This assignment is something I've pretty much been doing already--I set up a Google Reader account approximately one year ago, when I was taking my Teaching and Learning in a Digital Environment class. The instructor had mentioned her Reader account and she showed us some of the blogs she was following. At the time, I was following a few friends' blogs, but nothing that had to do with my personal interests OR my career. Since that time, I've signed up for several different blogs and have the updates sent to my Google Reader account. And for several months, I was vigilant about checking Reader every day. Then summer came. I found myself busy doing things with my kids, running them around, swimming and doing other activities, etc. I realized I wasn't quite reading my updates on a daily basis. Once the fall semester began, I hoped I'd again be vigilant about checking updates. Alas, this wasn't the case! I even added an app to my Kindle Fire when I purchased it in late November... but whenever I get on my Kindle Fire, reading blog updates is not what I want to do.
I think part of my problem is that I haven't organized my posts. I did have them organized, for a while. Then, in the fall, I tried using a new RSS feed. I found that I didn't like it as much as Google Reader, but by that time, I'd messed around with all my subscriptions, etc. Now my feeds are all just coming in willy-nilly.
Lucky me! There's Thing #51.1: How Can I Organize My RSS Feeds. At first, I just thought this was going to tell me how to create little subheadings and move each feed into the corresponding heading. I already knew how to do that, just hadn't taken the time.... But no, Thing #51.1 actually gave me more insight on weeding my feeds. Why do I need to remain subscribed to something that hasn't been updated in four years? Seriously? Or why should I subscribe to contest feeds when I really hate to be bothered with reading the multiple feeds? (Some of those contest feeds were updated, like, four or five times a day, EVERY day!) So I've fine-tuned my subheadings (Cooking, Family & Friends, and Library Stuff) and I've weeded my feeds down to only the ones I really have an interest in. Lastly, I downloaded the Google Reader Filter by Feed/Folder userscript, and I kind of messed around with it a bit to see how it works. However, since I just did some hefty weeding, I'm going to hold off on using the filter for a while....
sd
Well, I generally stay subscribed to feeds that don't post very often since it doesn't take much effort to stay subscribed and just in case they ever post something in the future I'll know about it. I do however, unsub from feeds I am specifically no longer interested in, or if the author says "this feed is over."
ReplyDeleteHint: Also try just displaying unread items. Then, you only see the feed if there's something new to read.