RSS Feed Changes

As I expected before I started, this RSS Feed analysis has only been the tip of the iceberg in terms of my own workflow and processes.

It has prompted me to go on a pretty intense webDiet with respect to all the various sites, services and social networking groups that I have got myself involved with. I am currently reviewing my use of browsers, bookmarks, del.icio.us etc. I will share these thoughts and changes with you as they evolve, but for now I have just concentrated on my RSS issue.

I am a huge RSS fan but I think that it has sort of taken over and replaced things that didn’t really need replacing. I found myself focussing on the following questions:

1. What is the best use of RSS?

I have debated this before and no doubt will debate it again. I am more and more convinced that the best use is for items that you don’t know exist. For example, in reality I know that the BBC Sports site will have a lot of Sports information, a reasonable amount of which I will be interested in. Do I really need a feed for that? Before RSS I used to enjoy browsing through various sites (as a substitute for a newspaper) and reading articles. Now I just tend to glance at the headline, skim the summary and then ‘assume’ I know what they are saying. On the other hand I have no idea when, for example, Matt will be posting something new so I don’t really want to be visiting his site regularly just to see – RSS is brilliant at doing this for me.

2. How much duplication do I have and why?

Twitter! I receive updates in the RSS reader, through Twitterrific and through the web. Surely I don’t need all of these?

Comments to my blog. I receive an email notification as well as an RSS. Whilst important that I receive and respond to these surely I don’t need two notifications? So one method it is – but which one? On the basis that comments requiring moderation are notified as emails it makes sense to stay with email notification. A pretty easy and logical decision to be fair.

3. How intrusive is RSS?

Personally I find it very intrusive. I find it almost impossible to resist checking to see what the latest updates are as soon as the number increases in the dock. This is great when it relates to a comment on the blog or Flickr that I want to respond to straight away, but it can be frustratingly distracting when it is just general stuff on say DIGG that ends up distracting me from what I am doing. Of course I should have the willpower to resist – but the same could be said about the cigarettes when drunk, the 4th cup of coffee and white chocolate oreo, etc i.e. willpower would be great, but the reality is I need an alternative solution.

4. What do I need to know instantly, what can wait until I am ready to go and find it?

I think this is a really important question. Just because you can receive information immediately to your screen doesn’t mean that your need to or have to. This is something that I have lost track on – I am not prioritizing well enough. I want to know when people have commented on my blog or pictures so that I can respond quickly, but information that I only need for projects I am working on I only need at the time that I am working on the project.

Other things that I took into consideration when unsubscribing:

- how regularly where the feeds updated, specifically the various blogs. If less than once a month then they have been deleted, Why? Well if it isn’t that important to the owner of the blog to post more frequently then I don’t see that I should be waiting for the odd time you can be bothered to write,
- do I just read the info in the RSS reader, or do I visit the site and follow the links. If the former then adios,
- the “all or nothing” rule, introduced specifically for Vox. Not everyone in my neighbourhood uses the subscribe option so I don’t actually get the total picture in my reader. I still need to visit the blog and check my neighbourhood BUT the RSS means I don’t, so I tend to keep up to date with those that use RSS and have become lazy about looking at the other sites. So adios all Vox RSS – I am going to make more effort to read the blogs in my browser, and
- should I be participating more, specifically DIGG. By only really looking at the DIGG feeds rather than the site I am not giving myself the chance to read the other sections, nor am I participating as much as I would like. So goodbye DIGG feeds, but need to work out how I incorporate reading and participating more into my webDiet and revised workflow.

So how did it all turn out? Well when I started the analysis I had the following Folder structure and feeds:

Mac
- Apple Insider
- digg/Apple
- MacRumours
- MacWorld
- MacWorld UK
- Version Tracker

Mac Blogs
- a number of individuals blogs relating to “Mac Stuff”. I had 10 in total

Technical
- digg/technology
- Engadget
- Geekbrief TV
- Gizmodo
- Lifehacker
- The Register
- Trend Watching

News & Sport
- BBC News
- BBC Sport
- New York Times
- Sky News
- Telegraph News
- Telegraph Sport

People
- various non Mac specific blogs from friends. 20 in total
- twitter

Work Projects
- activeCollab
- 8 blogs that I either run or an involved with
- digg/health
- Telegraph Health

Vox
- feeds from my ‘neighbours’ on Vox. 10 in total

My Stuff
- feeds for MyAppleStuff, Flickr etc

Photography
- feeds from other Flickr accounts, photography sites etc. 20 in total.
- Digital Photography School

These accounted for 1974 items in a 24 hour period. Post the tidy up I now have the following structure:

Daily
- AppleInsider
- Engadget
- Gizmodo
- Lifehacker
- Macworld
- Macworld UK
- MacRumors
- Telegraph News
- Telegraph Sport
- The Register
- Version Tracker

Weekly
- Digital Photography School
- Telegraph Health
- Trendwatching

MyAppleStuff
- comments
- DIGG News Search
- posts

Mac Blogs
- rationalised to 3

Moderating Blogs (i.e. stuff that I am moderating either of my own or under contract)
- 8 feeds in total

Personal Blogs
- 3 feeds in total

Pictures
- 10 comment and new photo feeds

And the result – in a similar 24 hour period they produced 316 items.

I have to sort out a workflow and process that allows me to spend more time participating in DIGG and more time reading the news sites and my Vox neighbourhood, and as soon as I have I will let you know.

As always I would love to hear about your RSS feeds, comments on the above, and any areas that you would amend.

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