I've been using an RSS feed reader to read blogs for a while now. It's really great for seeing posts shortly after they're posted, and not having to actually go to sites that don't update regularly.
But I have a few problems with the whole feed reading method.
The main issue is comments. I never see them. I see the original post, but because I'm not reloading the main pages regularly, I don't see the number of comments change and so don't go back to read them. Once I've read the original post, I never go back to see it again. So I'm missing discussions going on in comments.
There's also the problem of blogs that don't have RSS feeds don't get read as often, because I actually have to *go* to them :(
Anyone have any similar issues or solutions?
Dave2
For blogs like yours, I end up having to go to your site no matter what, because you only publish excerpts in your RSS feed instead of the entire post.
My feed reader has an integrated browser, which makes it easier to see the context of the original, so it's not so much a problem for me.
I used to have a comment count in my feed. That way, if you're reader notes changes, you could see if something new was added. But I eventually got rid of it because it's annoying to people that unchanged entries are constantly being marked as changed just because somebody added a comment.
How about a separate feed for comments? I could make you one of those for my blog... that way you could follow all the comments that people are posting, and participate as you like.
Dennis
I have two feeds like Dave suggests. One has comments and updates whenever one is made. The other is just the entry, that way the reader gets whatever they want. I'm like Burger King that way. *g*
kazza
Yah I've noticed the little differences between other feeds. I don't know the first thing about them though (I remember deleting the link to the feeds when I first setup the blog :) ). One of these days I might try and figure them out. I'm still going to have to figure out the best way of reading other people's comments.
kazza
Dennis I actually have your "RSS, with Comments" in my feedreader.. which would load the comments if there were any when I load the page, the problem is I never think to go back to older posts to reload them and see what comments have been made.