RSS reader evangelism

But how many people actually keep track of enough sites to justify a newsreader? (I’d say ‘enough sites’ is over 20 that publish new content daily). A few voracious ubergeek microcontent-consumers, and not much more. That’s why it makes me laugh when I read RSS evangelists say things like, ‘Why isn’t everyone using a newsreader?’ and ‘Why don’t you have a link to your RSS feed on the front page of your site?’

Wow, well, that’s pretty wrong.

Before I started using an aggregator I was probably reading a maximum of five sites on a daily basis, maybe an additional five to ten on a weekly basis when I remembered or when there was a link to one of them from my regular few sites.

When I first started using an aggregator (my first was FeedReader, but I swiftly moved to use Syndirella) it was a dream. Everything got so much easier. I didn’t have to remember to check the sites any more. I didn’t have to use IE or Mozilla’s scheduling and get annoying popups to remind me to look at the sites – it was great, and I was only reading five sites a day.

Of course, realising that it was now taking me half the time to check five sites that it would have previously taken to check one, I went crazy, and my subscriptions were up to almost 200 within a month. Of course, If I’d had broadband at home I would have kept them all, but since I was checking them all at work I had to cut down because suddenly I was spending all my time in my aggregator. From five to obsessed. In a month.

I’m now recovering, and a quick “list” command to JabRSS shows me that I’m currently subscribed to 101 feeds.

Provided someone is checking more than one site on a regular basis then show them an aggregator and they’ll be away.

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