Moving to Feedly

I've never been entirely satisfied with Google Reader, but it was a nice solid RSS feed reader that let me keep up with a lot of websites pretty easily. So I was a little disappointed when Google announced they are closing it down. The search for a replacement started immediately for me, and I eventually settled with Feedly because they actually SYNC with Google Reader, meaning *all* of my links would remain intact.

In addition, the keyboard shortcuts I have gotten used to with Google Reader are available on Feedly, as is the "Title only" view I use in Google Reader.

So I've made the switch, and I'm learning more about the various aspects of Feedly, including an index of every RSS feed I'm subscribed to that makes it easy to go through and delete all the ones that haven't been updated for more than a year.

Overall, I'm pleased. I may eventually even move on from the title only view to one of the more exciting views. And there's a halfway decent Android app as well. So... it appears I have a new feed reader.

Thank Goodness It's A Linkdump

The AQ Test tries to determine if you are on the Autism-Spectrum. I scored 42 the first time I took it, and 43 the second.

Someone recently gave me some rationing coins as seen at Boing Boing here, and I wasn't sure what they were. Now I know.

Oh no! Phables is over. One of my favorite webcomics (I just wish someone would do the same with Seattle). I wish I had money to pre-order the book and make sure it happens.

Monty Python's YouTube Channel Boosted DVD Sales. Putting up free content helps sales.

Steampunk Cyclon Contest. Cylons are cool again!

Wow, a Warren Ellis entry I'm not afraid to link to. These are incredible photographs that combine WWII photos with modern photos of the same place.

Obama Inauguration Headlines.

Speaking of, I almost want the Obama action figure. But frankly, I'd rather have something tasteful and yet in my realm of "things I already collect". I need a LEGO Obama.

The Whitehouse has a blog. With RSS feeds (summary feed, not full-text like I prefer). This is a good way to keep up with the government, along with Obama's weekly "fireside" chats (which are nicely short yet still informative).

Scientists suddenly figure out that three fish are the same species! They wondered why they never saw mature examples of one type of fish, or males of another, or females of a third... well, now they know. All the same fish, but with remarkable differences in gender once they mature.

Ah, wartime urban legends are very Fortean. Investigations have sometimes revealed little pockets of truth in the tales, others (like perhaps the Angel of Mons) seem to be based on old fiction misremembered.

A Comcast repairman broke the power pole. He said Comcast would fix it. Another Comcast repairman said, no, it's owned by Commonwealth Edison, they have to fix it. The ComEd employee said, no, it's owned by the landowner, fix it yourself. Oh, and if you don't fix it in 30 days, we'll shut off your power. Homeowner tries to find a contractor to fix it, but the ground it too cold to put in a new pole. Burying the wires would cost $6000 that the homeowner doesn't have. Homeowner's insurance refuses to pay. In desperation, the homeowner contacts the Chicago Tribune Problem Solver who got Comcast to do the right thing, and ComEd to promise not to turn off the poor lady's power in the middle of winter. But good grief! Why does a person have to contact the media before a corporation will be responsible?

Pug for the in-laws.

And lastly, Coraline:

RANT: Google Screws Up

Anyone using Google Reader probably already knows about the new "share with friends!" bug feature, that sends your shared items to everyone you've ever chatted with in Gmail (and more, since the folks that were getting my shared items were people I'd never actually chatted in Gmail with before, but Google won't admit to this). Apparently, some spammers have already taken advantage of Google's crappy coding and started inserting their feeds into unsuspecting people's readers.

That's not the bad part. The bad part is that Google neglected to put in an "OFF" button for the bug feature. So some people are getting spam THAT THEY CANNOT TURN OFF.

Google claims that to turn it off you just have to delete your shared items, but that only prevents people from reading what you've shared. In order to get rid of unwanted feeds from other people, you have to delete your contacts. Which is what I did. I deleted my entire Google contacts list AND all my shared items. For some people, who use Gmail for work purposes, that's not an option.

Google has really screwed this one up.

And their response when people complain? "Oh, only your friends can see it, and you just have to delete your shared items if you don't want to share!" Um, excuse me? We're talking about stuff being pushed into our readers without us subscribing to it. You aren't even addressing the problems people are reporting.

Look, I understand that Google wants to compete with Facebook and MySpace and whatnot. But forcing a social networking bug feature onto everyone using a freakin' RSS reader, without consulting the users and without the ability to opt-out (or at least be selective of what to send and receive), is NOT the way to do it.

I call "evil" on this one. Google has done something that truly sucks for the end users, and won't fix it. I think I may just have to go back to Bloglines now. I apologize to anyone who went to Google Reader after I recommended it. I never expected them to pull such a completely moronic act.

UPDATE: Playing with Bloglines Beta, and some of the more annoying problems with Bloglines have been fixed in this newer version. I'm definitely thinking of switching back now.

I Get Letters

Wow. I just received a rather irate e-mail from someone who claims to be a "loyal reader" of my blog. With permission, as given in the note itself, I'm going to post some excerpts from it and answer them publicly. What I don't answer here I've answered privately.

First up:

You claim to be a comics blog and you post about all kinds of other stupid stuff and you don't post about the big comic book stories.

Whew. There's a powerful little rant. I'll try to answer all the bits there.

One: I've never claimed this is a comics blog, at least not exclusively. I've accepted the title when it's been given to my blog. But I blog about a bunch of stuff, from Flying Spaghetti Monsters to Politics. It's just that my main interest in life is comic books, so that's where most of my writing attention is. And it's true, I've moved most of my political rants to another blog, where I could shout more freely, but I honestly don't feel compelled to hold back if I don't want to. This blog is about me, a truly egotistical creation, so it will reflect my interests.

Two: I admit to blogging about some stupid things. I like some really stupid things. Like certain comic books. But, again, that's all part of my interests.

Three: "Big comic book stories"? Like what? Again, I post about my own interests. If some story in the comic book world doesn't interest me, why should I force myself to post something about it, especially when dozens of other fans are already filling that need? I don't read every comic book (I probably would if someone sent them all to me, but they don't and therefore I don't). I didn't read Civil War, so I hardly feel right in commenting about it.

And if you are talking about stories about comic book professionals... again, I cover the ones that interest me. I've been interested in, say, the Unscrewed Saga, and reported on it. But just because I don't report on, say, the Friends of Lulu Empowerment Fund fiasco doesn't mean I'm not paying attention. It just means I felt I had nothing to add on the subject.

Moving on:

You are a girl blogger why don't you report about girls in comics?

Excuse me? Just what is that supposed to mean? Because of my gender, I'm supposed to focus on females? Or are you upset that I'm not a feminist blogger who complains constantly about the portrayal of women in comics? I really don't understand this complaint.

Look, this is a touchy subject with me. I care about the portrayal of women in comic books. I care deeply about the treatment of women in the comic book field. But I don't feel I need to spend all my time crusading about it. It often feels like I'm beating a dying horse when I join the chorus of cries about women in comics. It feels, to me, like the right path should be obvious. It pains me to point out the obvious. I know I shouldn't shirk the burden, but I can't help but feel it's sexist for people to expect me to fight that fight just because I'm a woman.

And, frankly, I don't feel like I'm a terribly eloquent person, so I'd rather link to those that are and give a little "me too" than put up inadequate words. I like to think that if there weren't already so many excellent female bloggers arguing those points that I would step into the void. I like to think that if there was no one else, I would take up the torch. I don't know if I would, but thank goodness there are a lot of great feminist bloggers out there in the comic book world already and the point is moot. So, just because I'm a "girl" doesn't mean I'm going to be girly. I'm going to be myself.

I'm going to skip a couple of other somewhat legit complaints to focus on one last part of the note:

Why are you posting Aquaman reviews on the Aquaman site and on your blog?

I consider this a completely legitimate complaint for the handful of unfortunate people who check both this blog and my Aquaman site daily. There are a few solutions to this, and I'm going to ask anyone who has bothered to read this far for your opinions. I'll abide by the majority opinion as posted in comments to this blog entry (in other words, no e-mail on this one).

Should I:

• (Option 1) Continue to post my Ripples Through Time on both my Aquaman site and here, as I've been doing for the last few months.
• (Option 2) Post my Ripples Through Time posts ONLY on my Aquaman site, and post a daily link to that post here on this blog.
• (Option 3) Post my Ripples Through Time posts ONLY on my Aquaman site, and nothing about them here on this blog.

Vote now! Option 1, 2, or 3. After a few days, I'll look at the tally and make a decision based on the votes.

Tegan's Tech Talk

I should've seen this one coming. Time for RSS 101, Tegan-style.

Ok, an RSS Feed is simply a file that takes all the entries in a blog and puts them into a standard format. When you publish your blog, an RSS feed is published. A group of programs called "readers" note the change in your RSS feed, and update with your new entry. Anyone using a reader to read your blog then sees your new entry. Nifty!

Aside: RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication"... when you publish a feed, you are syndicating your blog entries: sharing them with other sites in a standard format.

There are a lot of advantages to using a reader to read blogs. For one thing, I have 300 or so blogs I want to read. Going to each and every blog to see if they've updated every single day would be a pain. With a reader, I see only new entries since the last time I checked the reader. That makes it really easy to read 300 plus blogs in a fairly short amount of time as I can quickly see which have been updated. In addition, most RSS Feeds show full entries, so I can usually read the whole entry in the reader instead of needing to visit the blog itself.

Yes, I still visit blog pages themselves. Usually to comment, or to view images that don't show up in the reader (some methods of preventing hot-linking prevent feeds from showing images). But most of the time, when I read blogs, I use my reader and get through them quickly.

Aside: Using a shared service (like Bloglines or Google Reader) to read feeds is good netiquette, because the service only has to visit each feed once to retrieve the feed for thousands of users, thus saving bandwidth for the publisher of the feed.

I prefer reading blogs this way. It's faster. I don't mind people reading my blogs through RSS feeds. Some people do mind. They want people to visit their site, so they get the hit on their site or so you'll see the advertising they put on their page. But it's rapidly getting to the point that I won't read a blog if there is no feed for it, because I read so many blogs I wouldn't be able to keep up without feeds.

So, suppose I've convinced you to give a reader a try. From my e-mail, I'd say I got at least one person interested. Here's what you need to do. Go to one of the readers I've mentioned, Bloglines or Google Reader, and look for a bit that says "Add" or "Add subscription". Click on that. It'll ask for a URL. Put in this: http://realtegan.blogspot.com/atom.xml. That's the feed address for this blog. It will give you something to start with.

On Google Reader you could also start with a pre-defined "Bundle" that they've set up (next to "Add subscription", click on "Browse" and then pick a bundle).

Almost every website that updates an a regular basis now has a feed. You can often spot them by looking for "RSS", "Atom", "XML", or an orange graphic. Even better, some sites have feed for particular subjects on their sites. For instance, if you only wanted to read my Ripples Through Time posts on a feed, you could use this link. Many browsers have the ability to search for feeds on a site, and will allow you to subscribe in the reader of your choice with a click. In short, you should not have difficulty finding feeds you would be interested in.

Once you have a feed or two, play with the program. Check the entries, see how they are displayed. Decide if you want to read blogs that way. Every entry should have a link back to the blog site itself, so try using the links to visit the original blog. Explore. I don't really know what else to tell you at this point, because at this point I've usually gotten so interested in the new program that you'd need a crowbar to remove me from my computer. I know most people aren't like me, but if you haven't got the hang of it yet, I'm unlikely to be able to give you useful tips.

I will mention that when I started using Bloglines, I only had a handful of blogs in there, all the others I still checked by hand. Eventually most of my blog reading migrated over to Bloglines because it was just so much easier to keep up.

And that's it for this boring edition of Tegan's Tech Talk. Regarding yesterday's entry that spawned this followup, Google Reader is DEFINITELY winning. Except for blogrolls, it has everything I need, and except for subscriber counts, it has everything I want.

To finish off the post, how about some of my favorite feeds? In no particular order, and leaving tons of great feeds out: The Aquaman Website, The Aquaman Shrine, AiT/Planet Lar, Brian Wood's Livejournal, Bully, Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin, Girl Genius (main storyline), The Modulator, Paul Cornell, Rashy's Livejournal, Journalista, Bad Astronomy, Snopes New Urban Legends, CNN Top Stories, Pen-Elayne, The Johnny Barcardi Show, Jeff Parker, Boing Boing, MetaFilter, and Slashdot. These are just a handful of the sites I check every day thanks to my RSS Readers.

Tegan's Tech Talk

I've been using Bloglines to quickly read my blogs ever since my Blogmama Elayne introduced me to it years ago. But several sites I read (in Bloglines, no less) have directed me to Google Reader as a viable second option. I've been having minor problems with Bloglines for a long time... not enough to make me dump them (since I'd found nothing better) but definitely enough to make me willing to look at something else.

Here's my thoughts, as I go through the new Google Reader... First off, before I even open the thing, I'm thinking how Google is slowly taking over my life. Their e-mail system is better than many others (I love being able to put emails in multiple "folders" with the labels function, and the spam filter is better than just about anyone else), I use their search engine almost exclusively, and they've bought Blogger. Despite their mantra "Don't Be Evil", they've made some very depressing choices regarding politics and internet freedom. Hmmm... do I really want to turn over my blog reading to them as well?

Ah well, here goes. I poked around the site a bit, constantly being told that there was nothing to see because I wasn't subscribed to any feeds. I finally figure out to click on "Manage subscriptions" in the hopes I can import my feeds from Bloglines. Under this page, there's an "Import/Export" tab. Lovely. *click* Hmmm, must export from Bloglines first. Hey, it says I can "Learn more about exporting your subscriptions from another feed reader." Ok, *click*. Bloglines export instructions. I follow the instructions. Go back to the "Import/Export" tab. Import the file I just exported from Bloglines. WHUMPF! I've got a bunch of feeds. Back to the main page!

Ok, it appears to be an unsorted mess. Of course, the first time you go into a new program, it always looks like an unsorted mess. I'll give this system a chance. First thing to do is mark everything read. I've already read them all in Bloglines, don't want to read them all again. Lucky, there's a "Mark all as read" option. So I start with that. Ok, the sidebar has my subscriptions, good... and they are listed under the "folders" I had in Bloglines. I minimize the folders. Looks better. Ok, new items are appearing, so I can see what happens.

Top of the left sidebar, "Home" item. If I click on that when there are new entries, it gives me a summary of some of the new entries. Not bad! "All Items" shows me the entries, apparently organized by whatever is newest. If I click on a folder, I get just the entries in that folder organized by whatever is newest. So far so good. Bloglines let me sort by feed, but this is good too.

Oh, hey... at the top right there is "Expanded View" and "List View"... I think I prefer the "List View". It shows me the title/first lines of entries, what feed it's from, and time of update. The "Expanded View" shows the whole entry. I can see more entries with "List View", and when I click on a title it expands to the whole entry AND marks the entry as read.

In Bloglines, if I want to save an entry to link to later, I click on the "Keep New" option. There's a "Clip" option, but it requires moving to another tab, and I haven't used it. I prefer everything right in front of me. As usual, Google keeps users in mind and has a "Star" option. Mark an item with a star, and you can use the third option on the top of the left sidebar, "Starred Items", to quickly view everything you have saved.

Not sure what "Shared Items" is for yet, must play around some more.

Ok, entries are sorted by when they come in. This is very different than Bloglines, but all things considered I think I prefer it. And it looks like I can put a single feed into multiple folders, because the folders are just labels, like in Gmail. That could come in VERY handy.

No way to edit subscriptions to only look for new entries and not updated entries. Hmmm. I wonder if that has anything to do with the way this system stores old entries? It sure looks like it keeps EVERYTHING, which is really nice if you tend to read a feed item and then 20 minutes later think, maybe I should blog that, only to be unable to find it on Bloglines, because Bloglines makes everything vanish once you've read it. Ah, there is an option to show only new entries in Google Reader, good. I can have it both ways.

Another advantage to seeing everything... I can see when some of these blogs I have sitting in my feeds were last updated. Some of them haven't been updated in months. I'm going to have to have a good cleaning here soon. I can't do THAT in Bloglines, and I've requested it from them before.

Hrm... site is a little slow. Massive amounts of code, or massive amounts of people hitting it?

I use Bloglines as a blogroll for one of my pages, and I wouldn't mind doing that on other pages. Can I do that with this system? Doesn't really look like it... at least not the same way. It appears that in order to make something shared, I have to mark the item shared, then either direct people to my sharing page, or create a "clip box" javascript app that shows the latest items I enjoyed. Which would be fine if I only wanted to link to items, but doesn't do much if I want to link and comment on them, which is much more my style. Still, a page of links I find cool could be useful. I'll have to ponder this one.

How many people are subscribed to my feed? I can't see a number on any feeds, like in Bloglines. That's another annoyance.

Ok, summary time:

• Bloglines: has blogrolling capability, shows how many subscribers are on a feed, allows you to view and edit feeds (including ability to not see items that have been updated).
• Google Reader: has multiple viewing modes, doesn't remove items (just marks them read), has easy way to highlight items for later view, sorts subs in a folder by last updated, allows you to put feeds into multiple folders.

Hmmm. I'm going to give the edge, by a fraction, to Google Reader. I'll probably use both for awhile, then switch to whichever suits me best in a few days.