My name is John and I'm an internet addict. It's been 20 seconds since my last RSS fix.
...
My typical browsing habit is to bookmark all of the RSS feeds I'm interested in while I'm waiting in line, returning nature's call, or traveling shotgun. Then, when I get home, I read all the sifted material, often into the wee hours of the night.
Over the years I've added and subtracted feeds several times, but I've always normalized out to around 4000 items per week. About two years ago I finally got swamped enough that I deleted several reddit feeds, which averaged around 2000 items per week. Since then, I've subconsciously added more feeds to make up for the lost content. For the record, reddit is a timesuck no motivated individual can afford... but damn it's fun to browse (summary of the internet). I still browse reddit, but only via their website for the top hitters and a few select subs (reddit.com/r/austin, etc).
One problem is that I'll often go days without RSSing, resulting in massive binge sessions until 4AM or later... not healthy and not actually that fun, but I'm addicted. Pressing 'mark all as read' when I know I haven't bookmarked the good items is not in my vernacular. The internet/RSS are wonderful tools, but damn they eat up a lot of time.
...
Last night I had zero feeds. Today I have 641. It's been 16 hours. I have a problem.
Step 1. Admit I have a problem. Status: Done (see above).
Step 2a. Ponder.
Step 2b. Ponder more.
Step 2c. Do 2b or not 2b some more...
Step 3. Start deleting feeds
Gameplan: I'm gonna start deleting feeds that I don't read often or that are particularly low in actual content. More often than not, the same articles appear across multiple feeds. It'd be great if I could find a reader that intelligently removed similar duplicates.
First, I'm going to delete all the reddit feeds. Done.
Then, I'm going to delete Gizmodo. How did I make this decision so quickly? Well, starting about 3 months ago all the pages on Gizmodo started loading slowly. I pointed this out several times via email, but was continuously told the problem was on my end, so I isolated it to the exact hanging script and sent that email... and then didn't get any reply. It's been a month now and it's still slow, so goodbye Gizmodo. For the record, Gizmodo's content is amazing. DELETE. You will be missed.
No brainers:
Atheist Media Blog (Yes, I'm atheist, but this blog is too smug; believe in whatever you want).
Austin News (covered by YNN)
Austin American Statesman (you guys seriously don't know how to post... the same articles are listed multiple times).
TechBlog (tired of your "World's Best"articles with zero content and your split-page stories - it's 2011 for fucks sake).
Next on the chopping block:
A VC
Danger Room
kottke
Seth's Blog
Ars Technica
Afterdowningstreet
Maniacal Rage
robots.net.
Y'all are great sites, but your content is mostly duplicates of similar feeds.
Now I'm down to 330 unread items; time to put away the ban hammer and get my scalpel.
Exempt:
Blogs of people I know.
Not getting deleted any time soon:
Hack a Day (captivating)
Austinist (summary of key events in Austin)
DailyTech (to the point)
Lifehacker (well thought out posts with wonderful 'good to know' tips)
Engadget (does a great job posting the best tech articles from around the web)
Hacked Gadgets (amazing)
Make (DIY wonderfulness)
TUAW (all things Apple; I'm an original fanboy (1992... I was 7)
TreeHugger
Austin Bloggers (a collective of posters, one of which points out that of the 39,000 burglary calls over the last couple years, there have been 11 burglary arrests... yikes)
YNN (concise Austin news feed)
Sparkfun (DIY)
Wired Science
Backcountry (crazy world exploration)
Consumerist (great way to stay informed of corporate fuckery)
MakeUseOf (your soundsunday posts are gold)
20-Nothings (interesting peer with great life outlook)
LifeMusicPeopleEvents Austin,Tx
Chicks&Bikes (chicks... bikes... Need I say more)
On thin ice:
Gadgetizer
I Will Teach You to be Rich (this was my original inspiration to save, save, save, but now Ramit appears to have sold out, charging a fee to browse his premium content)
Everything else... too much to list
