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[ # ] Paul Schmelzer’s Eyeteeth Blog is 80% Better
January 22nd, 2008 under RSS


The majority of the content I read online is read through one website: Google Reader. This site allows me to pull in stories from blogs and news sites that interest me, so rather than bouncing through a bunch of bookmarks every day, I simply go to my Google Reader account and read through all of the new posts from sites that interest me.

How many sites and stories? According to the trends reporting within my account, I’m currently reading around 375 stories per day that are generated by 353 unique feeds.

I’d have to clone myself many times over in order to directly visit 353 unique websites every day.

Which brings me to Paul Schmelzer’s Eyeteeth blog. I love the stuff Paul writes about on that site. However, it was absolutely painful for me to read his site because he was truncating his blog’s RSS feed. When I went to read his stories in Google Reader I’d only see a headline along with the first couple sentences of his posts.

In many cases, I just unsubscribe from sites like this. In Paul’s case, I added him to a purgatory folder within my Google Reader account I’ve labeled “Truncated.” At the end of the day after reading everything else that interested me, I’d either take a peak into the truncated folder or click the “Mark all as Read” button to wipe it clean.

But something recently changed at Eyeteeth. Paul stopped truncating his feed! In my opinion, this makes his blog 80% better since I can now read 100% rather than 20% of his posts from within Google Reader. Or would that make it 400% better?

According to Paul, he made the change after Aaron mentioned the truncated post problem to him. And Aaron mentioned it to him after Aaron and I had a beer inspired bitch-fest about how much we liked - yet hated - Paul’s blog because it was truncated. Which proves that beer makes the world better.

Holy Crap: DeRusha’s WCCO feed isn’t truncated anymore? People, you need to put the word out about this sort of thing. I’ve gone 6 months without Jason!

Now, if only MinnPost would give me more than a headline and 2 sentences to work with . . .


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    Read the Comments

    [ # 4317 ] Comment from Aaron [January 22, 2008, 6:50 pm]

    Truncated feeds is pretty much why I don’t read City Pages, Downtown Journal, and MinnPost. I recently met the guy behind http://thisiswhyiloveminneapolis.com/ but I don’t subscribe to his blog anymore because it cuts off after the first couple sentences on every post. Cool guy though. I rarely read stories on reveillemag.com anymore — only if the teaser really grabs me.

    Yeah, there’s a not a lot of people that are as die-hard RSS users as I am, but for me and people like me, it makes a big difference. And the population of RSS users are growing fast.

    Ed, I think you’ve made the ad-revenue argument on here (or on technologyevangelist.com) before and I believe it’s true now than ever: In almost every case I can imagine, truncated feeds hurt you more than any perceived benefit.

    [ # 4320 ] Comment from Moe [January 22, 2008, 7:27 pm]

    Completely agree. Someone should start up a “hitlist”, a list of local feeds that offer truncated feeds. Maybe some public shame will make them change.

    [ # 4321 ] Comment from Leif [January 22, 2008, 8:35 pm]

    Wait, truncated feeds are no good? Really? The extra click is asking too much? But how will I ever sell more Ambien?

    You RSS junkies are hardcore, man.

    Yes, I’m going to change it. I can’t argue with popular opinion, no matter how much beer fuels your opinions.

    [ # 4322 ] Comment from Aaron [January 22, 2008, 10:01 pm]

    Woah, I didn’t expect that. Hey, I’ve just re-subscribed Leif. Awesome.

    [ # 4330 ] Comment from Paul [January 23, 2008, 9:19 am]

    You and Aaron should get beers more often: I get good tips on feeds ‘n’ such AND a sweet post on my awesomeness. I wonder what would happen if you drank, say, Jameson. Maybe I’d get a new site design!

    Seriously, though, I set up that feed so long ago — before I had a clue about such things (not that I necessarily do now) — and then promptly forgot about it, so thanks for pointing it out.

    [ # 4333 ] Comment from Leif [January 23, 2008, 9:39 am]

    Well, I’m just glad I’ve gotten this free RSS user tip. I suppose it’s about time I subscribed to this so called “Google Reader” whatsits to see what all the fuss is about. Call me a hopeless romantic (someone needs to), but I still like reading stuff direct from the blog, as the blogger intended you to see it, with all the distracting links, pictures, ads, etc that the blogger sometimes literally spent minutes coding on their CSS editor. Take that toggling banner pic Ed has up there. Cool.

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