Like many, I use Google Reader to keep track of my favorite blogs. If you have a long list of blogs that you follow and haven't checked it out yet, I recommend you do so as soon as possible. It's the only way I can keep my blog-following-sanity.
I have a couple things to get off my chest, though.
The first one is more of a poll of my fellow Google Reader users. How do the rest of you cope when your "unread" counter gets to "1000+"(fig. 1)? For me, it's stressful to see that number. It's also stressful to think just how much more that + sign is standing in for. Sometimes it feels like work I have to accomplish, when really, all I want to do is get OFF the computer. I feel like I will never catch up and I find myself going through and marking pages as "read" just to get it below 1000+. Why does it bother me? I have no idea, but it does. Something set up to ease our blog reading enjoyment has actually turned into a bit of a personal curse.
The second peeve is with a few bloggers I've subscribed to who have their site feed set to "short" instead of "full" (see fig. 1 & 2). This "short" setting only includes a snippet, and not your post in its entirety, usually up to 225 characters. And sometimes (see fig. 1) it only shows the title of your post and nothing more! It's probably something you offending bloggers have no idea even exists, but, if you do know and chose not to do anything about it? Well...I'm getting very close to unsubscribing. Hence, this public service announcement (of sorts). I know we all love folks to actually visit our blog pages, but let me tell you, this little snippet does nothing to intrigue me over to your site. It actually causes me to just move on to the next person's blog in the Reader, and I really don't think you want that, do you?
I have a couple things to get off my chest, though.
The first one is more of a poll of my fellow Google Reader users. How do the rest of you cope when your "unread" counter gets to "1000+"(fig. 1)? For me, it's stressful to see that number. It's also stressful to think just how much more that + sign is standing in for. Sometimes it feels like work I have to accomplish, when really, all I want to do is get OFF the computer. I feel like I will never catch up and I find myself going through and marking pages as "read" just to get it below 1000+. Why does it bother me? I have no idea, but it does. Something set up to ease our blog reading enjoyment has actually turned into a bit of a personal curse.
The second peeve is with a few bloggers I've subscribed to who have their site feed set to "short" instead of "full" (see fig. 1 & 2). This "short" setting only includes a snippet, and not your post in its entirety, usually up to 225 characters. And sometimes (see fig. 1) it only shows the title of your post and nothing more! It's probably something you offending bloggers have no idea even exists, but, if you do know and chose not to do anything about it? Well...I'm getting very close to unsubscribing. Hence, this public service announcement (of sorts). I know we all love folks to actually visit our blog pages, but let me tell you, this little snippet does nothing to intrigue me over to your site. It actually causes me to just move on to the next person's blog in the Reader, and I really don't think you want that, do you?
figure 1.
So, if you find that you are one of these unsuspecting suspects and can't figure out why no one is reading your blog and leaving witty comments, maybe this is the reason. If you're not sure how to rectify this, please see the illustration below (fig. 2) for blogger.com users. It's Settings>Site Feed>Allow Blog Feeds "FULL". All other blog sites, you're on your own because I have no clue.
figure 2.
Thank you for your patronage. Now, if I can only get that unread counter to stay below 1000+.
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4 comments:
Thank you so much for the tip!! I really appreciate it!! And with screen grabs to boot!! You rock!
Yeah. Someone's actually listening out there?
Glad I could help! =)
Woo - you must follow a WHOLE lot of blogs...I have 130ish or so but thankfully my reader is below 300 right now!!
Yes on both accounts! For the longest time my Reader numbers have been way to high... and facing all those posts feels more like work than the enjoyment it should. And yes, I have started to unsubscribe from blogs that don't show there entire posts in Reader. I tend to read from my phone and loading web pages takes way to much effort :)
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