WTH? Powering Down Google Reader

As I logged into Twitter Thursday morning, @ahoova’s tweet greeted me:

Why? Why would google reader shut down? WHY—
Ahuvah Berger Burcat (@ahoova) March 14, 2013

And what followed were several hours on a roller-coaster ride of emotional ups and downs and reading more about RSS feeds and apps than I’ve done in years. I consume a lot of RSS feeds in my Google Reader, but apparently overlooked this one:

Powering Down Google Reader (via Official Google Reader Blog and posted to WordPress.com via Reader’s “Send to” button.)

What does this mean for me personally? For me the Reader is not only about reading but being able to share interesting reads and not just to FB, Twitter and by email! Google Reader also lets you publish a public page of any selected feed or groups of feeds and that page itself has a feed. I’ve used them to populate WordPress.com RSS widgets on several of my sites. On this site, that’s the “Blogging News” in the footer. Come July 1st, those will disappear, unless I can find a replacement.

And on the lighter side, Ian in Hamburg has gone all out poking fun at the demise of Google Reader (with tongue in cheek…I think).

Meanwhile, over on Rob Cottingham’s “Noise to Signal”…

Noise to Signal Cartoon

If only!

Update: Will the bad news from Google never end? What’s next, Google Alerts?

Update2: WordPress.com users can import their Google Reader subscriptions to the WordPress.com Reader. Announcement here.

Could be related:

Killing Google Reader is like killing the bees: we’ll all be worse off

The Day of the Great Unfollow

It had to happen. All those Facebook and Twitter accounts just languishing with posts from 6 months (or more) ago or nothing but auto-posts from other social networks that I  have befriended you on already or nothing but short URL links making it look like your account has been hacked.

If you were caught in the Great Unfollow crossfire, don’t be offended. I probably connect with you in other ways. Otherwise, go start posting real content again. And in all fairness feel free to unfollow me as well if my content doesn’t interest you. We all have limited time on our plates. I would hate to think I’m wasting yours!

And since I have your attention, here’s yet another prediction of the demise of blogging as we know it. Every time I read an article like this I become more worried about the demise of lengthy or thoughtful or thought-provoking prose. Do we really no longer have the patience or time to read with intent not only articles we agree with, but  articles that we disagree with that challenge our worldview. I do wonder…

(P.S. The foot is much better. Thanks for asking!)

Related articles

• Twitter Kills Unfollowing App (But Not Before I Dropped Half My Followers) (wired.com)
• Top 6 Reasons Why Your Twitter Followers are Unfollowing You! (weblogbetter.com)
• Unintentional unfollows: Coping with Twitter’s unfollow bug (nextlevelofnews.com)

Deal With It

People I meet through Twitter events keep asking me why I don’t update my Twitter avatar to show my face rather than the pirate shoes.

It’s like this.

Over time I’ve learned that it’s the exceptional person who can see past my gray hair. Besides, the pirate shoes are a much better indication of the person you’re dealing with.

So, deal with it.

SuperBetter-The Game With Amazing Real Life Rewards

Not-to-be-missed TED Talk by game developer Jane McGonigal.

SuperBetter website.

(If the video doesn’t load, you can view it on the TED Talks site.)

And another perspective:

“Games are useful. Games are fun. Yet, somehow, gamification itself has become the butt of almost every internet joke I’ve heard recently.

It isn’t because games aren’t useful. They are and they can change the world. It’s because gamification is being wasted on the most useless, time wasting crap I’ve ever seen.”

via Julien Smith’s blog, We need Dungeon Masters for the real world.

Written much earlier than McGonigal’s TED Talk, there’s little here that I don’t agree with. And thanks to the first commenter, I’ve discovered Jane McGonigal’s blog, here on WordPress.com. Sadly, no updates since the beginning of the 2010, but what’s there in the archives makes up for it 10x.

Quicksand and Sinkholes

Of the blogging sort, that is. Some people let their blogs linger on and on and others perform a radical blogectomy, deleting all their posts or even their entire blog. Several friends have lately decided to put a torch to what was their home on the Web. One of them routinely does so, along with almost all her other online accounts. It shouldn’t surprise me by now, but it still does. I sorely miss connecting with those online friends, many of whom I’ve known for close to a decade or more. On the other hand, other real life friends have taken up blogging with a passion and it amazes me they waited so long to do it. (Yes, SJ, you’re one of them. )

One of my favorite reads is The Pioneer Woman and her post on Ten Important Things I’ve Learned About Blogging speaks to me loudly, with the obvious exception of her second point, which I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stick to and maintain my sanity. (Have I mentioned that I have a brown thumb?) In spite of having a blog, I am not a writer by nature (I tend to express myself visually) and after 8 solid years of daily business writing, my personal  writing “style” has taken a serious hit. Worse still, at times it’s hard for me to find things that I think would resonate with my readers.  Heaven knows there’s enough WordPress.com memes around (Plinky and Post a Day for example), but I find I’m not much of a joiner and tend to go off in my own direction and certainly at my own pace.

There’s a crazy number of blogs online these days, somewhere around 30 million on WordPress.com alone, and finding the blogs that speak to you is an enormous challenge. So if I haven’t said it lately, I’m thankful for each of you that takes a few minutes to stop by my little salon. Coffee?