Thursday, February 23, 2012

How Do You Read Blogs?

I find that I am split between identities - I've been blogging as "Beedo", an old avatar name from time spent on discussion boards in distant years.  But G+ uses my regular name.  It seems that when you link your blog to your G+ account, the accounts merge and your blogger profile disappears.  Must Beedo die for my G+ account to fully live?

Here's a more serious question - how do you keep up with your favorite blogs these days?  The common options seem to be using Google reader or a similar feed reader- either by subscribing or following a blog; watching your G+ stream for posts; going to the blogroll of one of your favorite bloggers and clicking on blogroll links; bookmarking your favorites; doing a Google search when you feel like checking up on a place.

Before I push the shiny red button and explode Beedo into a cloud of electrons, it seemed like a good time for a poll - let me know how you keep up with your favorite blogs.  Thanks!

Oh - as for me, I tend to use Google Reader.  I urge folks that use blogger to go into their settings under feeds and allow full feeds; many times I can't click through to your place if I'm at the office, but I can still stay in touch with the feed.  Why limit your ability to be read and enjoyed?

25 comments:

  1. I use Reader for all my blogs; then nip over to the actual blog when I want to leave a comment. I use to go through my blog roll, but it's much easier to use Reader.

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  2. I bookmarked them and sorted them into different catagories like RPG, Art, TTG, Worldbuilding, and so on.

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  3. I definitely use my blogroll and others to keep up.I do use reader once in a great while.

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  4. Reader using an app on the iPad. I can't imagine another way.

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  5. Google Reader, with the headline feed on my iGoogle page so I scan it every time I open my browser.

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  6. I just go to my blog's dashboard and scroll through the list. This is better than using my blog roll since the latter doesn't show multiple posts in one day by an individual.

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  7. Google Reader for me, I use G+ more like a Tumblr stream.

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  8. I use Google Reader. Tried G+ for a while, found it very "meh," haven't been back in months.

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  9. I use the Blogger Dashboard to read all the (very many) blogs I follow.

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  10. I use Google Dashboard and my blogroll. I haven't linked my blog to my G+ account because I have two blogs and then occasionally post about unrelated stuff on G+. I separated this stuff on purpose.

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  11. Yeah, Google Reader and my blogroll. Occasionally, I'll see something on Google+ first, but not usually.

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  12. Bloglines, since using a feed is the only way to stay sane, and because I hate the UI skills at Google and their reader is terrible.

    I have also tried a few readers that are not web basedd, but it makes me stuck to one computer to save state.

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  13. I read the two dozen or so blogs in my blogroll everyday. The 100+ sites I "follow" get read in Google Reader when I have time.

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  14. Bookmarks - I generally only read about 20-25 blogs in any given category, so I organize them into folders and open them en masse. It's so much better reading a post in its "natural environment", with the atmosphere of the background and header images and whatnot. Readers make all the content blur together.

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  15. I just right click from my blogroll, which shows recently updated blogs on top.

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  16. still read them. use my blogger dashboard and go down the line. in some cases, such as your Black City Campaign, i'll stick on the blog for a few hours to catch up on posts i missed before i subscribed.

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  17. I use the blogger dashboard to read those that I actually follow, and then blogrolls, like yours, to read the others.

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  18. I bookmark feeds in Firefox and have them arranged in order of relevance to my interests. But I also follow blog rolls like the one on LotFP to know if something new has come round (especially at work).

    It isn't the best way to do it, I'm sure I'm missing a lot of cool ideas because I didn't move the blog feed high enough up in my bookmark list. Realistically I'm limited to ~30 blogs I can watch like a hawk that way. But, like RMDC, blog readers didn't work for me, they felt like a fire-hose of undifferentiated info. The "places" that blogs are help me remember where I read stuff and how to find it again. Google doesn't seem to find things very well anymore. That responsibility has become mine again.

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  19. Google Reader all the way. RSS feed readers are the most efficient way to consume small parcels of information invented in the past 2000+ years. And I can cache the unread data on all my silly little devices so that I am never without posts to read (though I need to mail reminder links to myself if I see a post that I want to comment on because commenting on a blog using an iDevice is painful). I use the "Reeder" app on both iPad and iPhone.

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  20. I've never used google reader. For reading blogs I have a few which I regularly visit, then just jump around to any interesting posts I see on blogrolls from there.

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  21. Beedo, sir,

    I have 'tagged' you on my list of bloggers of note, here is a link to my blog, check it over the next couple of days to get the list of questions I'm posing to said bloggers - it's meant to be fun and gives added exposure.

    My blog - http://theopenhearth.blogspot.com/

    The Rules Are:
    1. You must post the rules.
    2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
    3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged. 
    4. Tag eleven bloggers, however, you can break the rules and tag fewer people if you want. Make sure you hyperlink their names/blogs.
    5. Let them know you've tagged them!
    6. Have fun!

    Hope you'll join in :)

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  22. Thanks for the all the good replies. Doesn't look G+ is taking off as the main way folks keep up with blogs - due to your kindly answers, Beedo will live!

    Plus, I learned some new tricks - like using google reader on igoogle.

    @ Evil DM: Ooh - I'm going to have think hard about the tagging question - I'm not that interesting. Maybe something interesting will happen this weekend!

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  23. @Beedo:

    I started with a blogroll, but that was insufficient for me (anyone not in the blogroll wouldn't get read unless someone else linked to it).

    For a while I would go through RPGBA's index for interesting posts, but that got to grate on me (and I ended up overlooking anything that was in my blogroll but not in RPGBA's feed).

    I moved to multiple feeds fetched by calibre, which worked reasonably okay and was portable to the bus via my ebook reader, when I remembered to leave it running and copy the files over. In the end, a pain in the ass to maintain the list.

    Google Reader worked for a little while, but syncing to my tablet wasn't worth the hassle (no clients that kept it as up to date as I liked).

    Currently using a local wordpress site and feedpress to aggregate the entire thing (>525 feeds right now). I've replaced the built-in search tools with something rather better. Most blogs provide full text in their feeds, so I can read most of it (less pictures) without having to leave my house, as it were.

    I can usually review a day's posts in about an hour, maybe a little more. Anything really interesting gets flagged for deeper examination (which adds to the time, usually on the weekends).

    I'm still pondering how to make this more efficient and useful for myself, but for now it's pretty decent.

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  24. Bookmarks, Google Searches, and my own Followers as I can click on their tiny faces and go through to their blogs.

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