Baltimoremick.com

In comments to an unrelated post, Fairfax pointed out that my favorite Sun blogger, Elizabeth Large, had posted an entry related to a comment I left on her blog some time ago.  As I can never resist a good nerdfight, especially when I am involved, I decided to join the fray and leave a comment.

Rather than force my 10 readers to click through, I will summarize my comment.  I admitted to being the person complaining about her use of the more tag in her posts.  While I respect her desire to make her blog more readable to her users using this convention, it pains me to no end as a user of an aggregator.

I suggested a few ways to make this tolerable for everyone who visits her blog.  For those of us using aggregators, why not present your feed for those of us using FeedDemon, Google Reader, Netvibes, or NetNewsWire in all of its full-text glory.  I pointed out that this is possible, as the online version of her employer’s sister publication–b–does this, thanks in part to my cantankerous ways.  I suggested she talk to Tim Windsor, so I apologize in advance for anything I might stir up, Tim.

I also suggested that maybe it would be possible to advertise the existence of RSS feeds for comments.  If the content can be aggregated, then why not do the same with the comments on said content.  Apparently, some of her readers do not know how easily one can click on the comments for different entries.  Perhaps advertising it in this way will encourage them to more easily track their contents.

I also suggested that if the number of posts on the main page was truly an issue then investigate the possibility of increasing the number of posts available on the main page.  I admitted to not knowing how (or if) the Sun’s corporate blogging platform exposes that setting, but I can only presume it is set at the global level.  I know MT does it, but I can understand that the corporate interface and usability types probably suggested a small number of posts on the page.  Let’s hope they let her increase the number of posts.

At the end, I just wanted to be able to point her in the right direction of maximizing her content for everyone–to the “unenlightened consumers” to the cranky “enlightened consumer.”  Sure, the web and Internet are full of sites where we still need to click through.  Nonetheless, in this age of feeds, aggregators, and other tools, let’s encourage their use.

P.S. Phil, I will gladly offer whatever assistance you require to make you an “enlightened consumer” of web content.  While it may not be for everyone, I think it is the best use of your time in an environment where there is too much competing for your attention.

P.P.S. While I know that my continuing ranting about full text seems to be the mad raving of some computer geek with too much time on his hands, I really think there is something to be said about bringing the content to you instead of you going to the content.  It reminds me of the early variation on bringing content to your desktop from around the late-1990s dot-com bubble.  Now that the tools are out there, we just need to encourage people to use them.