on discarded pants.
  • Well this monkey-court has overturned that decision.
  • It took me a while but I quite like bloglines now. The primary question for me is: how many times have you ever clicked through to a site you regularly visit only to find that it hasn't changed? If it is more than 1 ever then RSS is a good thing. I have about 40 or 50 (used to be ~80) feeds. Probably 20 I only read at bloglines, meaning I only visit their sites if I really feel a need. For the rest, well it's just like a little update to tell me that I will find something new now if I go to my regular haunts. I also find it great for search stuff. I do a lot of search/research for my site so rather than going through delicious or technorati (used to have more and probably should set up some more) any time anyone anywhere mentions words like umm.. sketch or illuminated_manuscript and a few others, those entries appear miraculously in bloglines and I can scan in 1 sec to see if I want to visit ---- this alone saves me 1/2 hour a day. But that's my stuff. I bet most people have things like that where rss would be useful...ebay searches? job searches, news searches? Anything of interest can be set up to alert you when it's mentioned in some sphere of the web you want more info about. And it's real time and you don't have to click, just do what you usually do and subscribe to it. Easypeasy - this comes from a nontechnical person. I know I sound like a marketer for rss readers but I'm not at all. It really did take me a lot of trial and error and umming and ahhing before I felt comfortable. And it IS sooooo easy seriously. With bloglines anyway. The web delivered on a plate in real time.
  • RSS in 23 easy steps.
  • I took 23 easy steps and I found myself on Parliament Hill eating Nachos with the Prime Minister! Hint: don't take them all in the same direction. YMMV.
  • Step away from the rum-laced pineapple.
  • RSS in 23 easy steps. Geez, it's only 10 to kick an addiction! An addiction, people! There is no such thing as "23 Easy Steps".
  • Have a gmail address? Then chances are, you have a little known, but world-class RSS reader at your fingertips. *And* it's frighteningly easy to use.
  • "Geez, it's only 10 to kick an addiction!" Twelve.
  • Ten?!?!? What a buncha backsliders!
  • Twelve? That explains why I can't kick the Diet Coke! Damn!
  • Thoreau's Journal: 3-Apr-1853 "The last two Tribunes I have not looked at. I have no time to read newspapers. If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events which make the news transpire,—thinner than the paper on which it is printed,—then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them."
  • Translation: "I like Absinthe!"
  • I think he was freebasing fiddleheads.
  • I want to see more of these RSS mash-ups, find me the important stuff and make it quick to scan.