Comments on: Blogging Story: What is RSS?

By: Rose

Rose — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:53:12 +0000

Without RSS, I would definitely not have read this post :)

By: Michael Aulia

Michael Aulia — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:18:23 +0000

The funny thing is, I’m a blogger myself and a techy, but I’m not using an RSS reader myself.. (still going to the same sites everyday to browse for news/new forum posts)..weird, eh

By: Jere Majava

Jere Majava — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:44:58 +0000

I work as an educational technologist in a university and have been trying educate our staff on the benefits of blogs for the last four years. During that time things have changed a lot. I don’t have to push the message anymore, instead the teachers and researchers are now coming to me asking for advice on how to get started. They know blogs and recognize the benefits – but RSS still confuses them.

I’m hesitant to say what will happen this year, since I would have expected feeds to be as mainstream as blogs by now. I made such a prediction a year ago, based on the fact that then upcoming IE7 would, as a last modern browser, have support for feed auto detection built in. But this hasn’t happened. Publishers are mostly “getting it”, but users seem to just ignore the orange icons.

By: redwall_hp

redwall_hp — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:28:14 +0000

"I use RSS feeds for the blogs that I visit, but still maintain the feed itself as an individual bookmark in my Firefox browser. I still like the “feel” of actually going to the website directly and reading the post, even though I understand the inefficiency of doing so." - # I've always thought that way too. I used to use Firefox's live bookmarks for my RSS-reading needs, but eventually my collection of feeds got too big. I didn't like any of the "normal" feed-readers out there, so I made my own. It's called MyNT, if anyone wants to try it out. It works in the same general way of Live Bookmarks. You middle-click on the headline, and the post opens-up in a new tab. On the topic of people not understanding RSS, I try to point them toward a great video I found on YouTube. It's called "RSS in Plain English" by Lee LeFever of CommonCraft. It does a great job at explaining RSS to the feed-ignorant.

By: Doug Green

Doug Green — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:53:16 +0000

You have to explain and they still don’t get it. I suspect the main target audience for most blogs is other bloggers. So yes, you’ll continue to have to explain it to folks who equate “blogging” with “online journaling”. Probably ad nauseum.

By: AnneTanne

AnneTanne — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:42:13 +0000

For a blog in a non-technical niche (like my blog on herbs is) it is absolutely a must to explain what RSS is, and even then,the majority of the subscribers will prefer e-mail updates.

I did even discover, the majority of the interested readers of my blog doesn’t even know there is a difference between a ‘normal’ website and a blog that is frequently updated, so I have to explain that too!

By: Ivo

Ivo — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:42:05 +0000

Good point. I started my blog in May. I have quite regular connections through email, IM and social networks with 300-400 people, around 30% of them form Italy where I live. Many more are from USA and Asia. Average age perhaps around 35. Whenever I tell them about my blog and RSS feeds, only the technically skilled know what I am talking about, I’d say not more than 15-20% of my contacts. Since is not something that you get immediately on your browser or mailer people aren’t still much aware of the existence of RSS. A typical RSS page is not that friendly for a beginner.

By: Avi

Avi — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:29:02 +0000

David,
You mention really good point.
while we trying to explain all world, what is Web 2.0, and it confused them, from one reason, too much information.

If they could understand this small thing call RSS, well, i guess from this point your thoughts meeting mine, so you said it clearly.

By: David Zemens [1955 Design]

David Zemens [1955 Design] — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:13:38 +0000

I have mixed feelings about RSS even though I understand it fully.

I use RSS feeds for the blogs that I visit, but still maintain the feed itself as an individual bookmark in my Firefox browser. I still like the “feel” of actually going to the website directly and reading the post, even though I understand the inefficiency of doing so.

I think that something is lost when we view all the information in the same format, be it the Google reader or another reader of your choice. I still like to “touch” the actual website where the content resides.

But that’s just me…