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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

spring clean your rss reader

Do you still read blogs? Though I have my times when I keep up with what all my friends, acquaintances and givers of free information are up to, lately I'm mostly way behind. So I just mark the whole kit and kaboodle read and start over.

I can mark all those unread posts 'read' because I use an RSS reader. I've had a Boglines account from practically the time I started blogging in 2004 and couldn't navigate the whole maze of RSS feeds without it.

But I never organized those feeds, that is, until a few days ago. I happened to be poking around on my Google reader site (which I use sometimes - mostly when Bloglines is down) and realized that I could tuck my various feeds into folders.

Now there's nothing I like more than foldering something. So I made a bunch of folders and got everything all tidy. And then I had the thought  - maybe I could organize my Bloglines feeds in folders too.

Last weekend I discovered I could. So I did. (Here's how: Just click on "Edit" then "New Folder" below list of feeds. Name the folder, then drag and drop blog feeds into it. When done adding folders and organizing blogs click on "Finished" at the top to go to the reader pane.)

Now look how streamlined everything is! Anytime I feel like reading blogs, the genre I hanker after is all in one place and just a mouse-click away.




 If I'm wondering what my writing friends are up to, I click on "Writing Friends" to see who has updated and what's going on with them. If I'm in the mood for more doom and gloom - I click on "Writing Biz" to get my daily dose of advice from overwhelmed agents and snarky editors. If I want something else entirely I click on "Curiosities" to find out the latest from the Antarctica conservation or Bible Illustration blogs.

It's changed my whole outlook on blog reading! Hey, I'm in such a good mood, I may just drop by your blog one of these days and leave a comment! (If you tell me you're reading, of course.)

2 comments:

The Sheepcat said...

I've been using Bloglines for maybe two years. At last I have whittled down my backlog to the point where I can keep up with new material. (This did require marking great swaths as read and moving on.)

I have folders too for the various kinds of blogs I read: some newsy, some on the argumentative side, some belonging to friends I know in person or online. There are certainly times I'm more in the mood for one kind of reading over another.

Violet N. said...

Good point about cleaning out. I did some of that while I was organizing too. It's sure nice to feel on top of things again!

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