Don't worry, this has nothing to do with Ultravox (although, if you must, you'll find them here).
No, this is about RSS readers. I've never really been able to get on with readers. I've tried, but they always seem to want to overload me with stuff that I don't want, or that I'm not interested in. Even Google reader; although I am gradually stripping it back to it's bare bones. But I had a little off-blog exchange with Vicki a couple of weeks ago, and she remarked that the RSS reader business is much simpler when you read a copious amount, as she does, but it does make it a bit anti social. And so I thought I ought to try again, since the vast majority of you will be reading this as an RSS feed. Which took me to:
Vienna. Which I've been playing with for three or four weeks now. I like it in as much as it feels very 'Mac' (much more so than Google). And it can sit in your dock and register when any of your subscriptions have posted - with a number in a red circle, just like Mac Mail. But it's far from perfect. And, as Vicki says, it does make you anti social: so now I skim read posts that really ought to deserve more attention; and I've stopped commenting on other blogs.
A good or a bad thing, do you think?
Good or bad, I don't know. Necessary, yes. I feel it's much like reading email, you only comment and delve deeper into the posts and articles that really interests you or need attention. But, as you say, the treshold for what really catches your attention gets higher and most posts are skimmed quick.
I try to solve that problem by using NetNewsWires clippings feature and save a lot of stuff that's at least moderately interesting or feels like it's needed to be read later on, at a slower pace. I seldom return to them though, but when I have the time at least I can.
The solution is, perhaps, to remove feeds and not try to follow 120 feeds (and fool myself into believing I actually get something out of it)?
Posted by: Magnus | 15 April 2009 at 10:31 PM