Comments on: Chip Griffin’s twist on RSS consumption

By: BryanPerson

BryanPerson — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:07:33 +0000

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.

By: Chip Griffin

Chip Griffin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:50:38 +0000

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!

By: Doug Haslam

Doug Haslam — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:50:28 +0000

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)

By: Chip Griffin

Chip Griffin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:43:57 +0000

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.

By: BryanPerson

BryanPerson — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:38:52 +0000

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?

By: Chip Griffin

Chip Griffin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:28:38 +0000

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.