spawning from a thread on osxaudio.com

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me: “...
to get the most out of blogging, you really need to use something like NetNewsWire(for OS X) or FeedReader(for Windows)..”

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resonance’s reply to that:
“I’ve set up RSS on other people’s blogs, but I haven’t yet bothered with it for my site, and quite frankly, I probably won’t in the foreseeable future.. I realize more and more people read their blogs through RSS, but I still enjoy actually seeing something other than a unified newsreader interface.

I wholeheartedly [but respectfully] disagree that apps like NetNewsWire help one “get the most” out of blogs or blogging. My blog (and the blogs I tend to read) are as much about design as they are about content. Maybe it’s old fashioned and curmudgeony, but reducing otherwise attractive and thoughtfully-designed sites to words in a paned interface makes blogs no more interesting than email for me. And I get plenty of email already.

If the goal is to “take in” as many blogs as possible with minimal effort, then yeah, RSS is the way to go, and I’m glad it’s out there for those who challenge themselves to tackle as much of the blogging universe as possible. If all blogs were working off default templates, maybe nothing would be lost with the move to RSS. A lot of the personality of a blog, though, comes through for me in its visual presentation, and I’m not yet willing to give that up.

I do agree that blogs have changed the relationship between the masses and themselves, though. They have the potential to let bloggers and blog-readers to interact and learn about each other without having to go through an increasingly centralized media empire. True, blogging puts a lot of uninteresting crap ‘out there’, but as with all semi-democratized forms of expression (another being, for example, electronic music), there’s some real good stuff to be found if one puts forth the effort.”

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I reply:
good points resonance.

Apps like NetNewsWire DO help one get the most out of blogs if you want to read what people have to say and get the latest news headlines. You understand this i know as you said “If the goal is to “take in” as many blogs as possible with minimal effort, then yeah, RSS is the way to go” but let me explain why I think both web and RSS go very well together and people not offering RSS will most likely lead to less readers.

Indeed, I am looking at blogs as a textual and information based point of view. Getting as much info into my head in as short amount of time as possible. If i wanted to look at websites when I have the time, I would (and do) but mostly, I just want to quickly skim and read the latest posts from my fave RSS feeds. When I am doing some websurfing, I will look at design orientated sites

I see blogs as a way to get ones writing out there and read. This can be done both via RSS and by viewing the webpage. Choice is good!

If a person wants to see your writing in the context of your webpage and design, which, by the resonance, is nicely done, then they can.

If a person wants to read what you have to say, they have RSS. This person can easily view your page with a simple double click and I bet they will; just not every day, but at least they will be reading your posts.

I think blogs, due to things i have stated here actually increase web based repeat visits even if that reader uses a RSS reader. On the web which overflows with information, repeat visits is something content creators strive to get.
(this universally applies to text and visual content)

If a web sites content is really good and someone reads it via an RSS reader for a while they may end up visiting the page daily.

Personally, if i have an RSS feed of someones site, I am 90% more likely to visit their webpage again because I read it everyday. I am much less likely to visit 30+ websites daily. That is slow, tedious and chews bandwidth (worse for me too, my cable connection has a 3 gig per month limit which is not uncommon)

In the case of your blog, I have seen your webpage and its design. I am sure you wont be changing your web design everyday, so the actual thing that i would be going back there for is content.

It is true though, one does loose ‘that bit extra’ when only viewing the RSS data from a site. Its like calling someone on the phone, you get the job done of communicating, but if you visited their house, you would get to see their children and partner, or the latest gadget they bought.

That said, after repeat visits to a web based blog, the overall feel and design of a blog would most likely become less of a factor if the aim of a site is the content and sometimes, the design does get in the way. Kinda like those annoying little brats get in the way of listening to your friends new CD he just bought do

RE: your comment about email; do you get information/views/ideas from people all over the world and the latest headlines in your email? I don’t. My email is for personal correspondence mostly and while I do get some mailing lists i like to keep news and email separate. I think your exaggerating the closeness of email and RSS readers just on the idea that they are mostly text. One can have their mail app and rss reader open at the same time.(and browser of course)

thanks for displaying your views resonance. Neither of us are wrong when it comes down to it; There is room for both RSS and web based viewing of content.
I just feel both options should be available.

phew, this is quite a post. I think its worth posting on my blog too!

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comments welcome