transmothra | Why I don't write here very much

There's a good reason why I don't write here very often these days. Time! Why write the same thing three times for three wholly unique groups of readers? Same thing for MySpace.

I have my own feature-rich Wordpress blog, on a server I pay for. Because I pay for it, I write there about ten or twenty times more than I do here.

Why am I complaining about blogging here, then? Simple. Really Simple. Syndication.

RSS.

Yes, it really does stand for "Really Simple Syndication".

What does it mean? And why am I being so whiffish about it?

It means that anything I publish online at my site can be read anywhere in the world at any time and without YOU ever having to remember how to spell my name or even bookmarking the damn page. In fact, YOU can get all the content you want, from (these days) almost any regularly-updated source online (including newspapers, blogs, and whatever else all that stuff that's not a newspaper or a blog is). Without even touching your browser.

Here's what you do. Get a newsreader (here's some for Windows - a better list here - a comparison here - online news aggregators like My Yahoo! here - a Firefox extension here (get Firefox)). I use Thunderbird (also a great e-mail app that beats Outlook with a goofy bat, and then calls it up and carefully explains what happened in either Esperanto, English, or both simultaneously).

Then, whenever you go to a website that you really like, look for the icon:
or or
...or even just the word "Feed" or the acronyms "RSS" "XML" or the word "Atom". Click on it to get the URL and paste it into whatever application you use. Some sites even let you add their feed to My Yahoo! or NewsGator or Bloglines or My MSN or NewsIsFree or Google or Feedster automagically, just by clicking on the link.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Gather your content from all over the web. Then, you can read whatever you want, all in one cozy, comfy place, without ever having to remember bothersome, pesky URLS (you don't even have to remember to check, as new content is supplied continuously).

More info?

And if you really want to know what's actually going on in jeremy-land...

[EDIT] P.S.- I hope nobody takes this post the wrong way; on the contrary, I read as much of your blogs as time will allow (actually, I read you more than I comment). But why should you have to check my page or click on links in notification e-mails just to read the crap that I write? I'm just trying to make things easier for everyone.

With so little time to get things done in this modern world, it's just easier to write for all, rather than write five times for five different and unique segments.

Like I said, I write here very little, but I still read. That's why I'm here!