Starting on March 19, I began a new series of posts through the @remlaps-lite account. In each post in the series I include ten links that caught my attention from my RSS Feed (or rarely, e-mail or elsewhere). Now that I've managed to keep the habit going for a little while, the purpose of this post is to inform my followers about it.
@remlaps or @remlaps-lite?
A number of months ago, I began using the @remlaps-lite account, with the intent to use it mainly for photoblogging with @steepshot. The thinking was that people who had already followed @remlaps weren't necessarily interested in things like pictures of my family at a concert venue, so I would let the @steepshot and light-blogging audience grow organically (or not) for that style of post, and continue using @remlaps in the same way I'd always used it.
Shortly after that, @steepshot stopped working on android, and the folks behind it apparently went dark, so my light blogging account was mostly dormant. I was still thinking that I'd put low effort posts there, and focus on more substantial posts here, but I didn't really have much light weight content. @actifit is about it, and I have been less than diligent about using that.
So, I didn't have a clear idea on how (or whether) to continue using @remlaps-lite.
The Old Reader
Unrelated to all that, if I can branch off for a moment, I have a long-term "hobby" of sorts that is almost totally disconnected from Steem. Starting with Google Reader, probably in about 2005 (or whenever it launched), I have been scanning somewhere around a thousand news headlines nearly every day in an RSS feed. Of that thousand, I probably click into and skim about 100, and I might fully read 10 or 20 of them.
So, I was one of the people who was in a horrified panic back in like 2012 (or whenever it was) when Google announced their plans to shutter Google Reader. Fortunately, before long (in retrospect), theoldreader emerged as a fantastic replacement product, so I imported my OPML file, and lived happily ever after, scanning my 1000+ headlines a day just like before.
Combining the Two
It occurred to me a while ago that my RSS habit would be a good source of inspiration for Steem blogging, but I hadn't quite worked out how to do it on a consistent basis. After all, there's not much point in just reading an article on one site and paraphrasing it on another one. Finally, in March, I came up with the Interesting Links concept.
The concept is that of my thousands of headlines that I scan every day, I pick a small number that caught my interest, and then post links and very brief commentary. That way, a reader can scan the list quickly and click through for more information when they're interested. It's almost a reboot of the original "blog", which got its name from the "weblog" because people would log the web sites that they visited and offer their own individualized commentary. In the same vein, I suppose you could say that my new series is sort of an rsslog or a feedlog.
So once I had the idea, the next question was, which account do I use? To be honest, the amount of work putting these together is not "light blogging". Putting these posts together does take a substantial amount of time, in order to read, digest, and comment on ten articles. But the goal is to make the readers' effort light, so a light blogging account may still be appropriate.
The content is concise, so that you - the reader - can quickly peruse the links and summaries and click through for more information only when a topic interests you. In order to accomplish this, I try to limit the number of words per post to between about 400-1000, or 40-100 words per link. Hopefully, this provides access to a great deal of potentially interesting information with just 2-4 minutes of reading time. If more depth is desired, the reader can click through or bookmark a link.
I am aware that the title of the series may seem somewhat boring, but I'm a "just the facts" sort of person, so I kind-of like it that way. Hopefully, in the long run, substance outweighs cosmetics. No one ever accused me of being a marketing expert. ; -)
After launching the series, my goal has been to post 5 or 6 articles per week, and so far I have been mostly successful at that, so I thought that it was time to bring it to the attention of my own followers. Please check out the series and consider following/favoriting either @remlaps-lite or #links so that you see future posts (as of now, I seem to be basically the only person who is actively using #links, although now that I've thought of the words rsslog and feedlog, I might think about switching my primary tag over to one of those names.).
As time goes on, if other microblogging applications come along, I'll use @remlaps-lite for those, and if there ever gets to be too much of the "Here's my family at the local diner" stuff on that account, I'll consider moving the Interesting Links series over here. For now, though, the only uses that I see for it are @actifit and the new series. I'll continue posting my longer articles that focus on a single topic here at @remlaps.
The Interesting Links posts will be scheduled in @steempeak to post at 7:36 am (US/Eastern) on the days when I have them, but of course that is subject to change without notice. ; -)
If you're interested in checking them out, here are the posts so far this week:
- Interesting Links: April 12, 2019
- Interesting Links: April 11, 2019
- Interesting Links: April 10, 2019
- Interesting Links: April 9, 2019
- Interesting Links: April 8, 2019
- Interesting Links: April 7, 2019
Topics
As a general rule, I won't be posting many links on controversial topics, and I will not be posting many links to things about Steem. Aside from that, most of the links seem to be related to categories like these: blockchain, business, cryptocurrency, education, history, news, science, and technology. Of course, the overarching topic is "whatever interests me", so links might be about anything.
Too Much Steem?
The first rule of Steem is, don't talk about Steem.
One continuing theme that I notice here is that people (myself included) love to talk about Steem. After all, it is the one single thing that each and every one of us has in common. The problem, however, is that it works like newbie repellent for first-time visitors.
Something that I'm cognizant of with this series is that web site owners monitor the sites that link back to them. So, hopefully, when they see links orvisitors arriving to their site from my posts on Steem and they follow them backwards to figure out why, the first thing that they see will be something that stands at least a small chance of interesting them.
I should note that although I will be avoiding posts about Steem, I try to include one or two Steem authors - on other topics - in each post. I am monitoring several Steem categories in theoldreader by way of SteemRSS, which has been created and enhanced by @philipkoon, @doriitamar, and @torrey.blog.
Questions for my followers:
- Would you rather see this series of articles posted from @remlaps or @remlaps-lite
- Which tag would you suggest choosing for the primary category? links, feedlog, rsslog, or something else?
Thank you for your time and attention.
As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".
Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.
Steve is also a co-founder of the Steem's Best Classical Music Facebook page, and the @classical-music steemit curation account.