I realised today that there are four major RSS aggregators in the Coldfusion community. We have Feed-Squirrel (of course), MXNA, Fullasagoog, and now Ray Camden’s ColdfusionBloggers.org.
Each of these aggregators are different in their respective feature sets, and reach in terms of coverage and readership. However, I’m now starting to think we have quite a high aggregator per community developer count…is there such a thing as too much?
Out of interest, how many people out there use aggregation versus tools like Google Reader (which I personally use*). Is there anything that these tools don’t do for you which you would love to see?
* My particular reason for using Google Reader versus my own site is a simple one. I follow around a thousand blogs, of which only a percentage are covered by Feed-Squirrel. However, Feed-Squirrel does supply 100% of the Coldfusion and Flash coverage.
I’ve been pondering this issue lately – and a thought crossed my mind that it may be time to start breaking off aggregators into specialized topics within the community. Frameworks, Ajax related, etc. Just a passing thought that I had – I don’t know if I even like the idea but I thought I’d throw it out there and see if it grows legs…
I’m fine with the number of aggregators since as you say, they are all slightly different.
However, I am getting fed up with all the blog posts about a post on another blog. So a single post shows up x number of times on 4 aggregators? In those cases, I have to agree with you.
Yes, I think we do personally. They’re very focused aggregators that aren’t really informing anyone of anything other than a very focused community.
I used to use FeedDemon, but now I use Google Reader.
I have a hard time using a web reader in general. I feel like reading RSS fits exactly in my e-mail workflow, so I got it all in thunderbird.
I use a combination of aggregators and feeds as well.. It’s not one way or the other
Aggregators to tend to send you a bulk of not really interesting info. You need to do a lot of manual filtering, but it helps me learn about new things or ideas.. most of the separate blogs i subscribe to tend to have more specific or deep subject matter. I subscribe to feed-squirrel too with thunderbird =)
I use MXNA’s smart category’s RSS feeds in my RSS reader for just that reason.
I use NewsNetWire (I don’t want to hand over my life lock, stock and barrel to Google). For a while I was using Safari’s RSS feature but it is rather clunky when it comes to checking for updates from a huge feed aggregator. I’m now using Ray’s ColdFusionBloggers and find that the new email feature may be just what I need. Just click on the links I want to visit. Of course, if I can’t wait that long, I will check the feed aggregators in NetNewsWire.
And yes, blogposts commenting on other posts that comment on other posts when these are all saying the same exact thing are kinda annoying . . .
I realised about 6 months ago that following aggregators meant spending more time sieving out the dupes for than anything. Now I just use Google Reader and subscribe individually to the posts. I am still subscribed to the aggregators but I only use them to find new feeds that I am missing.
- I would would love a POST aggregator actually. A collection of moderators that only allow high quality posts to go through the feed.
- I just don’t have the bandwith to go scan through the massive volume of posts these days.
- Or for example… why does everyone in the universe have to post about an already posted subject? e.g… CF8 being released. By the 25th post of “CF8 is released!” … ya I got it. Insightful content definitely appreciated, but just one liners stating the fact is useless. A post aggregated/moderated feed would only let the insightful ones go through.
- Moderated feeds will also filter out the “I just bought my ticket for MAX..” “I’m now on the plane to Max..” “I’m currently in the airport going to MAX…” ” just had a baby. Congrats!” etc…
- The core of the problem is people have their entire blog aggregated. Bloggers: You should just have your CF specfic category aggregated. That way you can post about your non CF stuff on your blog at will and it’s no big deal.
- As for tool. I use Mozilla Thunderbird, which is great as it makes it look like the postings were emailed to me. Browsing and reading blogs via a browser is brutally time consuming.
As the Emperor of the Galactic Empire, I have to find everyway to save myself time. My days are consumed with squashing rebellion uprisings, electrocuting people that failed me, etc…
Making it easier and faster to get to qualility content is key.
Thanks Neil!