Chip Griffin’s twist on RSS consumption

02 Dec

Posted by: BryanPerson in: Tools

This tweet from Chip Griffin caught my eye over the weekend:

trying new approach to blog reading. I can subscribe to more blogs, but I only read posts over 3k in size for more meat/thought, less noise

Chip Griffin headshot

Through subsequent Twitter exchanges, Chip, who is the co-founder/chairman of CustomScoop (disclosure I: CS is a former sponsor of my podfaded New Comm Road podcast) and editor of Media Bullseye (disclosure II: I’ll be writing a monthly column for the online media magazine beginning in late December) explained that he’s written and applied a custom script to his RSS reader that filters out shorter items and filters in all posts that are some 500 words or greater.

(Update: In a comment to this post, Chip notes that he also has a list of 20 blogs that don’t get filtered for length.)

The result, Chip hopes, is a collection of detailed and well-thought-out posts for his reading pleasure, and an end to many of the shorter, “me-too” items he had been following.

So will it work?

Chip’s new approach is to RSS reading is certainly an intriguing one — even if it does mean he’ll occasionally miss out on those quick-hit, pithy posts that can serve as true thought-provoking gems.

Here’s hoping Chip will report back to us on his findings in a couple of weeks.

Stemming the RSS tide

I’ve experimented with plenty of my own tactics over the last 2-3 years to manage my own RSS feeds — switching from Bloglines to Google Reader, prioritizing feeds into folders, adding/remove keyword searches and phrases, etc. — and I still haven’t hit on a formula that I’m completely satisfied with.

The challenge, of course, is keeping up with just enough feeds to stay informed, but not so many that you’re overwhelmed with the amount of content spilling into your reader each day (alas, as my total number of feeds continues to creep upward, I find myself turning to Google Reader’s “mark all as read” button with increasing regularity).

I’m certainly open to your suggestions, if you have them.

6 Responses

Chip Griffin
02|Dec|2008 1

One minor clarification is that I do have about 20 RSS feeds that I am consuming regardless of post length. But I do have 1000+ being checked for length in what I like to think of as an attempt at “thoughtful serendipity” — finding interesting needles I may not have otherwise had time to search for in the haystack.

I’m just a few days in right now, but thus far I am pleased with the results. The main thing I may have to deal with are people who post laundry lists of links or tweets on a daily basis, as these slip past the filter but have little coherent original thinking.
BryanPerson
02|Dec|2008 2

I knew about your “Power 20″ (my term), Chip, and just didn’t work it into the original post. Glad you added a note here.

Wondering if short blog posts with big images would also slip through?
Chip Griffin
02|Dec|2008 3

No, the size of pictures does not influence what comes through. A post with a lot of images currently will because I have not set it up to filter out HTML formatting. I will likely add some code to do this, although it hasn’t been a significant problem thus far.
Doug Haslam
02|Dec|2008 4

Glad to see there are exceptions, but I am skeptical of the idea that post length equals quality. In fact, I would argue that some blog posts are needlessly long, squandering whatever brilliant thoughts might be behind them, and turning away more readers than not.

I am down with the idea that links-only blogs (and individual posts) should be ignored (or even punished), I just think the idea of post length as indicator of quality is too simplistic.

(btw– disclosure; I am also committed to writing a monthly Media Bullseye column, and yes, chip, I plan to have a draft in by tomorrow latest)
Chip Griffin
02|Dec|2008 5

I agree it isn’t perfect, but I’m looking for a way to get exposed to more people so I don’t OD on the same old folks. It isn’t practical for me to review 1000+ posts a day, though, so I’m playing with this approach to ID those posts that are MORE likely to have original thought. Certainly some drone on endlessly, much like this comment, but so far length has been a decent indicator. I have some ideas of other things to include, too, but I’m trying to avoid turning this into a full-blown application. Although maybe I shouldn’t avoid that!
BryanPerson
02|Dec|2008 6

Chip, I think it will be interesting to follow how you tweet your filtering as you go along. In fact, I suspect you’ll be putting those programming skills to good use even more than you expected. A full-blown application could be in the offing.

As for post length being an indicator of quality, Doug, I would agree this it isn’t always the case. But I don’t think Chip is necessarily saying that. I appreciate the challenge of discovering and enjoying new voices, and it’s one that I kick around, too.