Truncated RSS Feed Purgatory - Technology Evangelist

As much as I HATE truncated RSS feeds, there are a few blogs with content that's SO exceptional that I'm almost willing to put up with truncation.

For those of you who don't know what the heck that first sentence means: when reading blogs and news sites through RSS readers like Google Reader, you'll generally have access to full stories (title and story content) but sometimes you'll only get the title (or a title with a short snippet from the story). Once you get used to reading full stories within an RSS reader, it becomes PAINFUL to have to click out to read stories from publishers who choose to restrict (truncate) their feeds.

In general, this is done to increase page views. As I've explained before, this is a risky proposition since you're pissing off your most loyal readers.

Back to purgatory:

I've come to the realization that some sites are worth reading even if they're truncated. Here's a screenshot from my Google Reader account that shows how I've dealt with this situation:

Notice the folder called "Truncated." That's where I store feeds that publish less than a full feed. It's the last folder I view in my reader. I grabbed this screenshot at the start of the day where I had 208 new items to read. In this case, I would read 189 stories before considering hitting the Truncated folder. But that's assuming that no new stories come in throughout the day. In many cases, I just mark the Truncated folder as read without review, or quickly scan through the headlines without clicking out.

I'm with WG. If I sign up for a new feed b/c I love the content and then find out it's truncated. Game over.

And the irony is, if I like what I'm reading at the beginning, I'll open the page view and read it all later anyway on the site...

I guess I'm the outcast here as I don't mind an abbreviated feed as long as it gives me enough to determine if it's worth reading. If it's just a title and one sentence, forget it.

While I don't like truncated feeds, I can understand them. By having a full feed, advertising dollars that make the content possible will disappear. I would rather have truncated feeds than possibly lower quality content.

By having a full feed, advertising dollars that make the content possible will disappear.

Whether the feed is truncated or not shouldn't have any impact on the quality of the content. If it's good, it's good.

And if your content is that good, you're going to attract readers to your website. If someone categorically refuses to read a site with a truncated feed, there's no way to possibly get them to click through.

RSS blows...combined with social networking they are driving our society into a passive/aggressive rut....I like your content but not enough to actually visit your site....I like you as a friend but not enough to actually hang out for realz, lets just facebook and call it good. Admit it you're as guilty as the rest.

tell me you've never emailed a business aquaintance instead of calling or speaking face to face because you were afraid that it would make them mad? I know I've used the old "why don't you email me some of your literature" as a brush off.

The internet, rss, social networks, im, text messaging, email are all much easier for communicating, the real question is are they better?

Comments

1. Posted by: WG on December 9, 2007 4:23 PM:

"You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din". I quit dealing with truncated RSS feeds long ago.

Re: you're pissing off your most loyal readers. I completely agree.

Give me full content in your RSS feeds and I will frequently click though to your site, just to give you a page view and to review your advertisers.

Give me some measly headline and teaser line in your feed and I unsubscribe immediately and put you on my "not worth viewing list"

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