Is RSS Hurting The Blogging Community?
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Let me start off by saying that I Use RSS Feeds, I think they are a great advantage in expediting research. If your favorite Blogs haven’t posted anything, you don’t waste a lot of time looking for things that aren’t there. You can Scan Feeds to see if there is anything worth opening and reading the whole post. They save oodles of time.
I LIKE RSS…
Everyone I know uses RSS and solicits subscribers (including myself). Darren Rowse even has a series running that explains How To Make Your RSS Feeds Pop! and Gleb Reys of Perfect Blogger has a post today that gives an RSS Reading Productivity Tip on how to deal with a multitude of Feeds. There are even Bloggers that use Links to Feeds rather than the Blog/post itself. Everywhere you look you can find someone singing the praises of using RSS (usually by reading a feed).
But, RSS Feeds are Bare Bones. You get the Content of the Post. In some cases, you get the full content with any enhancements like graphs or pictures, but not much else. Some give you nothing but a teaser (probably trying to entice you to click through).
What are we missing by using RSS instead of visiting Blogs?
- The Ambiance… People work really hard to give their Blogs a unique look. They spend a lot of time working on the First Impression, mixing and matching colors, blending ads, putting things in the right places and generally trying to match the Blog to the Theme they are presenting. You lose the”feel” of the Blog in a Feed.
- The Conversation… I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I view a Feed, no matter how good the content, I am less likely to make a comment even if I COULD tell a conversation was happening. I usually just read and go on to the next feed. Sometimes I intend to go back to comment, but it is unlikely that I will remember to do it. If I am actually on the page and see a conversation going on, I will more often than not, join in. With a feed, it just seems so impersonal.
- The Whole Picture… Any Featured Pages, Contact Information, About Page, Blog Roll, Series, Popular Posts, Categories, Latest Post, Recent Comments, Archives, Newsletter Subscriptions, not to mention Advertisements are Non-existent in Feeds. (Yes, I know you can get Ads through FeedBurner and Text Link Ads, but most of us won’t ever reach their Subscriber Minimum for Acceptance.) Basically, you are missing the Head, Footer and Sidebar, as well as Other Posts on the page.
- The Community… Although I can and do understand the use of RSS, I think it can also be an impediment if the intent of your Blogging is to build a Community, at least in the early stages. Most RSS Subscribers seem to be pretty fickle. They will subscribe one day if they like a post, and the following day will unsubscribe if they don’t find exactly what they expect of you. There is no interaction between the reader and the Blog.
As I said in the beginning, I use and like RSS and find it very useful, but I think we may be losing the Community that Blogging has brought about.
What do you think? Are we losing the sense of Community? Does RSS impede the Conversation?
Technorati Tags: RSS, Blogging, Community
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Hi!
Thanks for putting a link to my post here!
I agree with your points, however I don’t believe one really loses the sense of Community using RSS. We use it to save time - to make sure we’re aware of what happens and where with the blogs we’re interested in.
But we still visit many exceptionally good blogs directly, just because we like them and are part of the communities there.
So I think it’s good to use RSS to save some time, but it’s bad to isolate yourself by using ONLY RSS to read blogs.
Input by Gleb | February 15, 2007 @ 6:40 am
Hey Gleb,
No problem on the link, I thought you article hit on some really good points.
I seem to visit the Non-work related Blogs I like directly, but the work blogs, almost exclusively RSS.
I just keep forgetting to go back to make comments on interesting articles (like yours). I have to work on that.
Joe
Input by Joe | February 15, 2007 @ 8:32 am
I hear you, Joe.
The same here. Non-work related blogs somehow end up being browsed directly and regularly
I’m trying to improve my habits too, gotta give more back to the community.
Input by Gleb | February 15, 2007 @ 9:09 am
For me RSS is what really turned me on to blogging. I love not having to visit site directly as I’m busy enough as it is. I would not have even been able to hear about this post in a timely matter if I had not already subscribed to your feed in my newsreader. The funny thing was it the title of the post that drew me into coming into the site to read more and to comment. I just wish more people knew about RSS. I don’t view the whole article in my reader, rather I just get the summary and decide which ones I am more interested in and click through. If the posts are compelling enough I will come to the site and may use the other features. If it were not for RSS I would not be as connected to as many as I am.
Input by Patrick | February 15, 2007 @ 9:10 am
You’re right, Joe. RSS demands a high trade-off for the benefits it gives us. Until someone can come up with something better, though, we need posts like this one to remind us that our feeders are the doors out, not the dead-end walls.
Carolyn
Input by Carolyn Manning | February 15, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Hey Partick,
I really do like RSS and use it all the time. I might have to work on better post titles and content if I want to have people stop by to make a comment, huh?
I, like many others, provide full posts in RSS. That way if the subscriber wants to read the whole thing, it takes less time.
And Thanks for taking the time to comment, I do appreciate it.
Joe
Input by Joe | February 15, 2007 @ 9:45 am
Hey Carolyn,
Good to see you back.
Yeah, I guess there is a bit of a trade-off until someone comes up with something better.
To me it’s all about the community, the hard part is fitting everything together and still talking to my friends.
Joe
Input by Joe | February 15, 2007 @ 9:51 am
And Patrick makes a valid point about titles. Headlines, titles, advertising copy all must be top rate for busy people to take a second look.
Input by Carolyn Manning | February 15, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
Carolyn,
That’s one reason I read CopyBlogger all the time, he is the Headline King.
Joe
Input by Joe | February 15, 2007 @ 5:06 pm
Obviously there are pros and cons to RSS, but in my opinion it is overwhelmingly positive. A lot of people will read your content by RSS who don’t have the time to make it to your site. If they read something they like, there is a great chance they will come to the site to leave a comment, link to you, or tell a friend.
Input by John Wesley | February 16, 2007 @ 11:53 am
Hey John,
This is just something I have been asking myself for a while and decided to ask the Community as a whole.
It seems most agree with you (including me) that there are more pros than cons.
But, I think there could be a better way to present RSS if someone really wanted to write it.
Until then, I’ll just have to work on my own Headlines and Content so people will click through and visit the Blog, huh?
Joe
Input by Joe | February 16, 2007 @ 12:57 pm
There is only two major things I would change about RSS;
1.) Don’t call it “RSS” that’s just another acronym that the majority of the population finds “geeky”. Also the term blogging can have a negative impression on professionals who should be doing “blogging”. Just wish it had more of a professional sounding name. I know I may sound like Leo Laporte where he wanted to call “podcasts” - netcasts but you get my drift.
2.) Other than something like iTunes I tolerate having to use RSS in a seperate reader. I know you can use things like “smart bookmarks” in Firefox, etc. but it’s kind of anemic compared to dedicated newsreaders like the one I use (Newsfire). I’m forward to a brower feature that will search my bookmarks first and then the Internet
Input by Patrick | February 16, 2007 @ 3:09 pm
Hey Patrick,
I know what you mean about the terms RSS and Blogging. They have such a bad connotation that people think its about kids keeping a diary. People have tried to re-brand them to no avail. Oh well…
I use the IE7 feeds on the toolbar, it’s convienient.
Input by Joe | February 16, 2007 @ 5:47 pm
Having only recently wrote an article on my own blog about RSS feeds, this subject is timely.
Your blog posts come to me by RSS feeds and if they didn’t, I wouldn’t be here now commenting. I wish I had the time to load up the many blogs that are in my feed reader but with 300+ feeds that will not happen.
The content of this post is the reason that I clicked through to your blog; commenting wasn’t my original plan.
I think that is the key to getting visitors from the RSS feed in the first place and that is giving them a reason to take that step further. Your title is a question and of cause that promotes participation from your audience once more encourage visitors to your blog.
One thing I know for certainly, I would not be reading many blogs if any at all without a feed dropping into my reader.
I am looking forward to your next post.
Input by Susan Borgas | February 16, 2007 @ 10:46 pm
Hey Susan,
I know exactly what you are saying about the pure volume of feeds you go through. I don’t have quite 300 yet, but am getting close.
I guess that’s because there are so many Good Blogs I want to read and dont’s have the time to visit each individually.
As I said in an earlier comment, I will have to improve Titles and Content so people will Want to stop by to comment.
Joe
Input by Joe | February 17, 2007 @ 9:01 am