RSS question for you
Patrick Crozier wants blogs with RSS feeds to include the full text of the blog posting rather than just an extract, so the entire posting can be read through an RSS aggregator such as Bloglines. He makes the valid point that it makes postings easier to read if you don't have to click on a link to get the full posting. It's even more useful for some people who use RSS aggregators to slurp stuff up which they then read offline on the train or bus on the way to work.
Some commenters make the equally valid point that bloggers like to know their traffic, and want to make visitors actually click through onto their site; this would be very important for a site that's dependant on advertising. Boing Boing has suffered from this, and now includes text ads in the RSS feed.
This blog is currently one of those that only displays the short extract, largely because I use the default template that came with Moveable Type. What's the consensus of the three people and the cat who read this blog? Are you happy with the things as they are, or would you prefer the whole post in RSS? Or perhaps I should make the extracts longer, perhaps 50 words rather then 20?
Posted by TimHall at May 22, 2005 05:08 PM | TrackBackI prefer extracts. I use it as a notifier and a filter, not a reader per se.
Posted by: Phelps on May 22, 2005 06:03 PMFYI - I offer both on my blog. I'm not looking for revenue, just to get read. It makes sense for me to accomodate the readers that I have since it is trivial to set up both feeds (1/2 hour research and implimentation.)
Posted by: Phelps on May 22, 2005 06:05 PMI'd prefer full posts. Excerpts as complete sentences are OK. What I have trouble with is "the first n words" excerpts, because they inevitably cut off in a bad place and annoy me.
Posted by: Ginger Stampley on May 22, 2005 06:15 PMMeeow
Posted by: Paul on May 22, 2005 06:28 PMI prefer posts that are complete. Optional stuff ought to go in links (I usually do this with images instead of inlining them), but I read with Bloglines, and I seldom click through on partial posts, and usually end up deleting the subscription.
Gamehawk'll have both kinds, though, because there are uses for summary feeds too.
I really do prefer full articles in RSS, myself. That said, if it's not a full article, I often will click through.
Posted by: John Fiala on May 23, 2005 06:49 PMI don't see the big deal. Back when everyone used Blogrolling, we had to click on a link to read a post when we were notified of a new post.
I think everyone is getting a bit spoiled. Then again, my traffic is way down, and I don't care about that. :)
Posted by: Scott on May 24, 2005 08:52 PMI prefer exerpts in my aggregator (bloglines) for the simple reason that if I don't want to read an article, I don't waste any bandwidth/time downloading it (and neither does the rss source).
I subscribe to 206 feeds - thats a lot of wasted bandwidth/time over the course of a day.
I'd much rather read an article in its natural environment too.
Posted by: Richard@Home on May 26, 2005 05:00 PMOpinion seems to be divided. Oh well...
One thing I have been doing in the past few posts is to write a specific extract rather than relying on MT's taking the first 20 words.
Posted by: Tim Hall on May 26, 2005 10:20 PM