That is one option. To approach the same issue, I deleted everything that was work-related, including search terms for our company and the competition that continually spawned Google Reader items. I also trimmed old feeds that didn't update, but obviously, that doesn't solve the issue of "fewer items per day". See: http://farm3.static.flickr.com... - Louis Gray
One of your points in your post Jason made me think that is some ways bloggers could become something like the new news anchor - we scan through all the feeds and other sources and then use things like FF and Twitter to spit out the things we thinnk will interest those that follow us - in turn we lessen the information load for them.... I gotta think some more on this idea. - Steven Hodson
Steven - ah... the conundrum. That's exactly why people use Google Reader shared items (which you slammed yesterday). Smart folks like SeekGround only subscribe to shared feeds and not the originating blogs themselves. - Louis Gray
@Steve So instead of moving away from mass media, we just become mass media? I thought the whole beauty of RSS is that you don't need gatekeepers any more, you subscribe to what you want to subscribe to, and follow what you want to pay attention to, apparently not. - Mike McBride
@Louis - as I said in the post - which wasn't a slam against Shared Link Feeds it was questioning how they were being used - Shared Link Feeds are a great idea for letting a blogger share things that they think are interesting but are either out of the normal topic range for their blogs or don't require a full post so they go out via Twitter, FriendFeed or SLF's. ... and yes it is a conundrum. - Steven Hodson
I work GReader the same way - I just wish that Trends allowed you to sort - I'd *love* to be able to sort by least % read and be able to trim the fat that way. Sadly, it only shows you the most % read. sigh. - felix via Alert Thingy
I agree with your example, Steven. I suspect that's why we see so many top stories reposted so often here. Each of us provides a link to an article we see here for those who read our blogs but may not read the originating blog. We are acting as anchors for our unique audience. - Jack Carlson
@Mike I think that any blogger is a part of the so-called new 'mass'(es) media and really we are gatekeepers because anything we blog about or share via things like FF or Twitter or SFLs is automatically coloured by our own opinions and the such. That doesn't change the advantage for the readers to select which RSS feeds they want to read or bloggers that they want to follow via any of the 'social' media outlets. - Steven Hodson
@Steven That's true to an extent which is why you subscribe to a range of blogs so you're not beholden to one gatekeeper. Something about the idea of only subscribing the a shared links feed and no original feeds bothers me. I'm back to trusting you to tell me what I should care about, and I don't trust anyone that much. :) - Mike McBride
(wishing FF had threaded comments) @Steven (first comment) yes, I hope to save time previously spent parsing my own subscribed to feeds by listening to you all. There is good added value via FF that doesn't appear at all in G Reader. - Jason Kaneshiro
i did the same a while ago ( skimming, starring, sharing ). But it was still too much of an overload, so i used readburner (and later rssmeme) filters as well as hackernews to filter what to read. Now i am using FF and am hooked :) - Paresh Jain via Alert Thingy
@Mike yes this is partly a matter of trust, but my larger point was one of time efficiency. Is it really reasonable, with the added amount of info out there (anyone can publish) to take on the insurmountable task of subscribing to tons of feeds and parse them yourself? I'd argue you can save time by "trusting" aggregators - techmeme, FF, info-obssessed bloggers and not be that much worse off. I'm willing to be a bit more trusting to get some hours back. - Jason Kaneshiro
@Jason Perhaps this is where I'm just different, I don't feel the need to get hours back, I never cared whether I knew something as soon as it was happening, so I've never been one to spend hours looking for the next big story, I read people who I find entertaining or educational, and then go back to the rest of my life. I've never even looked at Techmeme, I simply don't care. Blogging/RSS is more about personal connection to me. - Mike McBride
@Mike I think part of the problem is that we (you and I) are looking at this from two totally different perspectives. I'm looking at from the content creator / provider side of things and you quite rightly are looking at it from the reader / consumer side of things. No-one is asking any reader to be beholden as you phrase it to any single blogger whether it be via their blog or any of the other ways they share what they think is interesting or important. As you pointed out - that is the beauty of RSS feeds or the social aggregators like FF. All I am suggesting is that bloggers who properly utilize the tools like their blogs or Twitter or FF or SLFs could actually make the consumer's life a little easier when dealing with the massive amounts of information coming at them on a continual basis. - Steven Hodson
@Mike That explains it. What you describe is the place I'm trying to get *back* to after being tech bloggy obsessed for a while, now. - Jason Kaneshiro
This mentions not being able to remember any more than a handful of single articles. I, personally don't get that out of RSS, either. My purpose for subscribing to the number of feeds that I do is sort of a "collective intelligence" over time, I learn new things based on what a number of people say. For example, a hot topic in tech blogs now is being "Open." While I can't really pick out any one article on being "Open," I can summarize just about all of them in a few sentences. - Eric Kerr
@Jason - whereas I guess I could be the opposite. I enjoy going through every single feed - whether or not they lead to anything isn't important because I like the thoughts that even the simplest post can spark. After all look at the discussion that has ensused over your post. However I do see the value is performing a regular pruning but that for me would be more to make room for more blogs - hopefully new bloggers - to read. - Steven Hodson
I spend about the same amount of time on "social media" as before. It's an evolving process. I have 750+ feeds but read them on a tiered basis. Some feeds I pay close attention to, while many other I may skim or skip altogether. I use FriendFeed and Twitter, too. It's great to stay up-to-date with what my chosen "friends" are talking about. But it's important to keep a broad array of sources and always try to learn what is new or what shows signs of becoming a real trend. - Mike Reynolds
@Mike - I agree with you whole heartily on those points - Steven Hodson
