Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
… the list could go on and on, but I’m tired of copy-pasting…
This is just a tiny sample of a few well-known bloggers who offer their posts in their full glory to those of us who read blogs in a feed reader like Bloglines or Google Reader. I consider it a great gift from these bloggers to the rest of the community to provide their wonderful writing to us in a way that is so accessible.
But I have to be honest and add one more blog to this post. It has partial feeds and it is the ONLY such blog that I click through to each and every post no matter what: Mir’s Woulda Coulda Shoulda. That’s it. She’s a great writer and I know I will always be happy I clicked over there. She’s funny, smart, and if you’re not reading her, you should be.
Every other blog in my reader which has a partial feed has to be incredibly gripping in its first few words to get me to click through to read it all.
I know, I know, what’s so special about having me read your blog?
Nothing, but remember that I’m likely not alone in my feelings toward partial feeds.
As of this minute, I have 411 blogs that I follow in Google Reader, so you’ll understand why if you have partial feeds and you’re not Mir I’m possibly not reading you regularly.
I don’t say this out of spite or meanness, I’m not directing this at anyone in particular, and I certainly understand that the fear of content-theft and hatred of sploggers is the biggest reason behind partial feeds, but it needs to be an informed decision on your part.
And Mir, please reconsider ;)
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agreed! Mir does get my read 99% of the time.
I’m glad that Oh, the joys went full feed as well, as much as I like her blog, I didn’t always read it when it was just the summary.
Erika, are you on a 1-woman full-feed crusade here? ;)
I think my blog is full feed. It is, for me, in google reader anyway. How can I check or set it that way?
Every time I go full feed, I get splogged IMMEDIATELY in multiple places, and it drives me in-freaking-sane. I think it’s because of my high posting frequency (not any brilliance on my part), but regardless, nothing makes me crazier than finding multiple sources plagiarizing me all over the ‘net.
I know partial feeds are totally annoying. I hang my head in shame, I do. But I hate being ripped off more. Sorry. :(
Thank you for recognizing these incredible writers for something many may not ever realize. I too am happy Jessica went full-feed (Thanks, Babe!).
When I got back from vacation and had hundreds of new posts to catch up on, I just couldn’t spend time on the truncated posts.
I’ve complained about this on my blog too. (http://slackermama.com/2007/05/23/on-notice-people-who-truncate-their-feeds/)
There are some blogs that I will click through no matter what, but like you say, some of the others I don’t unless it looks like it’ll be a really good post. Thanks for recognizing these awesome feeds (and thanks for providing full feeds yourself, as well as the handy “Add a comment” feedflare from Feedburner!)!
I hate the partial feeds, and I don’t read them half the time!
Erika, I keep meaning to ask you and then forgetting – are my feeds still truncated? I changed everything I know to change, so if they are, I need to figure that out.
I agree, I like the full feeds when using the reader.
I promise I’ll go back to full feed if you can help me find that setting again in Feedburner!
It took me so long to convince myself to use Google Reader and then I wanted to cry over all the truncated feeds. I will read certain people no matter what, but I fully admit that I read people with full feeds more often; the others tend to accumulate until I hit the “mark all read” button. Even though I haven’t read them.
Splogging is obnoxious, but I *love* full feeds.
(I will always read Mir, even if her feed were set to only show the first word of each post, I would still read it.)
411?? Wow!
Thanks for reading me, then. Makes me feel even more special :)!
And you had already convinced me to return to full feeds a while back! Glad I did!
I feel like a just got a lecture from my mother! :) I don’t have mucyh traffic and have this fear that what little I have will disappear … Also, I can’t find the place to change it back to full. So I’m in there milling around to find it. I’ll give it a go. For you.
I think I am flying full feed ahead. I hope so because I don’t know how to change it and I want people like you to read my pearls of wisdom or drivel or whatever it is.
Heh, Mir’s usually the only one I will click over for, too.
You made me do it.
I love Ann!
I think I switched mine after Googling around blindly trying to manage sploggers. I’ll switch to full for you–esp. since I’m lazy and like to check your GRIT posts for things to read instead of actually adding everyone interesting to my Reader.
411??? WOW!
Totally, totally agree. And yes, I would click over to Mir’s blog even if it said in the summary “Procrastamom, you are a giant goober and I don’t want you reading here.” (I love you Mir!!!) I read everything through my Google reader, except for two blogs that don’t have RSS feeds (Sweet Juniper and Waiter Rant) and I regularly X the blogs that don’t have full feeds because I have so little time to read them. One blog I subscribe to is written by a well known Mommy Blogger and it only shows the title! While I think she’s a great writer, if I don’t have the time to click over her blog gets X’d…it’s a shame.
I’m a freaking awesome blogger who uses a full feed. There should be a button or something for this.
Seriously, there are some very popular blogs I don’t read because they were not full-feed when I started reading blogs. I think there’s just one partial feed now in my reader and I don’t always click through. Eep. I am lazy.
Do you have a system or routine for reading all those blogs? I’m in the running for “World’s Slowest Reader”, but it can’t all be speed reading can it?
411???? Holy cow woman!
I have 100, and if I want to add more, I have to remove some. I thought I was bad!
“I’m a freaking awesome blogger who uses a full feed. There should be a button or something for this.”
Indeed there should! Anyone reading this know how to make buttons for the sidebar of a blog? I’d post one on mine, I know.
The public has spoken… I’m making a button right now :)
Thanks for the love!
I’m glad SOMEBODY appreciates my full feeds because I gotta tell ya, my stats are down somewhat.
I guess some people just read and don’t click over, which sucks for me but hey…if it makes my readers happy, then it’s a worthy sacrifice.
I once read that it’s better to have someone reading you in a feedreader than not reading you at all, which is a pretty good point.
LOL..I THINK I have full feeds.
I use Feedburner.
I actualy don’t read through feeds much..I mostly use my links and delicious..but totally get the draw.
Yea, I switched to full feeds THANKS TO YOU. I just added a little copyright since I found myself on a few sites, illegally, of course. But for you? I’ll full feed. ;-)
A bit puzzled as dooce’s feeds are by no means full posts for me in bloglines, nor are julia’s. And I stopped publishing full feeds because my feed was being stolen by one of those re-publishing places so it wasn’t really safe. So no matter how gorgeous the badge, I’m afraid I won’t be joining you!
I admit, I was a partial-feed girl. I know my stats will go on the down-low, but I changed it for you.
Besides, I do everything Jessica does. Just like an annoying baby sister.
Guess I just better make my posts comment-worthy!
Thalia,
I just went and re-subscribed to Dooce and still got full-feed. I don’t use bloglines, but I think there’s a setting where you can actually tell it to just give you partial feeds?
Maybe that setting is on for your subscription to Dooce? I didn’t re-subscribe to Julia, but maybe the same thing is happening there? I definitely get full-posts from her as well.
Ok, I just switched. I initially debated between these settings and decided to go partial because I was afraid of not getting any comments.
But I see your point. I should be a full feed once Google Reader resets itself.
Dooce for me isn’t full feed either but I’ll try and resubscribe and see what I get. The partial feed drives me nuts and sorry Mir, I don’t always click over.
And for Procrastamom – WaiterRant does have an RSS feed. If you use Firefox you’ll get a little RSS icon in the address bar if they have a feed. I too thought some people didn’t have feeds but it turns out they actually do. I’ve not come across a blog yet that doesn’t.
Me again re the Dooce feed. I’d subscribed to her RSS2 feed which is partial. Now I’ve subscribed to the Atom feed which is full. Again, using Firefox’s little icon in the address bar, it gives me a choice. If anyone doesn’t know what the heck I mean I’ll write a mini-tutorial about this because it’s so useful.
So if we are full in Blogger (or whatever) and partial in Feedburner, does that count? I do that because I want subscribers to be able to read the full feed, but I want an RSS address with a partial feed for any syndication services.
Either way, I really enjoyed your post…certainly food for thought!
To tell you the truth, I’ve never really put much thought into this; and honestly had no idea it was a pet peeve of many.
I’ve changed my settings, just for you guys!
Wow! I stumbled upon a hot issue that baffles me! I’m sooooo not up to speed on feeds, google reader, etc. I don’t even know what splogging is! I’m deducing it’s people taking posts and passing them off as their own. Yikes! I just put up a link to subscribe to my blog. My setting is on partial because I thought if people read my post in a feeder (?) than why would they bother to come to my site at all. I’m trying to build traffic! How do I do that and offer a full feed?
Really good question, because I noticed an immediate reduction in the number of site hits, but also a huge jump in the number of feed pulls.
You had me at freakin’ awesome….
Here’s how I reconcile the write vs. be ripped off thing (which is beyond annoying when you’re trying to making your living with words).
- I trust in my ability to (hopefully) come up with more good ideas another day — ideas that will be better than Idea 1.0 that was ripped off by the evil blogger dude or dudette or his/her feed thing harvesting tools;
- I realize that I’ll end up writing nothing at all if I become totally paralyzed by paranoia — and the blogging world has given me so much, like the gift of greater creativity. (That sounds horribly new age and sappy, but it’s allowed me to experiment with new types of writing and to take creative risks in my writing that no publisher would want to subsidize — or touch with a ten foot pole!)
- I believe in blogging karma. Or the blogging golden rule. If you do bad things on to other bloggers, your blogging template will melt down. So don’t covet or pincheth the prose of other bloggers or the blogging boogeyman and his posse of biting toddlers will get you. Besides, who wants pre-worn prose anyways? Get your own freshly laundered ideas from your own wonderful brain.
Okay, I’m a bit wacky tonight, but I just wanted to say that I love full feeds (just as I love full-text journal articles). Bring on the content, baby!
thanks for the great button! I have a full feed. It makes sense if you really want someone to read your post in its entirety.
MamaArcher’s latest post: True Wisdom — Law & Grace
I just found the buttons. Thanks. I’m a recent convert to full feeds after realizing that truncating your feed doesn’t necessarily prevent scrapers.
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